Some of you will undoubtedly remember the launch of the Pipeline Card initiative. The idea was, that once 100,000 people had joined up, that would represent a big enough consumer block to negotiate a discount with a major fuel supplier. It didn't happen. Membership is now over 500,000 and the website says they need even more.
There is no recent media coverage, no recent activity by Pipeline. At one point it seemed they had passed on e-mail addresses to domestic fuel price comparison websites, promising lower prices, but which didn't always deliver. They were blamed for spam.
Today I e-mailed Ben Scammell, whose brainchild Pipeline is, as follows:
"Hi Ben -
We don't seem to hear much about Pipeline these days. The momentum seems to have gone. After many years there's little achieved and no prospect that anything ever will be.
I am going to suggest you either officially close the website and admit defeat, or give those of us who have waited and become increasingly cynical something tangible to grab hold of.
Best wishes,
Chris"
Maybe it was a waste of my time.
Last edited by: FocalPoint on Mon 27 Jun 11 at 18:26
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Think its a fair point. If it cant be achieved then time to call it a day. He's not taken any money from anyone so has nothing to be ashamed of, but should be honest to his following (me included)
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I think the business principle was flawed.
OK 100k sign up, how many of that will actually shop in one place - remember fuel for many is bought as and when required at the place convenient to where you are at the time.
The supermarkets are the big players and they sell their fuel at close to margin and also use it as an incentive for main store shopping where their margins are much higher.
So they would not beinterested in securing Pipeline business as they already have their own loyalty schemes. And if Pipeline did manage to negotiate a deal with, say BP, then the supermarkets could afford to price match when it suited them.
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Our local Tesco Extra has diesel for about £1.35/l, about 4p/litre cheaper than a lot of places around here. They have also kicked off the 5p/l saving when you spend £50 or more in store again. So diesel could be had for £1.30/l... hope the offer is still on when I get back from holiday next week. I need about 60 litres of diesel.
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You will be pleased to know that the price of fuel has dropped quite a bit this week - at least a couple of pence round where I am.
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If anybody thinks that they can now stuff the Supermarkets (sic) then they are sadly deluded.
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I live in an area where the supermarkets are consistently among the most expensive places to fill up, 5p per litre promotions notwithstanding. The local Tesco and Sainsbury's are consistently 1-2ppl more expensive than some of the "branded" outlets.
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round my way, tesco is running a cartel.
there is no other word to describe it.
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>> They have also kicked off the 5p/l saving when you spend £50 or more in store again
Our local supermarket is issuing 5p/l vouchers when you buy two multipacks of bog roll for about 9 quid. Assuming the average fill-up with a voucher is 50 litres, you'd save more cash buying a £5.99 box of Daz on offer for £3.
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>> you'd
>> save more cash buying a £5.99 box of Daz on offer for £3.
I think that's the "secret" tesco et al would rather nobody thought about too much. 5p off a litre sounds much better than £2.50 off a tank.
Which is more like 3p off a litre when compared to the local shell garage, and more like 2.5p off a litre when you factor in their (admittedly weedy) points card.
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Pipeline Card - mikeyb
