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FUEL tanker drivers were set to launch a four-day strike early today – halting petrol supplies to 1,000 garages.

Shell pumps – one in ten in the UK – were expected to run dry within 24 hours.

The walkout came after drivers’ union Unite turned down a pay deal. Haulage firms Hoyer UK and Suckling Transport said workers were offered a 7.3 per cent rise this year and six per cent next – lifting average salaries to £41,500.

Unite was urged to halt the strike and ask members to vote on the deal, but bosses refused.

Assistant general secretary Len McCluskey said pumps would start to run dry “immediately” – and all 1,000 would be hit within a day.

He said Shell made £1.3billion a month, adding: “It is obscene that companies which make enormous profits are not prepared to share that wealth with the workers. We want more.” Shell admitted the strike would cause chaos. A spokesman said: “It is inevitable it will have a significant impact on our stations.”


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PM Gordon Brown urged motorists not to panic-buy after some stations ran out earlier this week.

Business Secretary John Hutton said: “Our advice now is just to buy the fuel you actually need.”

Shadow business secretary Alan Duncan said: “This is very bad news. It will pile pain on people struggling to pay their bills.”

Emergency plans were put in place so 999 services have fuel.

BRIT David Copestake, 40, and son Dylan, 12, feared for their lives when Spanish truckers, protesting at fuel costs, threw rocks at their van doing 70mph near Marbella.

i dont think that the strike will affect many garages by us, we had a tanker delivery yesterday so our garage should be pretty full, the price has also gone up in our garage too because bosses want to cash in on people rushing to buy fuel

were all full up here, steve an iu are pretty lucky that we both COULD walk to work if need be! however dont know what would happen re steves job an deliverys tho x

wish i could walk to work...but i work in Runcorn

all pretty full here too

so are the garage forecourts though

the one in the town centre (shell) is spilling out onto a main road... bloody panic buyers


go a bit further up the road to the other shell garage, business as usual, one or two cars on there.

tony can walk to work but hes too lazy to do that, so we car share atm cos i work in bromborough

carlett park garage is also like that which means i get very busy when ppl are fed up of waiting on their queues

is that the one thats ripping everyone off, or is that further up ?


shell is at 113.9p, but there's one round that area thats more like 120.9p

It'll be interesting to see if the "must look after myself" British public manage to make this into a problem - there's 90% of the petrol stations that are goign to have normal deliveries but everyone goes charging out to but as much as they can cos "you never know"!

It makes me somewhat mad!

(there's 90% of the petrol stations that are goign to have normal deliveries)- we are not getting any deliveries until wednesday when the strike is over!!

yeh the one i am in is rippin everyone off, we are at 117.9pl when i was in yesterday an the one further up the road was at 113.9p, the cheaper one rean out of normal diesel and petrol yesterday and only has v-power, our fuel should last until tomorrow afternoon, depending on how much we sell today then it will besunday morning, i have heard though there will be another strike at the end of the week!!!

only v-power diesel left it the shell by the rock, shell by m53 eastham only has v-power left, BP has put prices up to 118.9p. so some shell garages are still at 117.9 but still have you r normal fuel left

dont bother me, plenty of fuel down here in Ellesmere Port

FUEL tanker drivers who went on strike over pay have formally accepted a 14 per cent wage rise, bringing an end to their bitter dispute, it was announced today.

Unite said its members at Hoyer and Suckling - the two haulage firms which deliver fuel to Shell garages - had overwhelmingly voted in favour of the two-year deal.

Hundreds of drivers staged a four-day walkout over last weekend, hitting supplies to Shell garages across the UK.

Gerry McKenna, lead negotiator for Hoyer welcomed the announcement, adding: "We are pleased our drivers have accepted this competitive pay deal and the threat of industrial action has been lifted."

Unite said its members voted by 453 to 56 in favour of the deal which will give drivers a 9 per cent pay rise this year and a further 5 per cent next year.

The union said the basic pay of drivers will be lifted to £36,000 for a 48-hour week although the companies maintained their average pay will be over £40,000.