Taxi Driver Online

A couple of pieces about fuel prices, both quoting Fair Fuel campaigner Howard Cox, who's now I think a Restore UK spokesman, and banging the drum for Tommy Robinson

Anyway, they're both by the same journalist, but one's in the Ludlow Advertiser, while the other's in the Ledbury Reporter

Which are both small towns and roughly in the same neck of the woods - on the English side of the border with Wales, although 30 miles apart.

All fairly predictable stuff, though.

And although it's all fairly self-evident, I always take this kind of pish from the second driver here with a pinch of salt...



Ludlow taxi companies speak as fuel prices rise higher

https://www.ludlowadvertiser.co.uk/news ... se-higher/

Taxi drivers are feeling the pinch as rising fuel costs and operating expenses make it harder to stay on the road.

Alex Shire of Shire Travel in Ludlow raised concerns about managing petrol and diesel prices:

"It is a squeeze don't get me wrong and it is making things tighter and harder but its about good management.

"You've got local people who can't really afford an increase in price.

"Any increase in price comes out of my own pocket which is a bit of a kick in the teeth."

Andrew Evans of Andy's Private Hire said: "It's been crucifying to be fair.

"It's got that bad that I've been thinking of packing in, it's awful.

"My bill has gone up. You can't pass it on, what can you do?

"If you do a local job and its £5 you cannot add extra costs. It's not fair on people."

Mr Evans said the business is no longer sustainable, with increased fuel, tax, insurance and maintenance costs all taking their toll.

He said: "I've cut back a lot of journeys. There's no point in going out.

"It's just not a viable business at the moment.

"You might have 20 jobs in town in a day but if you take account of fuel and running costs you end up going home with forty quid."

At nearly 68 years old, Mr Evans said he's still working.

These concerns follow reports that diesel prices could reach £2 a litre, according to FairFuelUK.

"That’s a structural crisis," said FairFuelUK founder Howard Cox.

"We’re already near 190p a litre, and without urgent action, diesel could smash through £2 a litre, hammering motorists, hauliers, small businesses and the entire economy."

Fuel prices have increased as a result of Russian strikes, Russian diesel exports being curtailed, and Hormuz disruption.

This is the Ledbury piece, and even less interesting than the one above...

I mean, we all know it's difficult, but stuff like this just doesn't really tell me anything I didn't know already


Ledbury's G and T taxi hire pressured by fuel prices

https://www.ledburyreporter.co.uk/news/ ... el-prices/

Rising diesel prices are putting pressure on businesses across Herefordshire.

Tracey Fletcher, who runs G and T Private Taxi Hire in Ledbury, said surging fuel costs are putting increasing strain on her business.

"It makes a bloody big difference and you do not like to pass it on to the customer too much but at the same time you are trying not to cut into profits too much," said Mrs Fletcher.

"Diesel's gone sky high recently.

"It wouldn't surprise me at all if it gets to £2 a litre.

Diesel prices increased from 186.9 per litre to 191.9 last week in Ledbury, according to Mrs Fletcher.

"I try not to hike prices but you have got to in the end and then people stop using you cause they can't afford it either.

"You can lose customers all together. It affects everything.

"Its affects the council, it affects the lorry drivers.

"My son is a lorry driver and it affects him big time."

Ms Fletcher said business had picked up slightly in the past week, but that the six-week summer holiday period had been "absolutely dead".

She said fewer people were going out in the evenings or spending as they once did, and that taxi trade had been particularly quiet over the summer.

The steady work, she said, had come from wedding bookings.

Her comments come amid warnings from fuel campaign group FairFuelUK that diesel could soon reach £2 per litre due to a global "refining crunch".

FairFuelUK says the issue is not with crude oil prices themselves, but with limited refining capacity and supply chain disruptions—particularly in Russia and the Persian Gulf.

Howard Cox, founder of FairFuelUK, said: "Diesel is the commercial heartbeat of any economy.

"That’s a structural crisis, and it means UK pump prices are about to surge sharply.

"We’re already near 190p a litre, and without urgent action, diesel could smash through £2 a litre, hammering motorists, hauliers, small businesses and the entire economy."

The organisation is calling on the UK Government to take steps to protect drivers and prevent further inflation.

I don't get all this 'everything is going up, and I can't pass on the costs'.

Do the multi-billion-pound food companies follow those rules? Do the multi-billion-pound fuel companies follow those rules?

Of course they don't; they pass their costs on.

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IDFIMH

Tracey Fletcher said it wouldn't surprise her if diesel got to £2 a litre in Ledbury. On the latest prices the stations have reported, it more or less has: two of the three forecourts in the town are at 199.9p and the third at 205.9p, against a UK diesel average of 198.5p this morning. Ludlow is a touch lower, 198.9p at the Valero and 199.9p at the EG.

For anyone working out of Ledbury, Hereford is the obvious comparison. It has seventeen forecourts, and the Shell at Locks Garage was showing 195.9p for diesel yesterday, 10p a litre under the dearest pump in Ledbury. For a full time car doing 30,000 miles a year, which is roughly 3,000 litres, that's about £300.

Some of the Ledbury prices are three days old, so treat them as a guide rather than a quote. I've been checking them on Fuel Price Today, which takes the government's Fuel Finder feed and shows how old each station's price is.

Much of this was forecastable a bit of forward planning and electric /hybrid or petrol vehicles could have been purchased at the last vehicle replacement

Russia is the worlds main diesel producer and even if the war in ukraine comes to an end russia will demand VERY high prices to recover it's finances

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector