After all there is something comic about farm vehicles in cities delivering small girls in straw hats to the doors of their day schools.

ECONOMIST: Sport-utility vehicles

"It is very upsetting- it has been horrific ever since Friday - we have had 10ft snow drifts and the lanes are simply not passable, even with the farm vehicles, " he said.

BBC: Isle of Man snow: Manx farmers face 'catastrophic loss'

And the list of products potentially affected is long: mowers, tillers, pressure washers, blowers, trimmers, chainsaws, generator sets, mixers, loaders, pump units, backhoes, forklifts, farm vehicles, motorbikes, go-carts, all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles, inboard and outboard motoboats and heavy-duty trucks.

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Nearly all tractor-trailers, delivery vehicles, buses, trains, ships, boats and barges, farm, construction and military vehicles and equipment run on diesel fuel.

FORBES: Magazine Article

These outlays are wasteful and mostly benefit better-off people who own vehicles, or farm large plots of land.

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On the outskirts of the town, down a rough track, a cavalcade of armoured military vehicles and police pick-up trucks have come to a stop next to a small farm.

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