The AA Complaining Again

[TheDoctor]

I agree.
It's impossible to find a few people who need to be at the same place at roughly the same time.
That's why trains are built to carry one or two people rather than a few hundred.
And planes - 550 people all wanting to go from London to Sydney? Madness, I tell you.
That's why 747s don't exist either.

EDIT - that was aimed at TC, not Brandane. Cross posted.

 

[Crankarm]

I haven't said that choosing to drive is any worse/better or anything else (not that you require an invitation but feel free to check). I choose to drive when I feel it is the most appropriate option. What I realise though is, even if it may be the best choice in a certain situation, it is still a choice. Why choosing to drive would make you any more or less intelligent I have no idea.

What I don't do is demand the government should change national taxation policy to suit my choices, but rather I make my choices knowing what the situation is. As I have said previously I'd prefer to pay less for fuel, just as I would for food, beer, rent and everything else, but I do realise that taxation policy is wider than changing something just because I like it. I entered this thread to add a couple of facts about the relative prices of fuel in Europe and the actual percentage tax take on fuel to counter a couple myths that were being repeated.

It would definitely help if many more people on all forms of transport were more courteous to each other while using the road system. So we agree on that front

I am of course now a troll (does that mean I get green frizzy hair?) so I suppose I'd better go and find a bridge to sit under. I choose Santon Bridge as it has a nice pub next door

Errr .......... your posts #243 and #247. No mention of the above. On the contrary you accused me of a "deliberate attack" on another poster. I was merely commenting on the content of his post . Yours was a rather imflammatory and provactive and some what premature crude defence of the Doctor whom I recall can look after himself .............

 

[fozy tornip]

My post code is KA30***. I don't have a fixed place of work as I do agency shifts as an HGV driver. I don't know what hours (if any) I will be working for the rest of this week. However if the agency calls me at 7am, and asks me to be in Glasgow (30 miles away) for a shift starting at 8am, I will let you know. Now can you find me some car share buddies?

You'll have to wait your turn; my offer was to Crankarm in the first instance. However, if you pm me your CV I may be able to root out some re-skilling courses that might equip you to find other employment, because your current job doesn't sound like a bundle of laughs.

 

[TheDoctor]

Errr .......... your posts #243 and #247. No mention of the above. On the contrary you accused me of a "deliberate attack" on another poster. I was merely commenting on the content of his post . Yours was a rather imflammatory and provactive and some what premature crude defence of the Doctor whom I recall can look after himself .............

Dare say, but I'm going to bed now.
It's nice to have people spring to ones defence though.
Makes me feel liked and wanted. Ever feel like that, Crankers?

 

[Crankarm]

And the problem with expecting them to pay for their selfish indulgent hobby is?

I am sorry but can you clarify your point as it got jumbled in the Ethernet?

 

[TheDoctor]

I think he means "Why should drivers expect cheap fuel?"

 

[growingvegetables]

Way back on page 1 of this thread, Brandane wrote “It is a fact of life that the car has become pretty much a necessity for most people.” True.

BUT - the elephant in the room. That dependence on the car as a necessity is going to change. No choice, no argument, no politics. Plain fact of life.

The geopolitical, geophysical, and environmental realities are harsh – we will never, ever again produce as much oil as we did a few years ago. It's gone. Burned up. Or made into plastic Xmas decorations and supermarket carrier bags. And it ain't going to be there to make the electricity and plastics for electric cars either. Only replaceable by a quarter million years of excessive global warming, the likes of which created the oil supplies in the first place.

The readjustment for people who depend on cars – well, I suspect you ain't seen nothing yet; it hasn't even started.

And we're bickering about biking and cyclists? Duuuuuh! Even if the bike had never been invented, or been abolished, or become extinct 100 years ago .......... car-dependents would be facing exactly the same pressures and readjustments as they are now.

The only way cycling fits in is that some of us are able to be early re-adopters of a technology which to some extent bypasses the problems of dependence on private car ownership.

 

[mcshroom]

Errr .......... your posts #243 and #247. No mention of the above. On the contrary you accused me of a "deliberate attack" on another poster. I was merely commenting on the content of his post . Yours was a rather imflammatory and provactive and some what premature crude defence of the Doctor whom I recall can look after himself .............

As interested as I am in what you said in #242 it doesn't represent the start of the thread nor my involvement therin. I entered this thread back on post #66. In post #243 I just commented that however the choice came about to stop commuting, it was a choice. The theme of choice has been going on in this thread for a good few pages.

As for #247. I responded exactly to a thread where you suggested: -

I hope you lose your job and the only one you can find after a long time on the dole is 30-40 miles away with no realistic option of cycling or public transport to get you there and back so you have no option but to drive, if of course you actually have a driving licence and a car ........... to take up this job. Or do you turn down the job as you can't cycle to it and back and thus spend yet more time as a reject on the dole or do you take the job and begin life again although not cycling. A no brainer for most people really unless you are an internet troll ...........

I stand by my assertion, you were trolling.

 

[Red Light]

My post code is KA30***. I don't have a fixed place of work as I do agency shifts as an HGV driver. I don't know what hours (if any) I will be working for the rest of this week. However if the agency calls me at 7am, and asks me to be in Glasgow (30 miles away) for a shift starting at 8am, I will let you know. The shift will finish sometime between 4pm and 10pm.. Now can you find me some car share buddies?

That sounds somewhat beyond the legal limits of driving hours for HGV drivers if you are doing 10-16hr shifts including home to work driving times.

 

[dellzeqq]

Methinks the Lewisians weren't saying no to wind power, but to mass windfarming of their island by developers providing wind power for the rest of the UK?

so, having soaked the rest of the country they weren't prepared to do their bit?

 

[GrumpyGregry]

If/when petrol hits £2.50 a litre, assuming wage inflation remains flat, so real incomes will be declining in real terms, will folk still have no choice but to use their cars, solo, to get to work?

If £2.50 won't do it, at what point does the habit get too expensive?

 

[srw]

You'll have to wait your turn; my offer was to Crankarm in the first instance. However, if you pm me your CV I may be able to root out some re-skilling courses that might equip you to find other employment, because your current job doesn't sound like a bundle of laughs.

And if he PMs me I'll help him to find an estate agent who can find him somewhere to live in Glasgow. It's quite a big city, you know.

 

[Brandane]

That sounds somewhat beyond the legal limits of driving hours for HGV drivers if you are doing 10-16hr shifts including home to work driving times.

You can legally do 15 hour shifts; as long as you have a 9 hour rest period between shifts (twice per week, 11 hours normally). You cannot actually DRIVE for all that time; that is limited to 9 hours per shift (10 hours twice per week). The rest of the time consists of rest periods (45 mins every 4.5 hours of driving) and POA's (Periods of Availability) e.g. waiting to be loaded/unloaded - which can amount to a lot of time depending on where you go.

 

[Brandane]

And if he PMs me I'll help him to find an estate agent who can find him somewhere to live in Glasgow. It's quite a big city, you know.

Would you move house for a job that pays around £7.50 per hour less tax and NI (that is for class 1 - artic, less for class 2) ? Less a compulsory 1 hour unpaid break? In an industry which is on it's knees with no signs of improvement? No; neither would I.

 

[srw]

Would you move house for a job that pays around £7.50 per hour less tax and NI (that is for class 1 - artic, less for class 2) ? Less a compulsory 1 hour unpaid break? In an industry which is on it's knees with no signs of improvement? No; neither would I.

If that were really my only choice of employment? I'd seriously consider it. Especially if the alternative was to drive the best part of an hour to get the same job.