Refuelling a Coach

Thanks for all the nice comments after my last couple of posts. Yes cleaning out the coach can be a bit of a pain but not as much a pain as refuelling the bloody thing. The company have a Shell fuel card and the nearest Shell Fuel Station is the one just past the Gasworks in Paignton and it is a bit of a struggle to get to the pump. It is also a bit of a struggle to get out. An other problem I had never come across before is the fact that the pump will only deliver 99.5 litres at one go. Never having put that much fuel in a vehicle before (Stagecoach have someone to do that sort of thing) I didn't know this little fact and the first time I went I managed to get the filler next to the pump, must have travelled about half a kilometre moving the coach back and forward, I put the nozzle in and held the handle and waited, and waited, and waited some more. After a couple of hours, OK it just seemed like a couple of hours, the fuel cut off activated, the tank was full. Or so I thought. I went in the shop, did the paper work and shunted back and forth to get out and headed back to the hotel. Half way there I noticed the fuel gauge was showing less than half full. ( Fuel gauges are new as well, no such things on buses). I rang the full time driver and he explained that I had to put the fuel nozzle back into the pump and start again. So back to the garage for more shunting round and an other 170 litres of derv.

Second time I went in I got two lots of 99.5 litres in, put the nozzle back and tried for a third lot. A voice above my head boomed out, no not God, just the guy in the shop, "You can only do two lots. You have to come in and sign for the fuel you have had then start again." That took a short time compared to continental drift but for ever when you are supposed to have finished work 20 minutes ago and are meeting someone for a well earned pint in the Cider Press in 15 seconds, it took an eternity.