Panic at the Pumps.

[ArcticBlue]

People seem very trigger happy to sack drivers from jobs rather than spend very minimal amounts on improving services.

Why not impose more regulation on the billionaire owners and company's making massive profits.

I certainly dont want to live in a society where anyone can be hired or fired just to keep costs down and profits high.

80 posts in and we are getting somewhere.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

I certainly dont want to live in a society where anyone can be hired or fired just to keep costs down and profits high.

Unfortunately we already do live in such a society.

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

Unfortunately we already do live in such a society.

So no need for it to get worse, improving it seems a good idea.

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

i think I read earlier this year both BP and Shell make over 2 million profit A DAY, and thats after the government takes a hefty 60% in TAX. Looks like the dispute is over contract companies now running the distribution and mucking around with Drivers contracts and practices, including already making 150 odd redundent. Here is the unions take on it all.

http://www.unitetheunion.org/pdf/028-tanker-drivers-Q&A-4.pdf

The nationwide impact: where the drivers operate out of across the UK The workers operate out of the following depots:

Aberdeen Avonmouth Batley Bedworth Belfast Birmingham Bramhall Brighton Cardiff Castleford Clydebank Coryton Dalston Ellesmere Port Grangemouth Grays Hamble Hemel Hempstead Hythe Immingham Inverness Jarrow Killingholme Kingsbury Lindsey Livingston Luton Milford Haven Morley Murco Milford Haven Newmarket Northampton Pembroke Peterlee Plymouth Purfleet Riverside/Seal Sands Runcorn Southampton Stanlow Staveley Stockton - on-Tees Sunderland
Theale Trafford Park Vopak Purfleet West London West Thurrock Westerleigh Widnes

Fuel facts
• Tanker drivers work 12 hour shifts (2- 4 runs in a 12 hour shift)
• A driver is in charge of a 44 tonne road tanker, each tanker holds 36,000 – 40,000 litres of petroleum product
• Tanker drivers are responsible for a vital and costly commodity. The market value of a tanker of fuel is £47,880; 60 per cent of this (£28,728) goes to the Treasury
• Some drivers have had three changes of employer in a year, as contracts chop and change a drivers’ pension is often attacked. Increasing numbers of drivers are on their 4th, 5th or 6th pension with 20-25 years still to go in the industry
• Final pension salary schemes are increasingly being replaced with the inferior money purchase scheme. In a profits-rich industry, there is absolutely no financial justification for the downgrade
• Jobs are being cut: Shell has slashed 100 jobs in the past year; Esso has cut 55 drivers nationally over 2 years; 30 drivers have lost their jobs on the BP contract in the past year. Unite fears that larger job cuts are looming.

Employer
BP Oil UK limited
Turners (Soham) Ltd
Unite Members 229 203
J W Suckling Transport Limited 93
Hoyer Petrolog Uk Ltd 533
Norbert Dentressangle Tankers Ltd 206
Wincanton PLC 426
Energy & Environment DHL Supply Chain, Industrial UK 372

TOTAL = 2062

The contractors supply the following retailers and forecourts:
BP: BP
DHL: Asda; Northern BP; ConocoPhillips;
Morrisons; Total Oil UK
Turners: Sainsburys
Hoyer: Esso; Shell
JW Suckling: Shell; ConocoPhillips
Norbert Dentressangle: Tesco; Murco Petroleum
Wincanton: Texaco / Chevron; Conoco Phillips (Jet forecourts)

 

[Tubby Mondays]

Incredible comment.

The mess is labours alone. Only now is it starting to be put right.

And an incredible solution; make a mess a flip of a lot worse whilst trying to convince people that you are making it better whilst convincing them at the same time that the worsening mess is the fault of someone else. Genius.

Still some gullible twats will fall for it.

 

[BensGrandad]

You need to use common sense-just below 1/4 tank is the norm for most people to fill up-not when the light comes on. If you have a DPF on your car you should find out which re-generation method it uses.

Had a reply from Skoda my car doesn't have one but the lady did say that most Skodas made after 2010 do. Any made prior to that would need to be checked out.

 

[Aadam]

That costs f*** all then! A few thousand compared to 36k for a degree! Plus on top of that they get 45k A YEAR!? They can f*** right off as far as I am concerned, I have a university degree plus more and am looking at a wage in a job of 20-30k a year.
Where is the fairness in that eh?

Fairness? Typical university graduate answer to everything. This god given right to fall into middle management and high wage, without having to EARN it.

What makes you think you deserve to fall into a £50k+ a year job just because you have a piece of paper that says you have the theoretical knowledge within a profession?

Really grids my gears when these 'types' fall out of university and think because they've paid £000's in fees they deserve to earn the same as me, despite having no practical application of their theoretical knowledge.

If you're so pissed off, more fool you. Why spend £36k on fees for University when you could have spent just a couple of £k on a drivers licence and become a tanker driver?

What most have failed to do is put this £45k into context of hours and times worked. The majority of these drivers, I'm sure, will be working more hours during unsociable times. How do you know they're not working 60 hour weeks?

