Motoring Discussion > Fuel price fixing in the UK? Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Old Navy Replies: 22
View Threaded 

New Mon 16 May 11 20:51 
 Fuel price fixing in the UK? - Old Navy
As a few of you will know I have recently been in Australia for a few weeks. The price of petrol there varies during the week, Wednesday being the cheapest, weekends up to 20 cents more expensive per litre. Also there is about the same difference between the various retail chains with the prices changing on a daily basis or even more frequently. You can always tell who has the cheapest fuel by the queue onto the road. Local radio tries to keep up with who has the cheapest fuel at any given time. Our local supermarket (UK) dropped its prices by .2 of a penny this week, big deal!
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Mon 16 May 11 20:58 
 Fuel price fixing in the UK? - Dave_
I bought diesel at 142.9p last Thursday, but on Saturday the same garage was selling it at 139.9p - the first drop in price I've seen in 3 months.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Mon 16 May 11 21:00 
 Fuel price fixing in the UK? - mikeyb
Asda down here reduced the price of derv from 139.9 to 135.9 at the end of last week
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Mon 16 May 11 21:13 
 Fuel price fixing in the UK? - Skip
I noticed that where i live in Kent, petrol and diesel are the same price at most of the garages - £1.36 a litre.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Mon 16 May 11 21:06 
 Fuel price fixing in the UK? - Stuu
My sister has lived there a while now and she said its part of everyday life, they always fill up on Weds but then they have a petrol Camry which drinks like a fish, albeit cheaper plonk than we have here.

Dont think its price fixing there and I dont think a steady price here is fixing, its what people charge and the way the market works in two different countries.

Id rather like a cheap petrol day mid-week though, be nice, but its just a gimmick like the 5p off vouchers from Tesco. You have to spend £50 in store to get them - is that a 'fix' or marketing?
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Mon 16 May 11 21:16 
 Fuel price fixing in the UK? - Zero
Pricing fixing goes on in the UK, tho its called "competition"

Tesco set the price locally, and all the other garages match it. The Tescos here has learned to keep it high locally.

If I drive out the "tesco" area I am into the Sainsbury area where its 1.5p a litre cheaper.

Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Mon 16 May 11 22:09 
 Fuel price fixing in the UK? - Dave_
>> Id rather like a cheap petrol day mid-week though

The BP across the road from Tesco in Ashby has two "discount fuel" days a week.

Most of the time their prices are 2p/litre more than Tesco. On the discount days (different two days each week, never advertised in advance) they are 1p/litre cheaper.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Mon 16 May 11 at 22:10
Reply to this message | Report message
      1  
New Mon 16 May 11 21:25 
 Fuel price fixing in the UK? - ....
I was thinking about this on Friday afternoon as I was driving through Holland. Every single service station on the motorway was charging exactly the same price for diesel, 138.9, regardless of brand. Petrol was an eye watering 174.9 a litre.

Thought it odd they were all the same price to the tenth of a cent.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Mon 16 May 11 22:42 
 Fuel price fixing in the UK? - Dutchie
Thats why a lot of them drive on LPG gas .

The only problem is using gas, drivers pay extra tax.Nearly 1.75 a litre is expensive.for petrol.

Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Mon 16 May 11 23:20 
 Fuel price fixing in the UK? - Harleyman
Diesel always drops in the summer. The oil companies' usual excuse is that during the summer there's less demand from the septics for kerosene heating oil.

This is usually balanced by an increase in unleaded, explained by a statement that it's the "start" of the American "driving season"; as if they ever stop!
Reply to this message | Report message
      1  
New Tue 17 May 11 08:56 
 Fuel price fixing in the UK? - Old Navy
While I realise that with the majority of the UK fuel price being tax and VAT on tax there is less room for price competition. If other countries can manage price variations of up to 20 cents a litre on a daily basis between retail outlets we must be able to have some competition on prices. Even oil price tracking would be nice, I believe that the oil companies will charge the maximum they can without consumption falling, and the government has a vested interest in high prices to increase the tax take.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Tue 17 May 11 09:39 
 Fuel price fixing in the UK? - John H
>> While I realise that with the majority of the UK fuel price being tax and
>> VAT on tax there is less room for price competition. If other countries can manage
>> price variations of up to 20 cents a litre on a daily basis between retail
>> outlets we must be able to have some competition on prices. Even oil price tracking
>> would be nice, I believe that the oil companies will charge the maximum they can
>> without consumption falling, and the government has a vested interest in high prices to increase
>> the tax take.
>>

How much is 20 cents as a percentage of the pump price?

