FUEL FIASCO...FUEL FIASCO
CHELMSFORD TAXI COMPANY DRIVERS ABUSED AFTER STAFF UNABLE TO GET FUEL
An Essex taxi firm says its staff members have been “abused” after not being able to supply drivers amid the UK petrol crisis. EssexLive reports that Fareway Taxis said there had been incidents where staff were not able to supply a taxi because of the fuel situa- tion, and this had resulted in “abuse”. In a post on Facebook, Fareway Taxis said: “We are in the same position as
everyone else with regards to the fuel situation. “We are doing our utmost to accom- modate everyone for their journeys, and our drivers are doing their very best to get fuel where they can and if they can. “Unfortunately there have been a few incidents where staff have been abused for not being able to supply a taxi, this
will not be tolerated, your numbers will be blocked and you won’t be able to use us again. Please treat all staff as you would wish to be treated.” The Government has stressed that there “is enough petrol” in the country as long as people avoid panic buying, and motorists have been urged to “carry on as normal” by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE COUNCIL USES OWN PERMIT SYSTEM TO ENSURE KEY WORKERS GET FUEL
As school buses and taxis have been hit by the ongoing fuel shortages, Buckinghamshire Council has implemented its own priority list for critical workers. According to The Telegraph, the council has started its own permit system to help ensure local petrol fore- courts will fill key workers' tanks, amid pressure on the Government for essen- tial workers to be given exclusive access to certain petrol stations. The new system comes after the council had to cancel school buses on nine routes earlier this week as various transport companies could not fill up their buses overnight. Cllr Martin Tett, leader of Bucking- hamshire Council, said the “unofficial” system included sending letters to all the petrol stations across the county asking them to allow school transport drivers to fill up.
He said that all the drivers have been issued with a “permit” from the council. Councillor Tett added that the system,
which was implemented on Tuesday afternoon, currently relies on “good- will” and a “limited” list of key workers. He warned that queues in the priority lane could end up longer than the standard lane if the list of essential workers was too broad. “Given that we have no actual powers, what happens when somebody who has been queueing for two or three hours suddenly sees somebody pushing in front waving a letter saying: 'Hey I stack shelves, I’m a key worker'? “It’s really tricky, so we’ve tried to keep it limited at the moment and we’ll just see how this works before we consider extending it,” he said. Amid further calls for a priority list for fuel, an industry leader has said that up to 30 per cent of taxi drivers are unable to work due to the ongoing crisis. Steve McNamara, the General Secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, called for critical workers to be given exclusive access to certain petrol stations as he said that 25 to 30
per cent of his members were unable to work on Tuesday.
He said the situation at petrol forecourts is “not getting any better”, as motorists continued to queue for hours to fill up their tanks and one man was filmed threatening a fellow driver with a knife. Mr McNamara told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that “a taxi driver without fuel is unemployed” and that the Government setting up designated petrol stations for essential workers would “take the sting out of the crisis”. The designated filling station scheme, ensuring taxi drivers and other critical vehicles would be given priority, was first implemented by Tony Blair during the fuel crisis in 2000. Mr McNamara also warned the situation “is going to get worse” by the weekend if essential workers were unable to get fuel, and added that “the Government policy at the moment of simply hoping it's going to go away is just not realistic”.
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