This week we are again on tenterhooks waiting for a decision from the Unite Union whether they will strike or not after a deal put to them by fuel company bosses was rejected yesterday.

The deal – which took six weeks of intense negotiation to produce – was deemed not good enough by Unite.  According to Diana Holland, Assistant General Secretary for Unite, the union is still looking for “more guarantees and assurance from the employers about their commitment to meaningful minimum standards”.

She said, “important progress” had been made on issues including health and safety, and training, but bosses need to go further in the areas of maintaining standards, security of employment and subcontracting.

Conciliation service ACAS is overseeing negotiations between the two parties and says it is “disappointed” that a deal wasn’t struck and now faces a challenge to resolve the parties’ dispute.

Looking to Government, Ed Davey, Energy and Climate Change Secretary, maintains his stance that any strike action would be wrong and unnecessary.  Apart from this non-news we’ve heard very little from the two major political parties, whose leaders seem more focused on placing blame on each other over the potential fuel crisis, rather than doing anything about it.

At least we’ve not had any more ridiculous tips from Francis Maud!

In the meantime, Diana Holland has told everyone “don’t panic” – we appreciate the thought Diana, but that’s not the most reassuring thing to hear from you right now.

Unite will reach a decision tomorrow (Friday 20th April) and has to give seven days notice if any strike action is to be taken.

Perhaps it would be wise to start putting aside a little money or fuel every week to go into a ‘strike fund’, just in case, because even if Unite decide not to strike this week, they’ll probably threaten to next week!

Last week we discussed the AA’s prediction there would be two million fewer motorists on the road over the bank holiday weekend thanks to a potent mix of bad weather, high fuel prices and panic buying.

Looks like the prediction came (almost) true! (Numbers were a little off). And as a result of the fall in the number of Easter travellers, fuel sales have slumped with retailers again blaming the Government for sparking the panic buying. Unleaded petrol sales were down 29 percent compared with Easter 2011. Diesel fell by 2.9 percent, super diesel 60 percent and super unleaded by 39 percent.

The Retail Motor Industry’s (RMI) Brian Madderson said drivers already had full tanks “from purchases made during the panic buying period.”

“Although the wintry weather over Easter was a factor, panic buying was so high it was clearly as big and as deep as we indicated it would be at the time.”

The panic buying, caused by poor advice from Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude who told motorists to keep stocked up on fuel (despite a strike happening before Easter never seeming likely), has had untold ripples across so many sectors of UK economy – retail, tourism, transport, fleet, the list goes on.

 Not to mention the safety aspects: Maude’s advice to keep petrol in jerry cans was deemed “dangerous” by the Fire Brigade’s Union, and has been blamed for the severe burns one woman from York received when trying to decant petrol in her home.

Talks to resolve the tanker driver’s dispute and avoid industrial action have now resumed and are being chaired by conciliation service ACAS.

Chief conciliator Peter Harwood said: “I am encouraged that talks are continuing and that the parties are committed to finding a way forward.”

Despite the crisis seemingly avoided for the moment, motorists still have to contend with record high petrol prices which are hovering around 140p a litre – thanks Mr Maude! We hate to imagine what advice he might give if a strike does go ahead!

Usually at this time of the year we advise our readers on the ‘joys’ of bank holiday driving and how to conserve their fuel on long journeys – did you know that around 77 percent of us Brits usually travel over Easter, spending four hours and 30 minutes in the car, travelling a distance of 220 miles?

But alas this year, after the Government sparked the craziest fuel panic buying we can remember, many of us just don’t think it’s worth the bother.

The AA has predicted there will be two million fewer motorists taking to the road this bank holiday weekend because of record high petrol prices and lingering anxieties about fuel supplies.

Before the mad fuel panic, record average petrol prices were set at 140.9p per litre for unleaded and 147.1p per litre for diesel. But last week saw prices rise up to 10p per litre higher than this, sparking accusations of forecourts profiteering from the panic buying.

