Apparently the fuel tanker drivers are threatening to strike due to their employers demanding speedier deliveries. (elf'n safety is their complaint) Is anyone aware of what regulations are involved and what, if any breaches are being required of the drivers by their employers?

I think there is something about commissioning another person to drive at excessive speed in one of the Road Traffic Acts

From the Unite website. http://www.unitetheunion...er-drivers-Q&A-4.pdf Andy

And.. All tanker drivers must hold a VTC. http://www.dft.gov.uk/to...s-goods-driver-training/ I'm not convinced about the H&S aspect of this strike at all. Andy

Not me. I have seen interviews with a rep from the Union and she couldn't pinpoint what the health and safety issues were. She quoted a lot of figures about the profits the oil companies have made. Beggars belief. Andy

I don't know - just a guess here. Maybe the drivers concerned are fed up with their terms and conditions being changed. Maybe with the price of petrol reaching an all time high they feel they should get their 'bonus' as well. At least when compared to banker's bonuses the drivers do deliver a valuable economic product, literally. Maybe when some of the companies they work for makes billions of pounds profit per quarter the drivers would like to be 'incentivised' like their directors. When they look at the reports of FTSE100 company directors - including theirs' presumably - being paid, on average, £2.4 million while their respective share prices have flatlined why bother linking pay to performance - just link it to delivery! Maybe they think talking about the issue a year is long enough and feel they have to do something. Strikes are usually the action of last resort and require legally defined and held ballots. Throughout history it is generally a percentage of the workforce who take action. History also shows that when improvements are made by union action those who didn't vote for action or take any action get the benefits anyway. Maybe the drivers think that they should bargain freely about their terms and conditions and treat with some scepticism views from millionaire Prime Ministers and Chancellors who have just cut the top income tax rate for those getting a salary of over £150,000 by 10%. Maybe the safety issues of delivering petrol are all nicely under control. And maybe there are two sides to the dispute, particularly given that the sources of the story appear to be the same media outlights so often criticised as misleading and inaccurate on this very Forum. Cheers. Nigel

Does ADR and CPC not count as 'training'!

Great advice!!! Let all of the local arsonists know that there will be flammable liquid stored in the garage. Staffs fire say that about half of the grass fires are started during school holidays. I understand that there are holidays coming up?? I don't think its sound advice coming from my next door neighbour- let alone a govt minister. Andy

The BBC reported this morning that it is legal to keep 2 x 5Ltr plastic Jerry cans or 2 x 10 Ltr metal Jerry cans at home in the garage or outbuilding (not the house itself). Households keeping small amounts one thing, what about small business possibly keeping larger quantities. You could easily imagine them doing it.

Halfords are reporting a five fold increase in the sales of jerry cans (not billy cans as one BBC reporter said!) so now there will be a shortage of jerry cans and panic buying queues outside motor accessories shops. Where will it end? At this stage I have to declare an interest; I can walk or cycle to work :)

As a minor aside to this topic I wonder how many viewers of the BBC TV news are getting bored or even irritated through seeing again and again the same video clip of a light grey unmarked tanker driving out of a depot somewhere during the current intense news coverage of the prospective strike! Hopefully the news people on other TV channels are using different clips of other tankers. The same observation might apply to the single clip of an evidently unwell cow which repeatedly accompanied news reports about BSE in the past. The same goes for the clip of a glacier edge collapsing into the sea (presumably in the Arctic somewhere) which tends to accompany news items relating to global warming, oops sorry, I mean climate change. :-)

Thought that there were rules about this. See: http://www.vosa.gov.uk/v...%20GB%20and%20Europe.pdf And the driving day was limited to 9.5 hours(with so many hours allowed per week).

Yes drivers of hgv and tankers can drive for 9/11 hours legally, but how many workers or reps do a full days work and are then expected to be at the other end of the country by 8 the next morning for another project, shattering is not the word, how many foreign drivers go over their time limit and bring extra fuel with them stored in 55 gallon drums to avoid crippling garage prices, I can imagin it must be frustrating for self employed owner drivers.

While there is no legislation for driving cars on business, there is for commercial vehicles and passenger carrying vehicles :- http://www.businesslink....47080&type=RESOURCES Our "Driving on Company Business Policy" includes this.

How dare you imply that this Govt Minister is out of touch with reality? I was amused that he assumes that everyone has a garage, after all, where he lives in the village of Dial Post West Sussex, the current average house price id £775,000, so let's hope most homes do have a garage for that price!