The Road Haulage Association (RHA) warned that the 1st April fuel duty increase may lead to an estimated 20,000 job cuts and force hundreds of haulage companies to close down.

The AA said that unleaded fuel could soon increase to over £1.20 a litre even though the price of oil is just about half its peak level.

Angry motoring groups are urging Chancellor Alistair Darling to delay his planned 3p petrol duty hike, which translates to over £1,100 additional cost per year per vehicle for a haulage company, according to the RHA.

AA president Edmund King said: “We are barely out of recession, yet petrol prices threaten to rise to record prices seen during the boom of 2008 – shortly before the collapse into recession. If families, drivers on fixed incomes and those on low pay were unable to cope with record prices then, they are even less likely now.”

The fuel duty rise means many haulage companies will have to cut jobs

The RHA chief executive said: “The Chancellor is screwing our industry. Our members’ customers will simply not take any more price increase – we could end up losing work because of it.”

An industry watchdog predicted that even if the 3p increase was withdrawn, the price paid on average by drivers could soon hit £1.20 a litre which would be higher than the previous UK high of £1.19 of July 2008.

Iulian Breazu, 24, a Romanian lorry driver, became an internet sensation after the video clip of him dancing while driving driving his lorry with his feet was uploaded to youtube. His video clip has been watched by millions.

Iulian Breazu driving with his feet

After the video clip was uploaded, copies have been watched by traffic police throughout Europe and they have been trying to track him down.

Last week, finally, his license was taken by authorities in his native Romania – when he was caught driving at more than double the drink drive limit. Traffic police in Sibiu, Romania has confiscated his license for 90 days and ordered him to take a safety test before he could get it back. We are astonished that this is all he was punished, certainly here in the UK you would be looking at a lifetime ban and jail time.

One police officer said: “He has clearly had it coming and the road is a safer place without him on it.”

The driver, who worked for a local haulage company, horrified thousands of road users with his video clip of himself dancing around his truck cab.

For those who have not seen it yet, this is the video clip mentioned:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfF95PjAG4Q]

We hope that none of the removal companies who use Shiply employ similar staff to these two!

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo3ohNxEGkM]

Lindsay Fox is probably one of the most famous truck drivers in the world, as he’s made a fortune being a trucker. Fox, 72, dropped out of school when he was 16 and started his trucker’s career.

Lindsay Fox is the 10th richest man in Austrlia

Now he’s worth $1.5 billion and ranks No. 10 amongst Australia’s 40 Richest Men. Fox’s company Linfox operates in different industries with Linfox Logistics being the biggest division with 5,000 truck drivers.

Last year, amid the global economic downturn, it was estimated that Linfox made about $100 million profit. Not only famous for building an empire from trucking jobs, Fox has also been running a safety campaign for several years to reduce haulage accidents.

Lindsay Fox also owns Melbourne’s second and third biggest airports and Armaguard, a cash-transport business with $3 billion revenue in 2009.

When being asked why he’s been so successful, Fox said: “It’s a people business. Personal relationships are always the key to good business. You can buy networking, you can’t buy friendships.”

We bet you’ve seen Rally Car drivers drift many times as that’s what they do for a living.

Shiply were last night delighted to have achieved the runner up spot in this year’s Shell Springboard competition. Out of 6 national finalists and hundreds of entrants, Shiply came in second to HiMag Solutions who innovated a planar transformer which could dramatically increase energy efficiency in electrical devices across the world.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/syndication?id=34690024&path=%2Fnews%2Fweird

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