As you say, petrol cost the in UK has a large element of duty and tax.
www.petrolprices.com/price-of-petrol.html
Of the £1.37/litre, the product cost is about 50p/litre.

That 50p/litre is influenced by
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crack_spread and
www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/feature_articles/2003/gasolinepass/gasolinepass.htm

Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Tue 17 May 11 09:45 
 Fuel price fixing in the UK? - Mike Hannon
Prices here have come down 4 or 5 cents a litre in the last few days. Prices always seem to be fixed locally although, oddly enough, they tend to go down a bit before bank holidays instead of up.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Tue 17 May 11 10:21 
 Fuel price fixing in the UK? - Old Navy
>> How much is 20 cents as a percentage of the pump price?
>>

Pump price AUD $1.37 / 55, about 80p / £1.00
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Tue 17 May 11 10:39 
 Fuel price fixing in the UK? - John H
20 Aus cents as percentage of Aus $1.37 = 14.6%

That is a big variation on a day!

Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Tue 17 May 11 11:06 
 Fuel price fixing in the UK? - Old Navy
You can understand why there are queues onto the road while the prices are down at any filling station.

One thing I found usefull was the pumps have the facility to select an amount of fuel required in $. I always fill the car in the UK, but my hire car had to be returned half full.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Tue 17 May 11 14:58 
 Fuel price fixing in the UK? - Bill Payer
I notice in Florida, about this time last year, that fuel varied from around $2.80 to $3.10 per (US, obviously) gallon.

What was weird was that garages across the street from each other could be at either extreme of price, and that price seemed to have no bearing on how busy the place was.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Tue 17 May 11 17:33 
 Fuel price fixing in the UK? - Dave_
>> the pumps have the facility to select an amount of fuel required in $

That sounds neat. Do you mean you pre-selected an amount before dispensing fuel, or just that the pumps registered delivery by the cent and not by the 0.01 litre?

One of the more annoying things (if you like round numbers) is when a pump jumps straight from £39.99 to £40.01, something which happens to me more frequently now fuel is substantially over £1/litre.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Tue 17 May 11 18:24 
 Fuel price fixing in the UK? - Old Navy
>> >> the pumps have the facility to select an amount of fuel required in $
>>
>> That sounds neat. Do you mean you pre-selected an amount before dispensing fuel, or just
>> that the pumps registered delivery by the cent and not by the 0.01 litre?
>>
>> One of the more annoying things (if you like round numbers) is when a pump
>> jumps straight from £39.99 to £40.01, something which happens to me more frequently now fuel
>> is substantially over £1/litre.
>>

The pumps have a keypad and display similar to a calculator, you enter the amount of fuel you require in dollars, and the pump supplies that amount exactly. You then pay as you would in the UK. They also have a facility for card payment at the pump. You can see the type of pump on this page (scroll down). The prices shown are out of date.

tinyurl.com/5s4dffm
Last edited by: Old Navy on Tue 17 May 11 at 18:27
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Tue 17 May 11 20:01 
 Fuel price fixing in the UK? - Stuu
Pumps at my local Tesco have the select amount facility if you want it, just people dont actually pay any attention at the pump. Instructions on how to use it too.
Last edited by: FoR on Tue 17 May 11 at 20:02
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Tue 17 May 11 20:35 
 Fuel price fixing in the UK? - mikeyb
Went in a Sainsburys that had the facility to select a round amount. Think it was either Reading or Bracknel
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Tue 17 May 11 20:47 
 Fuel price fixing in the UK? - -
LPG has much wider differences than the normal fuels, i pay 70ppl at an indy, but it varies between 68 at indies and 81ppl at main road garages, which percentage wide is quite a lot.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Fri 20 May 11 08:53 
 Fuel price fixing in the UK? - Old Navy
This morning Sky News is reporting that although the oil price has dipped there is little change in retail fuel prices. Big surprise !
Reply to this message | Report message
       
Latest Forum Posts