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One of the areas of industry that I think people need to be putting more focus on is the spiralling cost of fuel. At the moment oil is $85 a barrel, and the average price of diesel is above £1.20 a litre. The average yearly cost at the moment to fill a standard delivery vehicle stands at £33,000, and is going up throughout the course of the year.

If the price of oil continues to rise this year we could be paying £1.40 a litre for petrol or diesel, maybe even more than that. The oil companies are blaming a struggling currency for rising oil prices, despite oil being much lower than it’s peak of $147 a barrel. In the future, due to increased transport costs, we can all expect the cost of everything to rise. This includes food, clothes, public transport costs, and of course PVCu frames. While this is going on, haulage companies will struggle even more to keep their businesses afloat. Imagine the yearly cost of keeping your trucks on the road if it costs £33,000 if you have only one, now imagine the scenario if you have 10, 12 or even more.

In five years time we are going to rich the peak point where the demand for oil starts to out-run the supply of it. When it gets to that point we can expect the price of oil and therefore fuel to go through the roof. What we need to be doing now is to plough more time, funding and effort into hydrogen fuel technologies, and to try to find a way to make the lorries more energy efficient, otherwise transport could start to splutter into great difficulties.