 

[Digweeds Trousers]

That costs f*** all then! A few thousand compared to 36k for a degree! Plus on top of that they get 45k A YEAR!? They can f*** right off as far as I am concerned, I have a university degree plus more and am looking at a wage in a job of 20-30k a year.
Where is the fairness in that eh?

Well of course there is one simple thing you could do. With your education and undoubted commercial value, why not just shu the f*** up and go and be a driver - you could then earn the money you believe you deserve and also help the problem at the same time. Hey presto - two birds killed with one stone.

 

[Eastleigh Seagull]

Fuel facts
• Tanker drivers work 12 hour shifts (2- 4 runs in a 12 hour shift)
• A driver is in charge of a 44 tonne road tanker, each tanker holds 36,000 – 40,000 litres of petroleum product
• Tanker drivers are responsible for a vital and costly commodity. The market value of a tanker of fuel is £47,880; 60 per cent of this (£28,728) goes to the Treasury
• Some drivers have had three changes of employer in a year, as contracts chop and change a drivers’ pension is often attacked. Increasing numbers of drivers are on their 4th, 5th or 6th pension with 20-25 years still to go in the industry
• Final pension salary schemes are increasingly being replaced with the inferior money purchase scheme. In a profits-rich industry, there is absolutely no financial justification for the downgrade
• Jobs are being cut: Shell has slashed 100 jobs in the past year; Esso has cut 55 drivers nationally over 2 years; 30 drivers have lost their jobs on the BP contract in the past year. Unite fears that larger job cuts are looming.

There really is some odd stuff in these fuel facts - kind of implying that as these drivers are driving something valuable then they should get extra pay - does that mean someone delivering high end cars should get paid more than someone delivering a load of Corsa's - and while it is of course a strenuous job being on the road and away from families etc, the fact that it is taking the army two weeks to train replacement drivers doesnt suggest its the most difficult job in the world. Drivers are also protected more than ever by pretty tough health and safety laws in terms of hours driven and breaks between them

Also it has always intrigued me as to when it is OK for someone to use the term slashed in relation to job cuts - looks like 55 jobs is OK but if you go for a round 100 then the jobs are slashed.

As the document itself states though the number of petrol forecourts has gone down from 18000+ to 8000 in the last 20 years so unsurprisingly you need a lot less drivers to deliver to them. But of course these oil companies make massive profits so they should keep all these drivers on as a charitable enterprise?

 

[pigbite]

Can't comment on the dispute as I don't know enough about it.

What I do know is that there is no imminent strike, there is (was) plenty of fuel to go round and NO NEED TO PANIC BUY.

What do I see on my 120 mile round trip today?

All petrol stations as you would expect, except for the idiots crammed nose to tail down the road trying to get into the most expensive petrol station for miles - the BP garage in Rustington.

Are people round my way particuarly selfish and stupid?

 

[Leekbrookgull]

Couple of garages in the Leek area have 'run dry' that's to a nice bit of panic buying !!

 

[narly101]

Fairness? Typical university graduate answer to everything. This god given right to fall into middle management and high wage, without having to EARN it.

What makes you think you deserve to fall into a £50k+ a year job just because you have a piece of paper that says you have the theoretical knowledge within a profession?

Really grids my gears when these 'types' fall out of university and think because they've paid £000's in fees they deserve to earn the same as me, despite having no practical application of their theoretical knowledge.

If you're so pissed off, more fool you. Why spend £36k on fees for University when you could have spent just a couple of £k on a drivers licence and become a tanker driver?

What most have failed to do is put this £45k into context of hours and times worked. The majority of these drivers, I'm sure, will be working more hours during unsociable times. How do you know they're not working 60 hour weeks?

I really like this response. It actually makes me laugh lots to hear the current crop of teenagers, early 20 somethings harp on about their god given right to earn money. I am a graduate, albeit 20 years ago, and it's taken me until now to earn a decent wage. Nothing is handed to you on a plate so get f***ing used to it.

 

[Bozza]

Seen some long queues up this way. Fully suspect the "top up if you can" advice will see some short-term shortages in places.

 

[Deleted member 18477]

Fairness? Typical university graduate answer to everything. This god given right to fall into middle management and high wage, without having to EARN it.

What makes you think you deserve to fall into a £50k+ a year job just because you have a piece of paper that says you have the theoretical knowledge within a profession?

Really grids my gears when these 'types' fall out of university and think because they've paid £000's in fees they deserve to earn the same as me, despite having no practical application of their theoretical knowledge.

If you're so pissed off, more fool you. Why spend £36k on fees for University when you could have spent just a couple of £k on a drivers licence and become a tanker driver?

What most have failed to do is put this £45k into context of hours and times worked. The majority of these drivers, I'm sure, will be working more hours during unsociable times. How do you know they're not working 60 hour weeks?

Well said. I chose against a degree and did an apprenticeship instead. I now earn more than all my mates who are graduates, I have no uni debt, own my own property, own a car outright, got free education during my apprenticeship, did a business degree free of charge and have countless future job opportunities. Not following the crowd was the best thing I ever did!