Even more damning is the suggestion the Treasury enjoyed a £33million tax windfall from the extra fuel sales – the chaos was fuelled by its own poor advice in the first place!

If fuel prices remain at these record levels, families could find filling a 50-litre tank will cost them £4.39 more than this time last year and £11.30 more than two years ago.

Paul Watters, an AA spokesman, has said: “Many of the drivers who felt compelled to fill their tanks to the brim last week now face another £70 or more hit if they set off on a driving break this Easter.”

But it’s not just petrol prices scaring off would-be holidaymakers this spring. The weather’s been torrid and unpredictable – flip flops one week, snow boots the next.

Traffic in the north east of England was brought to a standstill yesterday by gale-force winds, snow sleet and rain, while the M62 motorway between Manchester and Huddersfield closed due to 10 HGVs becoming stranded in blizzards. In Oldham a snowplough had to be dug out by mountain rescue.

The AA says journeys will peak today, on Maundy Thursday, but four in ten of its members will be staying at home this Easter. This spells bad news for businesses that rely on tourist spending.

With no let-up in the fuel price war that continues to wage since the Chancellor failed to implement desperately fought-for fuel duty cuts in last week’s Budget, we are now facing threats to the very fuel supplies we’re paying through the teeth for.

Workers’ union Unite announced on Tuesday (27 March) that 69 percent of the 2,000 balloted tanker drivers from seven different companies had voted in favour of industrial action over working conditions and health and safety.

The Government opposed the move, describing strike action as “wrong and unnecessary”, and demanded that Unite, the workers and their employers sit around a table to resolve any disputes. Conciliation service Acas has been drafted in to try and make this happen.

Be that as it may, the strike may still go ahead and drivers are now being warned to stockpile fuel to avoid any impact on their daily lives and businesses.  There have even been hints that trained military personnel could be used to drive tankers in the workers’ place. If it comes to it.

We’re not talking jerrycans like the cabinet minister Francis Maude, who advised drivers on Wednesday they should stock “maybe a little bit in the garage as well in a jerrycan”. This advice came under justified criticism by the Fire Brigades Union and the AA, which highlighted that, at a capacity of 20 litres, a jerrycan contains more than the official limit to safely store fuel in the home.

By the same token we appreciate that it is a sensible precaution to stockpile some fuel in case of emergencies, but the reaction from motorists across the country has been unprecedented – panic buying, queues at petrol stations and forecourts emptied of their supplies.

Today’s advice from Energy Minister Ed Davey is that drivers should refill tanks when half empty, after the Prime Minister was accused of being vague in saying drivers should stay “topped up”.

Fingers-crossed that these disputes are solved before the situation escalates though, as not every driver can afford to refill their tank as soon as it reaches the halfway mark. We will keep you updated on the situation at www.fuelcards.co.uk

How did you feel about yesterday’s budget? Here at Business Fuelcards we were very disappointed and a bit surprised to hear the news about the fuel duty rise yesterday. With the Chancellor opening his budget speech with the statement that the OBR has identified rising oil prices as one of the main threats to the UK economy, and then not doing anything about that was, frankly, a bit baffling.

George Osborne’s Budget for 30 million motorists was a massive slap in the face for common sense.  We work with FairFuelUK, the frontline campaign for lower fuel prices, who feels deeply angered by what it calls ‘complete ignorance from the Treasury to the pain that high fuel duty taxation is causing to businesses, the public and local communities.’

Quentin Willson, national spokesman for FairFuelUK, said: “The Government has turned its back on families and businesses all across the country.  Three quarters of the electorate want lower fuel prices. It ignores the threat of rising global oil prices – even the Saudis are trying to pull down the price of crude. And it ignores robust research we gave to the PM showing that cutting duty will create jobs, improve GDP and cost the Treasury absolutely nothing. This is a mortal wound for this Government’s policies and its credibility. We showed them that cutting fuel duty by 2.5p would create 175,000 new jobs – how many jobs will be destroyed when the Government slaps 16p per gallon on in August?”

