Accc Is At It Again - No More Heavy Fuel Discounts

[Lolrick]

So I got around to reading Go Auto news today (yes, it's not the most reputable publishing, but it gets emailed directly to me at work).

Turns out that a few days ago, Coles and Woolworths agreed to cease heavy discounts on fuel, as other companies were unable to compete as they did not have separate arms of business to draw the losses from. As a result, Coles and Woolworths have agreed to limit all discounts to 4 cents per litre.

I am absolutely astounded that, after all this time spent 'investigating' pump price cycle, price gauging, collusion, and generally having no correlation to Singapore oil prices (even if hedged months in advance), the ACCC have only succeeded in removing predictable price cycles (i.e. we knew Tuesday was the cheapest day to fill up, now it's russian roulette) and to now reduce the discounts that consumers get.

Further, these discount dockets only seemed to recover the amount that was artificially inflated by the scheme at the pumps - meaning the consumers have once again been left to bear the prices without protection.

I don't mind paying the taxes on fuel (45% or so) but I'm getting pretty tired of the manipulation of pump prices, and the lack of positive action by the ACCC/Fuel Commission.

Article link: http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mellor.nsf/story2/0280BC0B01715E58CA257C39002350B1

[niZmO_Man]

Well, I drove to one Shell on Monday night, $1.50/L for E10. Drove 5 minutes to another one, $1.44/L for E10. Filled up 95RON for $1.57/L (the latter Shell didn't have 98, was in my Mum's 2012 Corolla). The earlier Shell had 98 for $1.70/L.

Go figure.

[Lolrick]

Go figure.

That's the problem, don't think anyone can figure it out! haha

[niZmO_Man]

While I was in the Netherlands, the price of petrol remained pretty consistent across the whole country.

[Piggaz]

While I was in the Netherlands, the price of petrol remained pretty consistent across the whole country.

What? They didn't take into consideration "transportation" costs? Lol. Silly them!

[mad082]

i used to bitch about the price of fuel, but these days i don't see the point. the profit margins in fuel is low compared to many other things (like bottled water). sure fuel will never be what it was 10 years ago, and it's silly to think it would be. inflation alone can be used to account for about 30c of the price difference from then to now. not to mention that it's still much cheaper than fuel in europe.

as for servos varying prices within a few minutes of each other, you have to take into account the running costs of the servos. ever seen rent prices of houses vary by large amounts even though they are only 5 minutes away in another suburb? well the same goes for commercial property.

but the servos i pass everyday don't fluctuate the way some do. some haven't changed their prices in weeks. others will vary by a cent or 2 maybe once a week. but i have seen some odd price differences between towns. i work in noosa and live in gympie, so i see prices in gympie, noosa and cooroy everyday. noosa and cooroy are generally similar in price. gympie will sometimes be the same, other times i've seen it vary by up to about 8c a litre. it will generally go in cycles that last a few months. so for a few months gympie may be 5c a litre cheaper, then there will be some price volatility and after that settles down gympie will be 5 or 6 cents more than noosa/cooroy (more being that noosa/cooroy will have dropped their prices and gympie has stayed somewhat the same). but there is one exception to all this. there is one servo in town that is currently about 10-12c a litre cheaper than every other servo in town, and has been for quite a while now. i had also heard rumours that there was also a servo in town whose bowsers were inaccurate by around 5% or so and it was thought to be that servo, which would roughly make up for the difference in price.

[Birds]

lol bottled water. Bottled water in Vietnam is 50 cents for a 1.5 litre bottle of La Vie, and that's not the cheapest price either.

Here it's just ridiculous. Must confess though, when I order food from a fast food joint I generally get a bottle of water as the drink cause I don't really like the 2 cents worth of fake coke they would otherwise sell you.

[Cherry Racer]

What bothers me is that Shell would appear to be approx 4 cents above others so if u don't have a voucher you're really paying 4 cents over the normal/retail price.