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How are you coping with increased fuel costs?

November 20, 2009 By

One of the biggest costs of a courier, haulier or transport industry business is fuel.

Does the price of fuel affect the way you drive? the amount of goods you order online? or is it business as usual for you?

Gimme Fuel!!!
Image by Roby© via Flickr

Everything has to be delivered at some stage, from the manufacturer to the warehouse, to the supermarket, to the shops – you get the picture. Margins for hauliers are quite small, often just 4 or 5%, so when fuel increases by 26% in a year so the chances of a profit are relatively small and with fuel set to increase again, more are going to go bust. For the courier that means  one less source of overflow work, as hauliers and couriers work in partnership all the time, contracting and subcontracting to each other.

I have listed here several greener, fuel saving articles as well as the guest blog about the hydrocharger system. Fuel saving driving isn’t just for when the fuel price is high, it’s for all the time so practising the techniques and refreshing your memory of them is a good idea.

The recession isn’t over yet and the Government needs to ensure that UK hauliers, the safest in Europe can compete fairly with other EU haulage companies and heavy fuel taxes isn’t doing anything positive for UK industry, in fact it’s keeping us in recession.

Kevin

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Speeding fine in Dorset?

June 21, 2009 By

Then you could be in for a refund and potential removal of points from your license ~ if you gained them.

It appears that a speed camera in Dorset, the camera  monitored westbound traffic on the A35. It was supposed to enforce a 30mph limit in Chideock  a small rural village in the west Dorset.  A lorry driver who was caught speeding at 41 mph challenged this in court and the error was uncovered.

The speed camera in the paperwork was meant to be on Duck Street and instead was named as being on Seatown Road.

Nearly 25,000 motorists had been caught over the years by this camera and are now due a refund as their speeding tickets ae deemed illegal.

Well done Alan Dawe for challenging the ticket in the first place.

Sarah

PS don’t forget to contact your insurers if your premiums increased due to points on your license from this camera.

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Hard shoulder running – what do you think?

January 21, 2009 By

My dear wife is up in arms today on her blog, she is concerned about the hard shoulder running. She is concerned for the lives of all the drivers.

N11 south of Newtownmountkennedy
Image via Wikipedia

In theory it’s a good idea -  ease congestion by using the hard shoulder. It certainly saves money on widening the roads, but for a government so obsessed with Health and Safety, I cannot think why they would believe this is hard shouldera good idea! In all honesty a few months back, I thought it was a good idea, now I am not so sure.

Imagine this scenario, a 44 tonne lorry has broken down at 4.15pm. The recovery services are called and the driver is waiting to be recovered. Rush hour arrives and drivers without thinking pile into the hard shoulder, making it impossible for the lorry to be recovered quickly, causes more congestion and puts the drivers life at risk.Hauliers up in arms over hard shoulder use!

I can see her point of view regarding lorries carrying hazardous goods / chemicals. Yes, they could get rammed and spilled and cause a far bigger catastrophe to the environment than what widening a lane would.

Would congestion actually ease? Would the traffic actually flow better for using the hard shoulder?

Where I am based in Thurrock a section of the A13 has had Chevrons painted in. Most vehicles drive evenly spaced with one chevron between them. This shows when there is an accident – the vehicles slow and effortlessly move lanes, because there is now the space to do that. Yes the traffic slows but it doesn’t stop.

Could the Government and Mr Hoon look into doing and enforcing these ways rather than putting peoples lives at risk?

What do you think?

Kevin

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