I have a friend who owns a petrol station, he has been a friend for a long time and despite being a lot older than me we are very good mates and occasionally meet up for a drink.

He has always been a straight laced guy....................he is a mason and likes to follow the line, but today I popped in to fill up my truck and low and behold the diesel has gone up to £1.20!!


I was absolutely mortified as I only filled up last week and it was £1.14! that's a penny a frigging day.


So we got chatting and he told me that I might as well just start using red diesel, he gave me a VERY good tip for not getting caught, which I am in the process of researching. Its this that has surprised me since the guy, a year ago, would never have suggested something like this.


However, after he told me this he then announced that red diesel is being phased out within 2 years and that from then there will be absolutely no duty free fuel left.


So this raises the question.

What are the farmers going to do?

What will the hauliers do?


Farmer friends of mine will use 200 litres of diesel a day ploughing, so if its £1.50 a litre how will they then pass this cost to the consumer?


His gloom and doom got worse, as mentioned, he has had an e-mail from his supplier to tell him that they are aiming at a retail price of £1.50 by august and are looking at £2 a litre by next Christmas!

Hmmm. I'd be bl**dy careful if I were you.

Bear in mind they do a number of tests on it, so just removing colour is not enough.

I have a suspicion density is different. It is quite possible that there are all sorts of marker chemicals in it that you have no idea about.

Plus, remember customs and excise have more power than god, and you have no rights at all. You will be guilty until you can prove yourself innocent.

I have a friend, an ex copper, who told me the Old Bill have wet dreams fantasising that they had the same sort of powers.

All they will do is crush the car.


Well I spend nearly £100 a week on diesel now, that's say £5000 a year on fuel, well my Discovery was a little more than that and to be honest I wouldn't give a crap if they did crush it, I would simply buy another car.


and no, its simply a marker dye, if someone else told me it could be done I would have doubted it, but this guy has had a petrol station for a very long time, he is in the industry and I trust him implicitly. Plus he is pretty high up in the masons.

Mitzy will tell you about customs and excise when he wakes up. lol

Fair comment, if your car is crap and worth nothing then the problem is not so grave.

Are there any other penalties? Fines? Are you certain about that?

I watched on a TV prog about customs, and they were testing some de coloured deisel which made me wonder what it was they were testing for?

cant even be bothered you know.

Customs & Excise make up the rules as they go along . I used to work for a recovery firm , used to do all the police RTA's & any goverment work .
A bus company got caught using red diesel & the coach was impounded there & then . They "raided" the bus companys yard & we removed 6 other coaches .

The owner was made to repay lost tax on the fuel for the period they suspected he had been using red . not sure how long or the amount but he was prosecuted .
he did get his coaches back .

of course there are ways to stop the fuzz/customs dipping the tank because at the rd side all the police do is stick a pipe in & draw some fuel out & colour test it . well , 10 years ago that was all they did .

My point exactly. The idea of getting on the wrong side of the C&E makes me shudder.

I suspect that 'can't be bothered' would be more than bothered by the time they had finished..

What absolute non sense, no one can predict what the prices of gasoline will be in a years time, it's all about supply and demand and if opec up their pumping rate or not.

And as far as straight lace masons, lol my uncle was one (died now) and was quite high up but not even his best friend that he grew up with knew.

There are two types of 'lodges' the proper ones that come from down from well to do people that filters down to reasonable 'normal' class people and there is the more popular type.. The wannabes which have absolutely nothing to do with the proper lot! If anyone tells relative strangers they as a mason then they're pound to dollar in the latter!

So I would take anything he says with a pinch of salt until you've seen evidence to the back it up.

Also £1.20 blimey it's not near that around the SE yet! Thank god!

While you're at it make an account on here http://www.petrolprices.com and they email you every week with the current cheapest gasoline in your area..

Right now in my postcode the most expensive is £1.20 but the cheapest is £1.11 so as you can see the difference is quite a lot when you spend as much as we do a week on gasoline!

Also to echo other people, you would be out of your mind to run the risk of messing with C&E, not only will they take the vehicle (no big deal) but they will look into EVERY aspect of yours and your immediate families taxation with a fine tooth comb. I'd rather do a bank job to fund petrol than cross C&E myself

"I'd rather do a bank job to fund petrol than cross C&E myself"

Amen.

I run my Nissan Terrano on biodiesel made from waste vegetable oil. It retails in my area at 94p per litre and the price is coming down at some of the local outlets, not as cheap as red diesel but cheaper than the normal stuff and its legal. Might not be suitable for the hauliers etc. but its ok for the private user.

I used to work on the Road Fuel Testing Unit RM
Customs are the most pwerful revenue testing body in the country, they can do what they like even to the point of entering your home without a search warrant.

You'll most probably fail to get around red diesel detection, and if you do get caught they will take away your car and destroy it

Having said that, you'd be very unlucky to be caught .... when was the last time you saw a RFTU road block

My son is a diesel mechanic for Scania and they have a lot of problems with trucks coming in that are being run on biofuel so just be careful -if its not mixed correctly when its made it turns to like a jelly substance in cold weather

Hes just said if you do use it change the fuel filters every 2000 mile - only recommendeds to use it if you have a bosch fuel pump like on the Peugeot 306 turbo or Astra 1.7

The chips get caught in the bends in the fuel line. ;-))