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Reports that oil supply is falling could mean swapping the Fiat Bravo for a Sony Bravia in the future, says the Insider
The only time I get to read the foreign newspages without being accused of shirking is when the headline mentions oil. I've been reading the newspaper a lot recently.
From what I can gather, we're staring into a future where oil is so scarce, I'm going to be lubricating the grandkids' bike chains with butter. Forget global warming, it'll be the increasing competition for ever-dwindling crude that'll dictate future fleet transport habits, or so it seems.
The price of oil has doubled this year and the £1 litre is now almost casually accepted, which is scary when you consider what a ruckus it caused just a few years ago. That doubling could be down to oil speculators, just one of the many evil breeds of money-hound lurking in the City, but it could also be because we've reached Peak Oil. Whether we have extracted exactly half of all the world's oil is up for debate, but I do seem to be regularly reading claims by experts that we're now teetering at the top.
Of course that price could just be a blip. Back in 1998 the (inflation-adjusted) price of a barrel of oil was just $9. In December 1979 it was higher than it is now: dead-on $100 (again, inflation adjusted). Back then, however, China and India were protectionist, isolationist, socialist and plain anti-social. Now they're not and are gobbling oil as they figure out how the world works.
“From what I can gather, we're staring into a future where oil is so scarce, I'm going to be lubricating the grandkids' bike chains with butter.” |
The Insider |
Anyhow, my thoughts aren't all that global. I'm worried that as a company we're going to be enslaved by the oil giants and their spiralling fuel prices. I worry that I should be doing something right now.
I do think we could be driving less. After all, wouldn't fewer company cars driving less miles solve not just the problem of rising fuel, but all fleet problems, like safety, duty of care to drivers, insurance, tyre wear etc etc? In place of the car we'd throw ourselves at technology. Pile the latest camera and flat-screen video-conferencing gadgetry onto both the workforce and the clients. The clients can use the equipment anyway they like, just as long as we get a couple of hours with them a fortnight.
And, like the car, there'd be an overlap between work and private use, so it'd be seen as a perk among the staff. Get a free telly, webcam and 100MB bandwidth to use as you like when not on company time. That stuff has overtaken cars as a leisure interest for most people anyway. Instead of the Fiat Bravo, a Sony Bravia. Wonder what the residuals are like for flat-screen tellys?
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