november fuel prices?

[Nightwatch]

I realise red diesel will still be the norn, but what I am trying to say in my own little way is, if we are to pay as much for red as forecourt white, why not do away with red altogether and problem solved. If red is to be cheaper than forecourt white then I accept that we have this situation where the revenue will need to know what fuel is being used for. maybe I will change the outline of the boat to look like a tractor!

 

This and the proposed licence fee increases are not helping anyone. We "will" see people leaving the system. If we all fail to renew our licences when due, BW are going to be really busy lifting 28,500 boats from the waterways.

[alan_fincher]

I realise red diesel will still be the norn, but what I am trying to say in my own little way is, if we are to pay as much for red as forecourt white, why not do away with red altogether and problem solved.

There seems to be a very realistic likelihood that if people make an "honest" declaration about their usage split, (propulsion vs other), that, even with the tax concession on the "other", they may be paying more for "red" that they would ULS DERV from a filling station forecourt.

 

However this would not be solved by canal-side locations selling ULS DERV instead of "red". They have nothing like the buying power of large filling stations, taking small "drops" of the products, not complete tanker loads. The likelihood is that if the marina tried to sell you "white", with it's full duty, it would cost a lot more than the "red".

 

So inevitably it looks like people will be trying to fuel their boats from cans, whether it be with "white" DERV from a filling station, (legal), or "red" gas oil brought from a helpful farmer, (illegal, so far as I'm aware, if used for propulsion).

 

Although people claim such refuelling operations can be done in a controlled way, you don't have to be Einstein to realise a lot more fuel will end up in the cut than currently. I think it's a bad thing.

 

I guess most of us will wait until the new system is in place, and see what the effective canal price for "red" becomes, before deciding on our own personal approach to the problem. I really don't fancy Jerry canning it in, though.

 

Alan

[Nightwatch]

I don't fancy jerry cans either. But I do feel that what I thought was a good idea 6 years ago ,(buy a boat) has turned me into a victum of bullying by BW, government and anybody else who wants their ounce of flesh.

One day we are told there are more boats on the system, more revenue, and the next more money required. how did all the restoration take place over the last twenty plus years with the mooring fees, licence fees etc. remaining low until recently. Bw may well be mismanaging the business, we don't know cause we can't see. I have been in contracting for more years that I would like to admit, and I know contract values are going down not up in general. However if a contractor can see that a future client is in trouble he may well put in a higher bid to gain the business. Clients in need have to pay more in my experience. Also are BW contractors managed properly. i wrote to BW about the state of the towpaths on the Southern Oxford recently and was told, as everybody else now that the state was due to a change of contractor. The outgoing contractor had let things slip. Not true, BW had allowed the contractor to let things slip.

I am so annoyed by all this!! Time for a cup of tea me thinks.

[Hobson]

I don't fancy jerry cans either. But I do feel that what I thought was a good idea 6 years ago ,(buy a boat) has turned me into a victum of bullying by BW, government and anybody else who wants their ounce of flesh.

One day we are told there are more boats on the system, more revenue, and the next more money required. how did all the restoration take place over the last twenty plus years with the mooring fees, licence fees etc. remaining low until recently. Bw may well be mismanaging the business, we don't know cause we can't see. I have been in contracting for more years that I would like to admit, and I know contract values are going down not up in general. However if a contractor can see that a future client is in trouble he may well put in a higher bid to gain the business. Clients in need have to pay more in my experience. Also are BW contractors managed properly. i wrote to BW about the state of the towpaths on the Southern Oxford recently and was told, as everybody else now that the state was due to a change of contractor. The outgoing contractor had let things slip. Not true, BW had allowed the contractor to let things slip.

I am so annoyed by all this!! Time for a cup of tea me thinks.

 

So what's the answer apart from privatisation? Then you'll see some real asset stripping ..

 

Network Soar and Midland Trent etc. Unit trusts perhaps? Bureaucratic collectivist nightmare of course. Personally, I would like to see PAYG boating as presently I pay a huge sum of money for nothing at all, since I hardly ever move more than ten square miles a year!

 

Seriously though, it can't keep going up the way it has in the last half decade but then neither can everything else - houses, energy, education, food etc.

 

- Hobbs

 

EDIT: Err don't reply to this. I forgot it was the fuel thread.

Edited September 6, 2008 by Hobson