Peter Carroll, founder of FairFuelUK, said: “Diesel is at its highest price ever recorded and this failure to act is a devastating blow to families and businesses.  Poll after poll has set out that this is the number one priority for the UK.  Millions have people and thousands of businesses will feel ignored.  We gave the Government evidence based on its own model that a cut in fuel duty would not cost it any revenue overall.  Our supporters will be astonished that the Government has cut the 50p rate because ‘it damages the economy’ but will not tackle fuel duty when it’s crippling the economy”.

FairFuelUK is now upping a gear to really put pressure on those disconnected MPs who fail to understand or empathise with the reality of high pump prices. More to the point, why have so few MPs quoted FairFuelUK’s CEBR research showing a modest cut in fuel duty will generate jobs, growth and lower inflation at no cost to the Treasury. This research was based on the Treasury’s own model too.

Howard Cox, FFUK Campaign Communications, said: “Why has the Treasury missed this golden risk free opportunity to be really popular with their electorate, it beggars belief. Today one day after the Budget, we have had over 5000 emails saying how disgusted FFUK supporters are with this Government with many Tory voters saying they will never vote for them ever again. Mr Osborne has made a massive political mistake that could be costly!”

FairFuelUK is calling for more supporters to sign up to get behind the campaign at www.fairfueluk.com . The war for lower fuel prices goes on.

If you would like to see how much you’ve lost or gained from this year’s budget, the BBC has created a handy, online budget calculator

Ten years and £10 billion – that is what’s still needed to cure England and Wales of its pothole plague once and for all.

Today’s (15 March) report from the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) made for depressingly familiar reading – complaints from drivers to local authorities about potholes have increased by 10 percent over the last year, freezing weather in 2011 made already pothole-riddled roads worse and we’re still no closer to fully resolving the problem.

The AIA survey suggests councils spent £90million repairing 1.7million potholes in England and Wales last year, but a further £10billion is still needed to improve the standards of all roads. The survey estimated annual funding shortfalls for repairing potholes in England and Wales stand at nearly £800million.

So when you’re bumping and banging along the road next time, you’ll know why that pothole (which seems like it’s been there since the beginning of time), has not yet been fixed. Fair enough, but it still doesn’t stop you from swearing and nervously wondering about the scale of the damage you’ve done to your car this time…

AIA chairman, Alan Mackenzie, said: “Severe winter weather would not, in itself, produce a plague of potholes on well-maintained roads.

“These disastrous figures result from decades of underfunding and enforced short-term planning.”

The AA’s Edmund King, meanwhile called for “a new approach to stop this vicious circle of decline which causes danger to all road users, particularly those on two wheels, and expensive damage to vehicles”.

Hear, hear, we say – as if it wasn’t bad enough fuel prices are through the roof, too many motorists are still having to foot the bill when a pothole leaves them unstuck!

To read the full report and learn about the startling scale of the pothole problem for yourself, visit the AIA website.

I think we all felt a pang of sympathy for the poor driver who got his lorry wedged in a narrow street in Somerset after following instructions from his satnav and subsequently causing the closure of the local high street. We’ve all had that “Really???? Are you sure???” moment when the automated voice tries to direct us down an obviously unsuitable road. Or, even worse, the dreaded “Perform a U-Turn” when travelling down a one way street / dual carriage way / motorway.

Only last month a survey by insurance quote provider Confused.com revealed misleading sat-nav directions caused more than £200 million worth of damage to vehicles in the past year – the majority of this occurred when motorists were sent the wrong way.

However, as much as you may like to, throwing your satnav out of the window simply isn’t an option (dammit) – they’re invaluable for those of use who drive for a living. And so it’s of great relief to hear the Government is today (8 March 2012) holding its first satnav summit to look at the problem of lorries and other large vehicles being directed down inappropriate roads.

