The cost of Fuel

I know we're all aware of how expensive fuel is getting (i saw $179.95 last friday), what i want to know is how you guys are going to get around it- i live next to Asquith station, so i'll be catching the train to and from work, and possibly college to cut down on costs- what ideas do you lot have to save fuel?

further to the above:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/14/2302863.htm?section=justin

Things could get a lot worse soon!

Glenjamin wrote:(i saw $179.95 last friday)

Sweet Enola Gay, son. $180?! Was the petrol station made of solid gold?! Did you have to own a rocket-car to get access?! Things are worse than I suspected... I gotta say, there's very little you can do to counter that sort of price - short of buying a donkey. But what is for certain is that there is no stopping them. And I for one welcome our new millionaire pump-station overlords, and remind them that I am all too willing to toil away in their... underground... sugar caves...

That's all I got.

I think high fuel prices are the slap in the face this stupid country needed.

Maybe now we'll stop designing our society around cars and hire a town planner or two. I think Europe might have some.

To be fair, our country is fecking huge with very few people. It's cars or put trains EVERYWHERE.

We are the most urbanised country in the world too. (I think)
We could stop building dormitory suburbs with 1/4 acre blocks and pretty winding roads (which would help with other problems too) and try intergrating residential and work areas more. Thats just an example for my 'why have we never had town planners' thingie. I could rant for a while about how intelligent town planning could solve a fuckload of our problems.

I've read a few articles in the paper which mad me think. Well.. good.

eg. A family bitching about how much it cost them to drive their kids to school, sport etc. and about how the dad now car pools to work. Their cars? A Commodore and a Landcruiser...

Another one about two people and how the price rises affected them. The dumb bitch was saying how she now has to plan her driving, such as doing her grocery shopping on the way home from work. WTF wasn't she already doing that?
The other one was about a young guy who now rides or walks to work. Good for him. It turns out that it is a 6min ride or 20min walk. WTF wasn't he already walking to work?

Yeah, people are way too stupid.

I too have recently heard talk about the impending importance of de-centralising (?) the cities and such. This guy on the radio was talking about having hub-offices dispersed throughout the suburban areas, offices which weren't devoted to any specific company but open to anyone who just needed a computer to do work, which a large portion of jobs are becoming. I thought this was really interesting, but one of the problems was that this country has such a poor networking infrastructure that it limits this possibility (yeah there's the size argument for this as well but I don't know if it excuses just how far behind we are).

Interesting idea but the kind of jobs that can be done soley on computers over the internet etc can be done at home. That would make more sense.

My sister switched to working from Home after she had her 2nd child- prior to that she half 'n' halfed (half her days at home, half at the office). the major problem was that although she was the head of advertising for wheel chair sports (quite a large organisation) they had to wait 6 months (roughly) for a government grant in order to upgrade her home connection... since then things have been sweet, but she's setup a clock-in system to keep herself accountable (not something the org asked her to do), which means she isn't rorting the org.

anyway, the point of this post is to ask- wouldn't it be simpler if such a punch in punch out system was easily accessed for companies wanting to allow staff to work from home? how good would it be if you could know that every staff member who worked from home was actually working ?

Andrew.C wrote: our new millionaire pump-station overlords

I hope i did ^ that right!

most station owners aren't making that much out of each tank- When i worked at BP, the majority of the profit came from fuel purchases over 80L (fairly rare) and shop purchases (very common).

That's why they push so many deals! so much of what the companies charge is lost on tax- one manager told me it was like 75% (but he was probably making that up!), so for stores that stay open late, or even 24hrs- petrol isn't the real money maker... it's the mars bar or stick of gum you buy with your fuel.

the real Overlords are these buggers:

www.opec.org

no wonder countries like Venezuela are wanting to setup their own National agencies to control oil reserves... speaking of Venezuela Miss Universe 2008 is a Venezuelan!

