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In defence of diesel
Page 74
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At 1 per litre Peter Lamer feels diesel is still good value for money in his final Logistically Speaking column
This is my last Logistically Speaking column. I've really enjoyed it,but it's a funny medium to work through and! couldn't help wondering whether there was anyone out there, except my three-year-old grandson George, who only looks at the pictures anyway, and really shouldn't be into trucking magazines at his age.
Anyway, I'm going to finish on my old hobbyhorse —pleading the defence for diesel.
I went shopping recently. I bought one litre of diesel and one litre of mineral water.They both cost me £1. Which was the better value for money'? The diesel enabled me to drive the eightmile round trip to get the shopping, and the bottle of water refreshed me when I returned home.
I could have saved El by drinking tap water, but that was my choice. Similarly. I could have saved £1 by walking to the shops. Neither would have caused me any harm, so I could have avoided the cost completely. Half the world's population doesn't have the choice, so I count myself lucky.
Which of the two producers had the more difficult task bringing their product to me? Wellspring water and oil both come from underground.The oil company excavates it from the land, or sea, then transports it around the world to be refined; then it's loaded into a tanker vehicle (owned by Suckling Transport, hopefully) and delivered to a service station. The water goes through a similar process but with less sophisticated equipment.
Both products are subject to intense scrutiny. Health issues surround the distribution of water, while there is a succession of safety procedures applied to the distribution of oil.
So what about value for money? Does it concern me who had the most difficult job producing the goods and getting them to me? Not really; when! choose whether to buy English apples or French ones [don't take account of how far they travelled to get to my local shop —even though I should, if I want to save the planet, which I would like to do for George before I die.
So, what's the best way of judging value for money? If I only had fl would I rather drive to the shops and drink tap water, or walk to the shops and drink spring water? Well it's tap water for me every time —even though! know the walk would do me good.
So, taking all this into consideration, why isn't there a crowd outside the Evian or San Pellegrino production sites protesting about the cost of bottled water?
I'm sorry to be out of step, but actually, taking account of the tax, petrol and diesel are on my list of 'value for money' items, along with my daily newspaper, cheap flights abroad—oh, and Commercial IVIotor.
Anyway, thanks to my regular reader, although I don't think this is goodbye George, just — in the words of Del Boy — Bonjour.