Petrol kept flowing

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33806, 1 April 1975, Page 1

Petrol kept flowing

Sporadic petrol deliveries to service stations supplied by Shell Oil New Zealand, Ltd, enabled most of them to weather Easter week-end with little disruption to normal trading.

1 One service station in, Timaru ran dry on Saturday j afternoon but was resupplied: early yesterday and was »ble' [to cope with Easter Monday! r traffic. ' Other stations supplied by l the company were running I; [very low at times over the 1 ' ! week-end but they have either ! been replenished withl: '“enough to go on with,” or l, will be this morning. !, All the deliveries were.: made with 4500 or 5000-gal-|' lon tankers, and these will i be used for normal deliveries’, again today. Tanker drivers are refusing to drive the 6000- I gallon tankers the company ! has introduced because they I want continued payment of a ’ trailer allowance (about $lO t a week). <

I Until the introduction of 16000-gallon tankers, smaller 1 tankers and - trailers were used. The dispute over the trailer allowance has restricted petrol supplies to service stations supplied by Shell, mainly in Mid and South Canterbury. In the Wellington area. 12 i Shell service stations were without petrol, or had “closed anyway” because of a decijsion by tanker drivers not to 1 work during the Easter weekend. the Press Association i reports. A Shell spokesman, Mr J. R. Humphries, said that 12 to 16 drivers were involved in the dispute, which he hoped would end at midnight, when the normal working week started.