boxst

Hello

I was driving along the A22 this morning and the Police were pulling over vans and what looked like checking thier fuel? There was a HM Customs & Excise van there as well. Are you not allowed to use certain fuel?

Just wondered as it seemed odd to me.

Steve

andys

looking for red diesel?

scoobyverysoon

iTrader: (1)

Defo sounds like it

Tam the bam

Or maybe trying to catch people using cooking oil who haven't registered and paying tax to do so?

boxst

I obviously live in my own little world -- as I didn't know about either of those things!

Steve

Markus

My first thought would usually be that they are checking for Red Diesel, however, it would not shock me at all if they were cracking down on cooking oil usage, can't have the government losing out on revenue now can we.

TopBanana

I thought you could use cooking oil now for personal use (up to a few thousand litres a year)

Leslie

More likely red diesel, some lorries used to have a double fuel tank one with white diesel in it, but you cant get rid of the dye in the fuel filters.

Les

lovinmescoob

Cooking oil - Pretty sure it's around 2500 ltrs/year for personnal use!

As said, probabally looking for Red diesel.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

I think they should change the law to allow us to use red diesel. After all, regular diesel is taxed at a punitive level because of all the nasty CO2 it generates... clearly red diesel must be less polluting.

Either that or Government policy is inconsistent...

GC8WRX

I ws watching some police programme the other night, and on the motorway they had 4 massive marquees in a service station, they were randomly pulling cars in for a fuel test, emission test, tyre tread test, drug search with a dog, and all sorts of ****. Not good if you run a decatted car, or red diesel.

There were at least 20 coppers there, and 5 vosa experts, and they caught ten people all day!

All those resources, and they caught two red diesel offenders, seven no taxers, and one car with 4 keys of coke under the passenger seat!

I wish the goverment and the police would leave motorists alone, and concentrate on the real problems in this world, like theiving smackheads, or kids carrying knives, but they have no money, so if they are fined they cant pay it, so they are of no use to our money makers....... i mean police force!

coolangatta

A very sensible post with really good point!
Please stop targeting drivers who are conceived as 'the evil'.
There are much bigger fish to fry, just might take a little more effort

scoobynutta555

You're allowed 2,500 litres a year for personal usage before you have to worry about fuel duty. They changed the law last year, it was previously illegal. It might be hard to convince customs you're running on oil for personal use in a liveried van though

I run my Pajero on cooking oil.

Leslie

Quite right, bring back some real punishment that they don't what to undergo again too.

Les

jonc

It's because, motorists are everywhere and are easy targets that can generate revenue. Try forcibly getting money out a knife wielding kid or smack head. That would be an abuse of their "human rights"!

ScoobyWon't

Lately with all the fuss being made by local councils about not being able to afford to fuel bin lorries etc I don't see why the givernment don't let the local authorities run their vehicles on red deisel, thus removing the need for another rise in council tax. It could be applied to the emeergency services too so we aren't shelling out even more to keep them on the road.

Tam the bam

You still have to register and prove how much you are using though, don't you?

scoobynutta555

taken from the Customs website:
That says to me you don't have to register unless you think you'll use more than 2,500 litres a year. The keeping of receipts is all you have to do for your records.

TelBoy

Sorry to be ignorant, but what do you use cooking oil instead of, and can you tell any difference?

scoobynutta555

Instead of diesel. The only difference in summer is that it smells of cooked oil rather than diesel. During colder days I've read you may need a few gos at starting as the veg oil is thicker than diesel.

Some run diesel engines using only veg oil, or a mix of petrol and diesel.

The oil I'm currently using comes in 15l tubs from ASDA's and is 97p a litre, I'm sure COSTCO etc would be cheaper.

Evil Twin of Tarquin

It's used instead of diesel tel.

You basically clean it and, for want of a better word, distill it. Bob's you uncle, fanny's your aunt and billy's your best mate - cheap fuel.

scoobynutta555

SVO straight veg oil bought from shops you simply pour into the tank tirect as I do. WVO (waste veg oil) is the used stuff you get from chip shops you have to distill etc.

scoobyverysoon

iTrader: (1)

what mod to the engine do you need to do to use veg oil ?

scoobynutta555

Depends on what car it is. As a general rule of thumb any pre 99 diesel with a BOSCH fuel pump should be good to go without doing anything, ie a 306 d turbo. You may have to replace the fuel filter after a few hundred miles as the veg cleans all the crap out.

Newer engines may be a different story, like Golf gt tdis for example.

billythekid

The best oil is rape seed oil from what I have been told.

Our vehciles (HGVs) are stopped on a regular basis at VOSA check points to check for red diesel, not ever a problem but I can see why they do it as red is currently 60p/l vs 110p/l (ex vat of course).

andy97

iTrader: (1)

I believe that it would be difficult to prosecute if the vehicle has more than one user. How would you know what someone else has put in the tank.

TelBoy

Also, if you got caught using veggie oil, how do the police know if you're on your 20th or 2,000th litre if you don't have to declare anything up to 2,500 litres? Can't you just claim it is the first time you've used it? Ok you might only have one chance with that one, but what's to stop you?

scoobynutta555

They don't know that's the beauty

Felix.

If you re-act it with methanol and Sodium Hydroxide, all the glycerides and gunk sink to the bottom leaving you with bio-diesel which should work in any diesel car

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

£120'000 worth of coke sounds like a good bust to me.