Hosted by the Department for Transport and chaired by the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transportation (ADEPT), the summit will see highway authorities and mapping providers working together to identify viable solutions to keep the right vehicles on suitable roads.

The summit comes just one month before local authorities are able to reclassify roads without having to go to Whitehall for approval. This will effectively mean local authorities can control the flow of traffic by ensuring A-roads are placed where they want vehicles to run and lowering the category of road in places they want traffic to avoid.

Great news! We’ll wait to hear the outcome of the summit and keep you updated. In the meantime, feel free to giggle at some satnav misfortunes.

Phew, what an eventful week it has been in the world of fuel price campaigning. Let us bring you up to speed…

It began with national campaign group FairFuelUK, whose major sponsors are The Fuelcard Company, the Road Haulage Association, RAC and Freight Transport Association, attending a meeting on fuel duty issues with HM Revenue & Customs and Economic Secretary Chloe Smith MP.

Meanwhile, Chancellor George Osborne gave perhaps his strongest hint yet that he does NOT plan to cut fuel duty in the forthcoming Spring Budget. Speaking in an interview on Sky News, Osborne appeared to rule out any further fuel duty cuts, commenting that previous measures to tackle fuel duty have already made a difference.

But defeat is simply not an option for FairFuelUK. In fact, it cranked up its campaign several gears by giving a preview of a major report suggesting that a cut in fuel duty is exactly what this economy needs to get back on its feet.

The official figures in question are to be published this week by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) and suggest that a cut of 2.5p per litre would create 180,000 jobs in the first year at no net tax loss and boost GDP by 0.33 percent.  A ‘bolder’ 5ppl cut would create another 30,000 jobs. How can the Chancellor, despite his earlier words, NOT sit up and take notice of these figures?

National spokesman for FairFuelUK, Quentin Willson, said: “We’ve been saying this all along and now we can prove it.  This conclusively backs up our claim that a cut in fuel duty will boost the economy without harming Treasury revenues.  Quite rightly, the Chancellor’s priority is on stimulating growth in order to pay down the deficit.  Here is a way to do both.”

The Fuelcard Company’s sales and marketing director, Jakes de Kock, meanwhile, reminded motorists and the Government that “taxes and fuel duty currently account for 60 percent of unleaded petrol and 58 percent of diesel”.

“The plea for a fairer tax system for UK companies reliant on fuel to keep their businesses moving, is a worthy and necessary cause and impacts every consumer in the UK,” he said.

The Fuelcard Company will give its wholehearted support to FairFuelUK in the battle it faces over the coming weeks – what about you?

FairFuelUK will be conducting a major lobby of MPs outside the Houses of Parliament on 7 March (National FairFuel Day), giving a public stage to the fight for fairer fuel prices and fuel duty reforms. We will be involved in this public demonstration, as will hundreds of motorists and businesses struggling under the burden of soaring fuel prices.

To find out more about the campaign and to pledge your support (perhaps you even fancy a slice of the action?), visit: www.fairfueluk.com

The National FairFuel Day on March 7^th, supported by The Fuelcard Company, RHA and FTA, is the motorist’s unique opportunity to personally fight for lower fuel duty. On this day we will have the chance to convince the Government to get the UK economy motoring and for the Treasury at last, to hopefully see sense. Any change in Government taxation on petrol and diesel will be only be made by influencing the Government itself and that means going right to the heart of Parliament. To lobby MPs!

In this time of austerity it is vital that MPs (many who are disconnected from the impact of high fuel prices) recognise the horrendous experiences of businesses and the public because of the current crippling fuel duty level. The more motorists, white van drivers, hauliers, truckers, taxi drivers and all those that need their wheels to exist yet alone work that come and mass lobby Parliament, the more likely MPs will put pressure on the Treasury to act. All MPs have to recognise that a significant cut in fuel duty will help the economy and not affect HMRC tax revenues. The consequences are clear, a decent cut in fuel duty will stimulate the economy. It will mean consumers spending more, further VAT revenue obtained, increased corporation tax and PAYE too.

