petrol stations price discussion (was ‘chaos’)

Soldato
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I've used my 3-pin a good few times, when away from home, non were strictly 100% needed, but saved me having to rely on public chargers on return trips from places, I've used commando sockets on camp sites, an exterior socket in a pub car park (with permission), charged at a few families and friends houses who obviously don't have EV Type-2 chargers yet. Obviously if you are charging at 10A, (2.3kW before losses) then you don't get a huge of amount of energy, but if you are sat parked for a a few hours it all adds up, and it comes down to efficiency too, my car easily hits 5mpkWh so three or four hours is 34-46 miles added. The highlight being you can't add any miles to a petrol car if you can't get any petrol, regardless of how long you sit and wait, unless a new delivery arrives..
Yeah the situations you describe make sense to top up a bit of range. I was more thinking about actually running out of juice and ending up having to ask a random stranger for a plug socket. To be fair, even in the current crazy situation, I'd much rather run out of fuel than run out of charge as the AA will still come to me with a can which will give me 30 odd miles to find a working pump.
 
Soldato
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Yeah the situations you describe make sense to top up a bit of range. I was more thinking about actually running out of juice and ending up having to ask a random stranger for a plug socket. To be fair, even in the current crazy situation, I'd much rather run out of fuel than run out of charge as the AA will still come to me with a can which will give me 30 odd miles to find a working pump.
Apparently recovery vans now have chargers they can use to get enough power to an EV to get to the nearest proper charger. (Maybe just RAC?)
 
Soldato
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Went to tip today and on way called into our local garage for newspaper - There was only one car in there - I parked on other side of washer and didn't top up.
 
Soldato
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18 Oct 2002
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South Manchester
It's OK, carry on pretending.

U w0t? :confused:

talking a few quid difference for a full tank, unless you’re on the breadline it’s completely irrelevant

I've never used a motorway services petrol station in 20+ years of driving. If I got caught with no other option then I'd throw a couple gallons in, then find somewhere else that's not a rip-off.
 
Joined
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Wilds of suffolk
You're not comparing cabbage cutters to HGV drivers in any meaningful way surely...

In fairness he isn’t (although that’s how I read it initially) see his reply to me in post #1002 :)

To be fair it wasnt me in post 1002.

I was not saying that a cabbage picker is comparable to an HGV driver no, I mentioned 4 jobs/roles and how they varied from a low number of low/non transferrable skills to one with more and higher.
The point was that when people talk about low skilled vs skilled they treat it as a binary choice when the reality is there is a large variation from one extreme to the other, its not even really two dimensional.
You can have a very precise hardly transferable skill that is beyond the challenge for most people, but that doesnt necessarily make it a highly valuable skill.

Lorry drivers don't have in the grand scheme of things a massive amount nor many particularly advanced skills. Simply rating a job based on the skills is somewhat over simplifying equation. Its ignoring supply and demand potentially, barriers to entry, plus many other factors.
The value added by lorry drivers is not really originating from the skills, its being able to take those skills and consistently and safely utilise them.

Go back to when typists were a thing, generally professional typists were highly regarded. They would be measured on words per minute, and would manage to pump out frankly absurd levels of output compared to a normal person. Most normal people struggled to type a couple of lines without getting a wrong key, and they would probably take them 5 minutes ;) And yet they were also not regarded as high skilled employees.

HGV driving is not highly skilled, but its highly responsible. This is part of the issue, only fixating on the skill level and ignoring the other factors will lead to either incorrect pay for the job, and people confusing other factors (such as in this case the responsibility).
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Mar 2010
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21,902
It's a matter of principal, not paying the Man - if you're on your own time/money and a road trip somewhere, knowing range was tight,
you plan where to get off the motorway at a nearby shopping centre say, to refuel , satnavs have got to have some benefits
... and, eat your sandwiches+coffee, unless you have culinary delights on the AutoStrada awaiting.

just ringing a couple of garages, on the 150mile round trip planned a fortnight ago showed it was mission impossible - with < 1/4 tank.;
as MikeTimbers said didn't have faith.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
21 Nov 2004
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45,033
I enjoyed another 30 minute queue this morning. No super unleaded. Lots of petrol pumps free, but all the diesel vans/lorries blocking the entrance. At least it was still reasonable priced.
 
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