Category Archives: Politics

Great new for all transport providers. The chancellor has announced the planned 3p hike in fuel duty for september will be scrapped which will be very welcoming to all our ears. For many fleet operators, fuel is one of the biggest expenses. This means any fluctuation in costs can have serious knock of effects for other areas of the business. All we need now is a very long over due decrease in fuel prices!…We can hope!

Petrol to rise to 145p a litre from August
Diesel will rise to 150p a litre
Fair fuel stabiliser will mean that above inflation rises in fuel duty will only return if price of oil falls below £45 a barrel
Vehicle excise duty to rise by inflation, but frozen for road hauliers
AA warns of a summer of discontent as drivers are forced off the road
RAC says the tax rise is unfair and government should look at who it will impact the most

Lights out

The Highways Agency has announced it will be switching off more motorway lights. (more…)

ASDA leads the way for cheap fuel

Asda and Morrisons have cut prices for unleaded petrol to 2p a litre and diesel down by 1p a litre. (more…)

Going somewhere Obama?

The London Congestion Charge has caught its biggest fish yet with the news that the most powerful man in the world has been handed a £120 penalty notice for not paying the £10 fee.

London mayor Boris Johnson had wanted the £10 congestion fee to be paid for the President’s armour-plated limo – dubbed “The Beast” – and all other cars during his visit in May.

Mr Johnson is understood to have raised the issue with Mr Obama at a Buckingham Palace banquet during his visit.

Despite travelling in a fleet of vehicles, there is just one fine to pay because the President’s convoy drove so close together that the ANPR cameras only picked out a single vehicle. Crafty.

Presumably Transport for London also had some issues with notifying Mr Obama about his penalty as the political heavyweight fled the country on his private jet not long afterwards.

Of course the President’s fine is just the cherry on top of a £5m unpaid congestion charge bill that the US Embassy has been running up for years and has been using the same lame excuse- “Diplomatic immunity.”
Alright for some!

Will it work?

Surrey Police are attempting to use Twitter as a 21st century version of the humble neighbourhood watch to try and catch car thieves.

The local force is now tweeting the details of every car that is broken into, vandalised or stolen as part of what it is calling Car Crime Week, which is running from 11-17 July.

“During the week our staff will be tweeting all vehicle crime incidents that come into the Force’s Contact Centre and we are encouraging the public to respond if they have any information that can help us bring the offenders to justice,” said force superintendent Duncan Greenhalgh.

“The incident reports will be interspersed with crime prevention advice reminding motorists how they can work with us to reduce the number of vehicle crime incidents in Surrey by taking a few simple steps.”

I’m not entirely sure the concept will be beneficial, although it will help increase awareness i doubt that people will be looking for daily twitter updates to try and catch car thieves and criminals. I think it’s slightly intrusive and could create a level of anxiety in some neighbourhoods.

In October 2010, Greater Manchester Police did something similar over a 24-hour period but not to great effect. Whether Surrey Police’s version is going to work, we’ll have to wait and see.

The Honda Clarity

The UK will see its first hydrogen fuelling station at Honda’s South Marston plant in September.

The station is being seen as an important step in a UK-wide scheme to make hydrogen vehicles a viable alternative to petrol-driven cars.

Currently there is only one commercial hydrogen car on the market and that is the Honda FXC Clarity.

Swindon Borough Council’s regeneration body, Forward Swindon, was awarded a £250,000 grant from the South West England Regional Development Agency in order to build the fuel station at Honda in Swindon.

Forward Swindon Chief Executive Ian Piper told BBC news: “It’s absolutely ground-breaking stuff. It is the first one in the UK and we think it’s great that Swindon is at the forefront of this.

“The automative and car-making sector is very important to Swindon, and it’s important for Swindon to be at the leading edge in this way.”

Although this will be a right step into helping the environment through low cost emissions, is it an unnecessary cost of tax payers money? There is afterall only one Hydrogen car manufactured commercially worldwide and the costs to make the hydrogen viable for fuel consumption, will equal the current price of petrol. So it it really worth the hassle?

Are you speeding?

We’ve all had experiences with speeding tickets, speed cameras and fines, some may have taken the extra step and taken their erroneous speeding ticket to court, but do you know anyone who’s put their smartphone on the stand to prove their innocence? Well, you do now.

This is the story of Sahas Katta that got clocked by the police doing over 40 in a 25 mph zone. When stopped by the police he handed over his info and signed the ticket, but then remembered he was running Google MyTracks on his Motorola Droid (an Android app that uses the phone’s GPS to record and plot where the user has travelled). After looking at the data and doing some research, Katta discovered that he was doing under 25 mph and decided to fight the ticket in court.

The Motorola Android

In court the policeman said he could not remember the last time he went through radar training, when the gun was serviced or the unit’s model number. Katta then busted out the GPS data from his Droid, and after reviewing the evidence and Katta’s clean driving record, the judge let him off. Granted, he may have just gotten lucky thanks to a uninformed judge and a dim witted policeman, but the results all the same……. there really is an app for everything!

Click here for Sahas full story.

We’ve all been there happily traveling along and then some idiot decides they need to in your lane or taking the exit and just cut you up. Well up until now you may have just said a few curse words and had a bit of a rant to your fellow passenger about how some people are a menace and shouldn’t be on the road. In some cases this is probably true however if we’re honest the majority of us have probably lost our concentration and accidentally got ourselves into the wrong lane or cut someone up at a roundabout at some point.

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Finally some good news for motorists as chancellor George Osbourne announces a 1p cut in the price of fuel.

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