The only way to make this happen is by putting pressure on the MPs, who in turn will make representations to the Treasury. We need as many people as possible to be outside Parliament on March 7th after PMQs. For details please go to www.fairfueluk.com .

Last year, with your help, the FairFuelUK campaign saw off rises that would have put another 9p per litre on the cost of every litre of petrol and diesel.  That was important, but petrol & diesel remain far too expensive.  In fact, diesel is at record levels!   We know from the reaction of Ministers and MPs that the FairFuelUK campaign has had a real impact on the Government.  The thousands of letters and emails, the media events, the meetings with groups of MPs and our presence on the TV and Radio have had an enormous impact.

However, sometimes, it’s important that the politicians actually get to meet the people suffering because of an issue. To that end, the National FairFuel Day’s mass lobby of Parliament during the afternoon of Wednesday March 7^th is your chance to make a real difference.  As a citizen, you have the right to enter Parliament and ask to see your MP.  This right is centuries old.  When lots of people agree to do this on the same day about the same issue it is called a ‘mass lobby’

If you can’t attend on the day please sign up to support the campaign at www.fairfueluk.com  and tell everyone you know to sign up too. Get on Twitter www.twitter.com/fairfueluk  and Facebook www.facebook.com/fairfueluk to tell friends and colleagues to be in Westminster on March 7th.  Buy a FairFuelUK “cut tax now” sticker to display in your vehicle from the FairFuelUK website www.fairfueluk.com which helps to support the campaign’s activities. Write directly to your MP by letter or email as to how a cut in fuel duty will help your job, business and in your personal life too. How such a cut will contribute so much more to the UK Economy than continual high levels of taxation. To find out who your local MP is and their email address go to http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/

The backers of FairFuelUK have commissioned a highly recognised and respected independent Economist and Business Research Company to ask the question will the UK Economy benefit from a significant cut in fuel duty. Findings from this study will be announced prior to the Budget.

So, please come and lobby your MP on National FairFuel Day. Simply register you are coming by completing the form on the www.fairfueluk.com website. We look forward to seeing you there. Let’s make the Government recognise we need that fuel duty cut now before it’s too late!

Peter Carroll, Quentin Willson, Howard Cox. FairFuelUK

The Consumer Council for Northern Ireland is reporting that Northern Ireland is facing higher fuel prices than any other region in the United Kingdom, and that worse is yet to come.

Although we’re all painfully aware of how high fuel prices are affecting both our industry and everyday motorists in general, the prices in Northern Ireland are still shocking. Prices there are reaching an average of 134.6p per litre for unleaded petrol and 142.8p per litre for diesel and if prices are still rising, as the report has suggested, it could be catastrophic for Northern Ireland’s transport industry.

The Consumer Council is rightly supporting calls for an EU investigation into the price of fuel and is pressuring major supermarkets to end regional pricing, which can add up to 6p per litre to the price of fuel in some areas. In January, petrol was on average 5p cheaper south of the border in Ireland while diesel was a huge 15p cheaper. Just pennies, but we know what a difference they can make!

The AA’s latest fuel price report revealed that in the UK as a whole, the average petrol price has been above 130p per litre since March 2011 and diesel above 140p per litre since July 2011, with average forecourt prices in January reaching 133.5p per litre and diesel 141.9p per litre. Can we continue to afford to do our jobs at these prices?

The Consumer Council has written to the chancellor to ask what the Government can do to help consumers affected by high fuel prices. The Fuelcard Company is also supporting FairFuelUK in its campaign to lower fuel prices. To show your support, visit FairFuelUK’s website and sign the petition to fight for a fairer deal for motorists, UK businesses and the road freight industry.