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You would have thought the just in time system would have been dumped after the pandemic, tsunamis, border control, Suez blockage etc... but it is such a macho thing, who can hold the smallest stock. A lot of the world's problems can be traced back to just in time. Why is PCR still required? No stock of lateral flow!!! An entire industry restart dragged back and delayed. When I am your prime minister, I will actually introduce a law requiring a degree of buffering of stock. Remember, you have only got one election left to put me in Downing St before there is complete collapse of society.
I jet fuel is pipesnin to Heathrow and Manchester, Liverpool Leeds Bradford Edinburgh etc is trucked in.
Where the airport is piped in, each apron has underground pipes which pump vehicles tap into, which refuel the plane.
Plenty fuel for aviation, airports have massive storage tanks, unlike petrol stations .. which have tanks from 12000 ltrs to larger garages 80000 lts.. but they never used to fill them up as its money sat there underground, sonwjen there is panic buying they run out fast. Its all part of the just in time delivery system in transport.
I jet fuel is pipesnin to Heathrow and Manchester, Liverpool Leeds Bradford Edinburgh etc is trucked in.
Where the airport is piped in, each apron has underground pipes which pump vehicles tap into, which refuel the plane.
Plenty fuel for aviation, airports have massive storage tanks, unlike petrol stations .. which have tanks from 12000 ltrs to larger garages 80000 lts.. but they never used to fill them up as its money sat there underground, sonwjen there is panic buying they run out fast. Its all part of the just in time delivery system in transport.
Teddy100
big-blue
thanks for your replies regarding tankers etc
Much talk of tankers but no talk of how Heathrow and BA gets it's fuel in addition to having it piped in from the South Coast. Trains.......https://www.railfreight.com/railfreight/2019/10/03/trains-supply-fuel-to-london-heathrow-airport/?gdpr=accept
Correction, the larger tankers were around 45,000 litres. Not sure where I got 80k litres from sorry
A lot of refuelling happens at airport from ground point pantograph. It comes straight from the bill tank to the aircraft without a tanker.
Some of the more remote stands require tankers, yes.
A triple 7 typically could hold on abs ultra long sector 90-100 tonnes. The BIG tankers hold roughly 80k litres from memory. But they often come in “double” configuration, meaning a single double tanker can refuel a Longhaul triple.
We very rarely flew at this level, New York due loads were around 50-60k, so easily managed by a single tanker.
Sorry, that should be 10 tankers, never go near a calculator when you have had a bottle of red!
That seem a crazy figure, 300 tankers, but having just worked it out, it would take 15 fuel tankers to top up one A380. Much better to talk about supply pipe lines then we don’t have to focus on the numbers! BB is correct, there is only one threat facing aviation and that is the Green Brigade. Govt’s can’t stop people moving but they can make it more complex and expensive, which they will do in the coming years.
@Uptheladder: Heathrow airport will not be affected by the tanker crisis. Firstly most of the fuel is piped in from more than one refinery and there are multiple pipes. When the fuel arrives at Heathrow it is stored in one of two facilities where it is allowed to settle and then pumped under the airfield in a maze of pipes to allow filling. The tanker drivers moving around the airfield I believe are employed by AFS and Swissport. That said a few tankers are still used but the majority is piped. I remember Manchester airport running out of fuel a few years ago as they only deal with one refinery and one pipe, I believe it is Essar who are on the brink of bankruptcy, so they will be twitching up there I am sure. I recall someone saying to me some years ago that if all fuel was tanked that Heathrow would require over 300 tankers a day, this is not practical, hence the supply pipes.
The tankers are not needed, it is the drivers. No idea how many drivers there are at, say, Heathrow. Retraining would be straight forward. It may not come around, not in the UK at least. In europe it may be a different matter. It remains to be seen if the EU driver shortages impact aviation. But ya gotta keep the 360.
if their is a direct pipeline to the airports surely their are minimum tankers at airports to move fuel about , also isn't the airport land private , therefore do the tankers have to go through the same formalities as tankers being driven on the uk roads , I know they will have to meet certain safety standards but I thought they were not as strict as tankers on uk roads being as they're on private land , happy to be corrected if wrong
It was a major crisis in 2015. Post-covid it is a perfect crisis to be used by one campaign or another. Certainly the the extent is hugley exposed as economies start up and they find everybody is back in their home country and found alternative income streams.
One significant other sector which might also decide enough is enough are water works people. They provide a critical service but are paid a pittance. When they hear about truckers being on 40 to 60 grand compared to the mid 20's to mid 30s [top] the water works engineers are getting, they will call it. How long will we manage if the drinking water is turned off and the sewage stops being pumped and treated?
HGv drivers can earn almost the same wage driving Amazon/DHL etc vans about and have a much less stressy life. Lots at my dads place have done exactly that, after having a dabble whilst on furlough. Much nicer to be able to return home at night to the family than be stuck out somewhere kipping in a layby. No medicals, no CPC etc etc.
Its all down to the conditions and pay, businesses have screwed lorry drivers for too long and its basicslly come home to roost, nothing more than that.
The Esso oil/fuel pipeline system transports most airport fuel around the UK, i used to live close to BHX, there is a pipeline along the M42 to that particular place, used to have to watch out for that whenever i had a teams out excavating all over the midlands. You wont see these pipelines on the utility compamies maps thanks to the modern day/IRA terrorists and basic theft Nigera style meaning their whereabouts need to be kept a bit schtum. Daily helicopter line flights monitoring them all all over the country.
