FUEL FOR THOUGHT: Mainline Employment in Commercial Road specialises in finding industrial, commercial and driving jobs, and director Stella Godwin said that while the crisis in 2000 had not been easy the firm had found a secret weapon a man with a gas-operated car.
Miss Godwin said: "We employed him for a while to pick up drivers and take them to companies. It got us into a few companies for the first time and it was very useful.
"But overall, even though a lot of temps cycle to work and don't have cars themselves, and we could have some people working from home, another petrol crisis would cause chaos.
"It's frightening how reliant everyone is on this one thing everything gets affected eventually."
Miss Godwin said temping agencies would pick up custom from companies looking for anyone who could make it to work for the day to fill in for permanent staff prevented from commuting, but would also be hit by the problems of agency staff not being able to travel.
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