Trizender wrote:the kind of jobs that can be done soley on computers over the internet etc can be done at home. That would make more sense.

Good point, and he did address this. The thing with working from home is that you don't... As Glen described below and such, is that it's really difficult to work from home; even if you're single and young, not to mention if you have a family with perhaps a small child and house chores and such, there's going to be distractions. Combined with the fact that most people don't really have an office but just a room with a computer in it and so don't have all the necessary equipment that might be required. Also the fact that you can communicate with others at the office who may be able to share information and skills.

I think it's been shown irrefutably that work efficiency goes up 1000% if you are in the office rather than at home, no matter who you are, not necessarily because you're bludging but just because of the distractions.

Glenjamin wrote:petrol isn't the real money maker

Yeah I figured that was probably the case but it didn't fit into my joke.

Glenjamin wrote:Miss Universe 2008 is a Venezuelan!

Speaking of that, I think they made a pretty good decision. Damn.

Andrew.C wrote:The thing with working from home is that you don't...

I think that this is why the punch card system would make it better- it could be setup to monitor your actions- if you're computer is inactive or not looking at approved pages or whatever it would take you off the clock- workers who don't do the required hours get penalised...

or it could punch you out?

Something I read a while ago said that the average office worker does around 2 hours of actual work over an 8 hour shift.... so I don't think a fall in productivity is going to happen regardless of the distractions. You give a person a job and a timeframe to do it in.

I'm a little opposed to the punch card system, mainly on an emotional level, just because it seems distrustful. I would prefer an honour system, though that obviously has problems.

Trizender wrote:the average office worker does around 2 hours of actual work over an 8 hour shift....

Wow. Now I certainly won't pretend that I haven't had my fair share of bludging, but 2 hours! I'd almost consider that criminal. And I gotta say that if that's your attitude to your job then you'd probably do 2 mins work when at home. In fact, your 'work days at home' would probably just be days off...

Still, I think it's a really interesting proposal, and would perhaps help to alleviate the chocking congestion around city centres, which really seems to be less and less a smart thing to have.

I'm not the MOST efficient guy ever, but goddamn, 2 hours is NO WORK.

Trev, I would very much like to hear more on town planning and so on. Start a new thread if you want.

Yes. New thread.

That two hour thing wasn't from a credible source. It was an old issue of Mens Health... which I no longer buy for many reasons.

Marc, I may start a thread ranting about town planning, I may not. We'll see.

What they're probably trying to say is that the average amount of work that an office worker gets done in 8 hours could be done in 2 hours if you knuckle down and do it. It's not so much that they spend time pissfarting around, they just work slowly, talk with colleagues, go to the bathroom, get coffee, look up porn, etc...

As for me, I got myself a motorbike when petrol started getting too expensive, but in September I'll just rely on my sweet free train travel as a police officer. Delicious.

Why does a police officer need free train travel- i can understand the benefit for the train riders (staff, customers, etc) but without trying to be harsh- isn't that a little unfair? and also, aren't you guys no supposed to accept gifts for doing your job?

would this be better as a separate thread?

It's not a gift, exactly. It's a travelpass that all police get. They're only supposed to use it while on duty, though.

oh, that makes sense, but still- the whole gift tag kinda lingers in my mind, and btw nice work on the quotes thread.

Well, that's really your problem, not their fault.

Thank you!

Look at it like this:

I get given a stipend and included with that is a "Transport" allowance. the majority of this is used in petrol (works out to be about $25 a week) and i need to provide receipts for usage, but if i switched it to train fare then i'd still need to provide a receipt (i.e. the ticket). This keeps me accountable for my usage, accountable to the parishioners who's donations pay my wages and the senior minister who authorizes my pay.

Who's keeping the police accountable in this setup?

Themselves/other cops/station guards, in theory.

In practice, even if they abuse it, I don't see a huge problem with State-paid employees using a State-funded service for free.

I did ready anything in this thread befour this line

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But I can remember when petrol was about 90c...