P.s to all students... Get a good CV written, learn how to apply yourself in an interview and if you haven't got any, get some common sense for the real world. That and your degree should give you a better chance to succeed!

 

[pigbite]

Seen some long queues up this way. Fully suspect the "top up if you can" advice will see some short-term shortages in places.

Quite, but there is no need. The union have to announce an intent to strike seven days in advance. There is no notification in force therefore we are more than a week away from an event that might not even happen. Many forecourts run on fairly low stocks to ease cash flow therefore a sudden rise in demand will run these places dry thereby causing a problem.

People are absolute fecking braindead, moronic, shortsighted idiots.

 

[leigull]

Someone at work has had their mother text them to say there are long queues at petrol stations in Burgess Hill, so now they're going round telling everyone to fill up asap as it's going to run out soon

Quite, but there is no need. The union have to announce an intent to strike seven days in advance. There is no notification in force therefore we are more than a week away from an event that might not even happen. Many forecourts run on fairly low stocks to ease cash flow therefore a sudden rise in demand will run these places dry thereby causing a problem.

People are absolute fecking braindead, moronic, shortsighted idiots.

Exactly. See above. The local tv news and newspapers will be out in force as soon as a petrol station puts up a sign saying they've run out and the panic will spread even more. God I hate people sometimes!

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

the fact that it is taking the army two weeks to train replacement drivers doesnt suggest its the most difficult job in the world.

The army drivers are already proficient at what they do , most of the training will be H&S and technical procedures

 

[KNC]

i think I read earlier this year both BP and Shell make over 2 million profit A DAY, and thats after the government takes a hefty 60% in TAX. Looks like the dispute is over contract companies now running the distribution and mucking around with Drivers contracts and practices, including already making 150 odd redundent. Here is the unions take on it all.

http://www.unitetheunion.org/pdf/028-tanker-drivers-Q&A-4.pdf

The nationwide impact: where the drivers operate out of across the UK The workers operate out of the following depots:

Aberdeen Avonmouth Batley Bedworth Belfast Birmingham Bramhall Brighton Cardiff Castleford Clydebank Coryton Dalston Ellesmere Port Grangemouth Grays Hamble Hemel Hempstead Hythe Immingham Inverness Jarrow Killingholme Kingsbury Lindsey Livingston Luton Milford Haven Morley Murco Milford Haven Newmarket Northampton Pembroke Peterlee Plymouth Purfleet Riverside/Seal Sands Runcorn Southampton Stanlow Staveley Stockton - on-Tees Sunderland
Theale Trafford Park Vopak Purfleet West London West Thurrock Westerleigh Widnes

Fuel facts
• Tanker drivers work 12 hour shifts (2- 4 runs in a 12 hour shift)
• A driver is in charge of a 44 tonne road tanker, each tanker holds 36,000 – 40,000 litres of petroleum product
• Tanker drivers are responsible for a vital and costly commodity. The market value of a tanker of fuel is £47,880; 60 per cent of this (£28,728) goes to the Treasury
• Some drivers have had three changes of employer in a year, as contracts chop and change a drivers’ pension is often attacked. Increasing numbers of drivers are on their 4th, 5th or 6th pension with 20-25 years still to go in the industry
• Final pension salary schemes are increasingly being replaced with the inferior money purchase scheme. In a profits-rich industry, there is absolutely no financial justification for the downgrade
• Jobs are being cut: Shell has slashed 100 jobs in the past year; Esso has cut 55 drivers nationally over 2 years; 30 drivers have lost their jobs on the BP contract in the past year. Unite fears that larger job cuts are looming.

Employer
BP Oil UK limited
Turners (Soham) Ltd
Unite Members 229 203
J W Suckling Transport Limited 93
Hoyer Petrolog Uk Ltd 533
Norbert Dentressangle Tankers Ltd 206
Wincanton PLC 426
Energy & Environment DHL Supply Chain, Industrial UK 372

TOTAL = 2062

The contractors supply the following retailers and forecourts:
BP: BP
DHL: Asda; Northern BP; ConocoPhillips;
Morrisons; Total Oil UK
Turners: Sainsburys
Hoyer: Esso; Shell
JW Suckling: Shell; ConocoPhillips
Norbert Dentressangle: Tesco; Murco Petroleum
Wincanton: Texaco / Chevron; Conoco Phillips (Jet forecourts)

Thanks for that. Interesting.
Funny how you never read of that perspective in the Mail, Express, Torygraph, et al.
Not that I read those rags, anyway.

 

[Deleted member 18477]

Depends what you want to do as a career, but yes, going to university is not necessarily the best option. It all depends on what you want to do.

Exactly. Clearly some careers require a degree so it's harsh to stereotype all students the same. Likewise those who dont go to uni.

 

[Leekbrookgull]

The army drivers are already proficient at what they do , most of the training will be H&S and technical procedures

Surely the problem will be HM Govt need 1,000 plus and FREE ACCESS to depots ? Let's face it the SWP,The Green's 'rent a mob' Claim's direct will all be there at the depot gate.