Cheaper juice?
Fuel for our motorhome engines is jaw-droppingly expensive now. When filling up a US RV recently, I was asked (not for the first time) to pay in instalments. The pump automatically shut off when it had dispensed £100 worth of juice. The cashier demanded payment for the first instalment before she would be kind enough to reset the pump, when I could continue to fill my 65gal tank. Presumably the fact that it
was a petrol pump (and therefore not on the HGV
side) had something to do with it. Anyway, the pump’s automatic shut-off presented only a minor grievance when compared to the price-per-litre of the fuel.
Enter Ben Scammell, who has some interesting ideas on his Pipeline Card website.
He suggests that if a large number of us club together and give our custom to one major forecourt chain, we could negotiate a substantial discount for ourselves. Thousands have already signed up (it’s absolutely free) and Pipeline is currently in talks with a national petrol and diesel retailer. The scheme has the support of Martin Lewes - telly and radio’s Money Saving Expert - and the Pipeline Card site’s founder is well known both as a campaigner for cheaper fuel in the UK and as a motoring enthusiast. It may not work, but what have you got to lose?
At least visit the scheme’s website and make your own mind up about it. I’ve joined and so have many of my colleagues and friends. However, common sense tells me that a realistic discount would be in the region of 5p per litre, because the majority of fuel’s steep price is comprised of tax. So don’t expect to fill up for a fiver!
Dig for victory
Wondering about how to entertain the children this year? If you are, I can
highly recommend a trip to Diggerland. It’s every child’s dream to drive a proper digger and now, thanks to H E Services (digger hire), we all can… that is those of us over five years of age. Kyle (age nine) and me (age over-21) had a whale of a time.
Such has been the popularity of the original Diggerland, there are now a further two: one in Kent and another in Devon. We went to the original in Langley, County Durham, and stayed in Fenland Drifter (our motorcaravan) at the recently refurbished Grange Caravan Club site. Diggerland is open all week during school holidays and just at the weekends the rest of the year.
Fresh aires
Requests from Joanna Handley and John Stordy echoed the sentiments of others. After seeing a guide to Aires de Service reviewed in my column, (‘A Bunch of Five…’ Practical Motorhome Sept ‘05) they found that they couldn’t obtain a copy from the source quoted.
Well, the UK demand far outstripped that anticipated, and supplies dried up. The guide’s details were subsequently removed from specialist bookshops’ websites.
The 2005 edition went out of print last summer. The guide has been updated and ‘Le Guide Officiel 2006 Aires de Services’ should be in the UK from the beginning of April, and will be available from Camping Connections. Full contact details are given in the Info box at the end of this month’s column.The
price has been confirmed as £9.75 including postage and packaging, and a cheque for this amount should accompany your order.
Please note that they are unable to accept telephone orders or payment by credit card. Be aware that Camping Connections is a small,
hands-on travel and tourism consultancy. So, if you phone with a query when the principals are working in France, you may have to
leave your details on an answering machine.
Before you ask, I have already given away my 2005 inspection copy to a reader. Perhaps I should have put it on eBay instead?
The full ramblings can be found in the March 2006 issue of Practical Motorhome
Happy motorhoming!
Jack Bancroft |