What annoys me with the trucker 'shortage', is the fact that it costs around £2500 to train somebody to do the job, i went out with my dad a good few years back thinking id get my hgv1, but changed my mind when i found out all the ancillary bs thats involved ontop of the driving. My job is very very specific and fairly unique so i fancied another string to my bow. Didnt bother in the end and stuck with my career, but to train a new person willing to do the job for only £2500, that is peanuts. UK driving businesses have absolutely no excuse whatsoever for not training UK people over the last few decades. If a business cant be bothered to invest such a small amount in training their own staff then they deserve all that they get. A good friend of mine owns and operates a haulage business, something like 40 wagons, and he's been equally guilty of failing to invest, reap as ye sow as the saying goes.
So, we haven't had any shortage of drivers for the last 2 years during covid......why all of a sudden are they saying there is a shortage now .
Is it profiteering by the fuel companies who are saying they are prioritising motorway stations over others ?
Nothing to do then, with the fact that the motorway services charge substantially more for fuel than city centres .
I suspect there is more going on here than driver shortages...........
Daytrader, it is not so much that things are centrally organised, more a case of like minded people who have the position to steer policy and events towards the aims of the shared philosophy as opportunities arise. These ideologists know they just have to bide their time and an opportunity will present itself. The driver crisis has been around a long time. Notice how the Brexit remainers have jumped on it suddenly from a number of different angles and the narratives on mass media, TV especially. Turn the situation for the purposes of the remain on-going campaign to try and demonstrate Brexit was supposed to have been one big error.
There is a significant part of the climate change ideology set against aviation. There are a number of competing philosophies at once of course, the open borders globally campaign, the EU commission owns everybody and everything campaign, the hysterical climate change campaign, the anti Trump/true democracy leave-it-to-the -intelligencia-elites campaign, the it-is-everybody-else's-fault-but-mine-empathy campaign and so on. They often feed off each other. Last night there was a news piece on coastal erosion in the UK specifically stating it was due to climate change. Latter, under the breath a brief statement was made that it had actually been going on for a few hundred years. Well in fact it has been going on for a few thousand years since the ice retreated and the sea carved out the North Sea and English channel which is still ongoing today. But notice how it is interpreted for the convenience of 'proving' climate change [now questions allowed].
The great tyre shortage of summer 2022 will be blamed on Brexit/climate change/Aviation [delete as appropriate when we get there and which one is the cause celeb of the moment].
I think the big issue will be fuel trucks at some European airports and routes suspended because of that. Quite literally, some airports that have fuel by pipe supply may become aviation filling stations with aircraft landing simply to refuel mid route!
Blue
I was initially wondering whether this 'tanker driver shortage' was an underhand plan to start the curbs on the good old internal combustion engine, given the impending bans everywhere and the ridiculus headlong rush for anything labelled as eco, despite it being bs in the main.
However the last few days on electricity price increases and tarriff being pulled has changed my views that it was orchestrated. Silly of me to think the government are capble of carrying off such a plan without screwing it up anyway.
I do wonder how all the EV purchasers feel about their 'cheaper greener' vehicles now, given the other selling point for them was that they are cheaper to 'fuel'. Turns out that economic argument was equally a big a pile of brown smelly stuff, just as much as the one that batteries are green.
What are the causes of the HGV driver shortage?
There are many factors that are contributing to the shortage of qualified drivers, here are some examples that have been attributed to the shortage.
"More directives from the EU
The introduction of the controversial Drivers CPC has meant experienced drivers are required to take extra training. This was seen as too much for many drivers who chose to retire rather than complete the Drivers CPC."
https://www.returnloads.net/hgv-driver-shortage/
Take your bloody European Directives and stuff 'em where the sun don't shine.
MyLuck, do explain how Brexit is blamed for an issue that has been a significant issue before the referendum was even announced?
https://www.commercialfleet.org/news/truck-news/2015/11/23/hgv-driver-shortage-at-crisis-point-as-critics-question-government-steps-to-address-issue
Note the date in the article.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33141819
Note the date of the announcement here.
https://www.returnloads.net/hgv-driver-shortage/
this one is even more interesting as it discusses the driver shortage and possible causes - - IN 2015
Brexit? You people using Brexit as an excuse for everything are so shallow.
Thank brexit for that and the power given to undeserved people to vote.
It is true the aviation fuel is supplied by a pipe network to the airports from the refineries. However, additives and production products are required for the refining, including filtration. The supply chain is weak and will grow weaker as a switch to supermarket supplies and petrol stations is made. I can see tanker drivers being diverted from airports to the petrol stations, all over Europe. The quick fix with work visas will fail because it is not a Brexit issue. The only way to tempt drivers back will be with mega bonuses. And they are already being paid elsewhere in the EU. There might well be some problems developing at the airports fueling the planes if the managers are not careful and bump up the salaries sooner rather than later. Ironically it was the lockdown on borders and travel initially applied in a very harsh manner internally in the EU that resulted in drivers being almost forcibly repatriated to their home countries. Now they are back and have local employment much better than 10 years ago and no incentive to return to working away from home long distances. Personally I don't think we will have too much disruption at UK airports, but there could be some significant knock on effects with aircraft being stranded abroad due to fuel supply issues, especially at more remote airports not on the european pipe networks. The big return to the skies might well be reduced.
Is this issue a result in some crafty interference? Are we about to see the kind of sabotaging of the industry as seen before? The fuel supply issue is just starting. It will be interesting to see whether aviation is given high priority or the situation is taken advantage of or used to keep aviation subdued by special ops sabotage!!!! With the hysterical environmentalist zealots, you never know. And in Europe, you can bet they will be trying to poaching drivers from the UK rather than the UK poaching EU drivers saying Europe has a higher priority because of their self importance over there [France response to subs for example]. I wouldn't put it past the EU to actually take drivers passports off them and stop them crossing the channel to ensure they don't go to work in the UK. Fantasy?? Lunacy?? Well let's see!!!!!!!! I know what these people are like in the commission. I've worked in the inner sanctum.