Portable diesel containers

[Bru]

Why not buy a 20L black plastic Jerry can designed for diesel? I am never refused white, or even red diesel in that.

20l plastic for diesel is OK and if you're having no probs filling 'em, happy days. But for general consumption, be aware that many forecourts will have standing instructions to the staff to refuse them because their Site Licence stipulates that 20l containers must be metal without differentiating between petrol and diesel. The staff also may not be able to easily ascertain whether you're filling with petrol or diesel (yep, daft though it is, the pump authorisation system at BP, for example, does not indicate whether the customer is filling with petrol or diesel)

The rules on Petrol are strange. Our club uses a lot of petrol for the RIB's. They claim they investigated the law and although you can only buy petrol in 5L containers, .

Wrong. You can legally buy, and on a standard licence a forecourt can legally dispense, petrol into approved 5l and 10l plastic containers and 20l metal containers

there is no limit on how many,

Wrong again - see previous posts about Site Petroleum Licences (* but see below) and ADR regulations (the regs about dangerous goods in vehicles) stipulate a maximum of 60l in portable fuel containers (quite a lot in the boot of a car!)

Another issue is that you can only store a maximum of 30l of petrol on non-commercial premises without informing your local Petrol Enforcement Agency. You can store up to 275l if you inform the PEA and they are happy with your storage arrangements

so they regularly take a boot full of 5L petrol containers to the local garage and fill them all in one go.

Good luck to them

* Of note, and something I've only become aware of this morning, is that the licensing regime is in the process of change to a certification scheme under the new consolidated legislation and it would appear, from a fairly brief read, that the new certificates will not contain site specific conditions. Of particular note is that it appears that the new certificate will not stipulate the number of containers that can be filled. Don't expect much if any change in policy at the big chain forecourts though as they are unlikely to change their own rules in a hurry and it will take time to filter through as the new certificates only come in at a site when the existing licence expires

 

[RichardS]

I regularly take my 6 x 20L metal Jerry cans to the garage, line them all up on the forecourt, and then load the 120L of diesel into the boot ...... and no-one ever bats an eyelid.

Mind you, this is in Croatia.

Richard

 

[lw395]

I tend to syphon fuel out of the motorbikes instead of making the effort to take a can to the garage.
Shame it's not as trivial to extract diesel from the car.

 

[blxm]

Thread drift warning ......
The ability to fill cans on a forecourt seem to be patchy al over the place. I race an old car and so often need to fill jerry cans of petrol. Mostly ok around the uk but some garages won't allow it.
Was quite amused to be refused petrol into locking 20l Jerry can at a Garage close to silverstone, as were the other 5 racers. I then asked if I could put fuel direct into the race car 'yes, but you will need to remove it from the trailer first'!
Gave up at that point and went to another garage as did everyone else.

 

[davidpbo]

.......... I then asked if I could put fuel direct into the race car 'yes, but you will need to remove it from the trailer first'!
Gave up at that point and went to another garage as did everyone else.

Any reason given?

 

[blxm]

Any reason given?

Only allowed to fill tanks on a car that is on the ground. If it is on a trailer it is not a 'car', apparently. Its not the fault of the staff to be honest. There are a set of rules that they need to follow. I must confess that I have used the same supplier at other forecourts without problem so I assume there is some discretion but from what the other post have suggested it is not a legal issue. In nearly 20 years of racing with 6-10 meetings per year I can only recall being refused 3 times so its not a common problem. I would, however, be a more reluctant to do this if the fuel was stored in the boot of a car. Diesel I cant see a problem but I doubt forecourt staff would make a distinction.

 

[Bru]

Can't think of a single good reason to refuse to allow the filling of a car on an open trailer (different matter if it's one of those enclosed jobbies though. That, along with filling cans in the boot or portable equipment in the back of a van is a no no)