Here's your chance to help protest against the extortionate amount of money we have to pay for petrol and deisel costs. Did you know that the government takes a staggering 67p per litre?

We all moan about it so lets do something about it! If you got the News of The World paper this morning there was a petition to sign and send off but if you're like me and prefer to do just about everything online then please visit http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/0106_fuel.shtml and do it digitally

I am a Brit living in North Carolina USA where the petrol is just under £2 a gallon, what is probaly going to happen here is that the state may suspend the state tax on petrol about 15p (30 cents) on a gallon, that equates to 4p a litre in the UK, for 3 months to help the people in the state with the rising costs.

Their reasoning is that if the citizens of the state are having to tighten their belts so should the state goverment, which is commendable.

So come on Britain it is time to shrug off the title of 'rip of Britain' and get the goverment their to tighten their belts and reduce the tax on petrol by supporting the News of the World campaign.

As an aside oil prices dropped last week by $8 a barrel and we did not see it go down at the pumps, because the US dollar is gaining in strenth against the Yen investors/speculators were not buying only selling. US consumption went down by 5.5% against the same time last year which lessened demand on crude.

Oh to be an oil baron

Degsey

The UK government is all take and no give. They've just raised income tax for those earning less than 19K, and lowered it for those earning over.... work that one out.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/ap.../economy.labour

Once again its the small people that get hit hard. How can they justify cutting the income of those on low wages and upping the income for those on high wages

Because all the people making the decisions are in the high wage bracket....if they was in the low income bracket they would change it so it suited them.

Ive seen a lot of emails etc sent recently about the fuel crisis. The worst one being we should all avoid BP and ESSO stations...given that these companies are also the suppliers for Asda, Tesco, Morrisons then where exactly do these people fill up their cars?

The underlying fact of the matter is that oil is ran as a business....when the cost of oil goes up then the cost for everyone filling up goes up....its business. Yes I agree that the tax on fuel is very high...one of the highest in the world i believe. It could be lowered ....but is it really going to make that much difference?

Say the UK gov decides today we will shave 5p off the tax. Later in the week the price of oil goes up yet another record high so they price at the pump goes up 1p...then the week after another 1p.....by August that 5p is gone and your back to paying the same!

The fact of the matter is that the UK gov is not going to reduce the tax by any substancial amount if they reduce it at all. There is no longer enough oil to go round...well not for a significant amount of time. All the oil companies are sitting on renewable supplies. So are the car manufacturers...its about time that significant releases of sustainable technology for motor vehicles was released to the general public at a reasonable price.

As a small company I have been hit hard.

People also don't help.

I offer a service for curtains and blinds. I offer free fitting and free visits to get the price from me the sizes and to look at the colours. With the climate the customers are slowing down. But they still want me to come round measure and help for free. I do that 15 -20 times a week one tank of Diesel and no income. What do they do.. ask for the sizes and then look on the net..

So now i don't offer writen quotes as they just ask the next company to offer the same deal for less.. they take one look offer £20 off and then they get the work. I don't let them know the sizes anymore.. shame but I have to fight back..

Hence why I want to start an on line shop where I can offer the discounts and still offer the help..

I don't want to grow big I am happy small but £100 a full up to take a FULL mobile shop with every sample in there is costing..not mentioning that every one wants you at their house 5.3o in the evening all the time how much time do I sit in traffic!!!

Well, this is hitting me from several angles:

- I have a GMC Safari (4.3l) that now costs £105 to fill up, giving me the equivilent of about 35p/mile cost (This compared to 28p/mile a few months ago). Not only am I paying more tax to the Government because I'm having to spend more on petrol to go the same distance, but they want to double road tax to near on £400. I wouldn't mind paying more fuel duty if they scrapped road tax, but having the double-whammy here is hard to take. I also have a Rover, which is my cheap runabout, which I also pay tax and insure.

- The UK is not alone, Spain's new (indefinite) haulage strike may very well affect deliveries from the manufacturer I buy from. I suppose at a worst case scenario, I will need to drive over to barcelona and collect the order to bring it back to the UK. This would cost me about £630 in petrol (although Spain's petrol is slightly cheaper), not to mention the return fare on the Chunnel/ferry crossing the English Channel, and overnight accomodation. Ferry may not be an option depending on fishermen strikes - I was affected by this a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately, I have a couple of weeks of stock, so it's a wait and see game at the moment. Depends also on the weather.



Yes, but it's still in a state of rapid fluctuation, and there's speculative buying that wants it to become more expensive still, so chances are we will see some new price records over the coming months.


With regards to how this affects my e-commerce based customers - Well, as mentioned above, supply may be interrupted meaning I have nothing on the shelves to sell. I haven't seen anythign from DLH yet about charge increases, although expect couriers to increase prices if there isn't any substantial action.

Politically, I'm not impressed with the Government - Instead of making a goodwill gesture to temporarily help out with petrol prices (and help recover their disasterous polls rating), they've concentrated on talking to Opec about increasing oil production to get the price down. This is really fickle - Mexico lost an oil platform over the winter due to storms/damage, Gulf states are ever-unstable, especially now with Israel (and USA) putting the thumbscrews on Iran (doing another Iraq perhaps?), Nigeria production facing strikes from workers over safety (caused by guerilla attacks on pipelines halting production), and our friend Chavez who hates the USA so much (After all, the USA did try a military coup against him and failed), and wants to bleed the oil companies dry of their profits - Which at face value seems just, only there's serious questions on where he's spending his oil money earnings. Other producers are lacking infrastructure to do much of the refinery themselves, and the oil companies are doing little in investment to rectify this. Stable and falling oil prices - Not for some time - Production can't be increased much even if they wanted to. There's plenty still in the ground though.

A great deal of info can be found in the book Confessions of an Economic Hitman. Explain a great deal of why the price of oil is heading the way it is.

Anyone considered LPG conversion? Im awaiting a quote from a nearby garage for my little runabout.

At 45p / litre from the nearest garage its looking to be something im seriously considering. Conversion is around £1000 - £2000 depending on your car model.

Business wise everyone is getting hit. Aviation fuel has gone up 5% which hits my ecommerce business. All my products are grown overseas so that 5% in a few months which fortunately I can absorb without passing it on to my customers.

I saw on the news that one patrol station was charging £1.99/litre so he could make his supply last longer as his neighbouring stations were running out. Isn't that kind of thing illegal?

Nope. It's supply & demand

However, if he spoke to his neighboring garages and they all agreed to sell at £1.99/litre, then that is illegal, as that's price-fixing / cartel.

It he's selling at £1.99/litre then more fool the people who are paying it and not shopping around. But 10/10 to him for having the balls to do it. That's pretty damn smart