ABSTRACT
In many parts of the United Kingdom (UK), the problems caused by rising fuel costs were being compounded by driver shortages, leading to increased labour costs, recruiting costs and extensive use of agency labour. This chapter presents the findings of a survey of 240 UK operators' responses to the fuel crisis, conducted in May 2001. It also reviews the range of fuel saving interventions in use or under consideration by these operators, and discusses the extent to which these will help to keep costs under control. There were rather more third party sector respondents than own account respondents, roughly in line with each sector's share of the road freight transport market. The dominance of larger fleets in the survey is reflected in the fact that most respondents' companies hold stocks of fuel, purchased in bulk from suppliers. Almost two-thirds of those surveyed reported that the fuel blockades had impacted on their business operations in one way or another.
