Who sets fuel prices?

[flowrider]

My local BP is currently advertising unleaded petrol at 138.9p per litre, the nearby Esso also has unleaded at 138.9p per litre. If a take a 10 min drive out of town the next nearest Esso has unleaded at 121.9p per litre and a nearby Texaco is 125.9p. Who sets these prices? Is it the local management of the petrol station or the fuel provider? Both of the expensive stations have cars queuing for fuel, some people have more money than sense.

 

[Craiglxviii]

It's the owning company I believe. BP branded garages are run by the domestic fuelling arm of BP, which will study prices dependent on station positioning and regionally versus competitors. I can only imagine that the same is done by other companies.

 

[flowrider]

BP are not good at checking competitors pricing then if a competitor 10 mins drive away is 17p per litre cheaper. Esso are even worse as the huge price difference is between Esso stations.

 

[A.J.]

My local BP is currently advertising unleaded petrol at 138.9p per litre, the nearby Esso also has unleaded at 138.9p per litre. If a take a 10 min drive out of town the next nearest Esso has unleaded at 121.9p per litre and a nearby Texaco is 125.9p. Who sets these prices? Is it the local management of the petrol station or the fuel provider? Both of the expensive stations have cars queuing for fuel, some people have more money than sense.

In my day, some years ago, when I briefly had a filling station we used to keep an eye on each others prices and keep as close to the localities petrol pricing we could. If we could afford it we would try and undercut them but that was often the kiss of death because the others would try and undercut us.

Petrol filling stations are generally bad news unless you can get the volume. The location of the site is also very important. Our site was in a village in Bedfordshire and there was another one 1/2 mile up the road owned by a then popular Rally Driver, Peter Waring and he got all of the business. We just didn't do enough research before committing ourselves. Understandably we didn't last very long.

 

[LostKiwi]

BP are not good at checking competitors pricing then if a competitor 10 mins drive away is 17p per litre cheaper. Esso are even worse as the huge price difference is between Esso stations.

None of them are great at it. BP I always find to be the most expensive in any given area.

Where we are its 131.9 per litre but a 9 mile drive to Rugby sees fuel prices 125.9 per litre for shell and under 120 per litre for Asda!
Similarly a 10 mile drive in any other direction also sees similar drops.
I make a point of never filling in our home town if I can avoid it.

In NZ when I was in my 20s the price of fuel was fixed by the government. In my view a much better way to do it as it avoids the shock prices on Motorway Services (seriously - who would pay over 150 per litre???)

 

[JBell]

I thought they were all franchises so the franchise owner sets the price, we have 2 local stations that change Brand often

 

[flowrider]

I think 17p per litre price difference between stations 10 mins apart is ridiculous. In my home town the fuel stations are always a lot more expensive but never seem to struggle for customers.

 

[davemercedes]

I read somewhere that Tesco local managers set their forecourt prices. At the time that seemed to justify one or two nonsense prices I'd seen although when looking around locally it feels like a cartel. 5 miles up the road towards Birmingham there's one station that's nearly always 5-6 pence cheaper which is good but only if we're going that way.

Last week diesel at the 3 local supermarkets were all 135.9 per litre. Then much to my surprise at the weekend, a roadside filling station (Texaco brand) on the A44 down in Gloucester was 125.9!

 

[bembo449]

I was told where there is several stations in an area , they collude to keep the prices the same as each other , certainly like that in this town at least

 

[A.J.]

I was told where there is several stations in an area , they collude to keep the prices the same as each other , certainly like that in this town at least

That is certainly the way it used to be when I had a Filling Station, mind you that was 40+ years ago

 

[Blobcat]

When I was in Canada they used to put the prices up every weekend to catch the people heading to their cabins, then on a Tuesday they'd drop the prices again. I used to watch filling station operatives looking down the road with binoculars to see when their competitors changed their prices so they weren't out of step with them. They even used to tell me to hang on whilst they dropped the prices on more than one occasion.

 

[keefysher]

When we were in Brisbane in 2014 there was 1 day a week when fuel dropped considerably, it was announced the evening before but was a different day each week.

This past week has seen unleaded drop to £1.219/l, diseasel is at £1.349/l

School holidays see the price go up the Thursday before round here.

 

[McDonald]

Petrolprices.com send me an email every week (free of charge) listing all local petrol stations and their prices of both unleaded and diesel. It doesn't help me understand the market but I don't pay over the odds.

 

[Frontstep]

They price as with everything for as much as they can get, it does expose that nonsense of "you get what you pay for" that so often gets spouted.
Then the PR machine gets into gear and tells you supermarket petrol is mixed in buckets by sick children from the oil companies slops..

 

[Craiglxviii]

I was told where there is several stations in an area , they collude to keep the prices the same as each other , certainly like that in this town at least

That totally contravenes SarbOx, I doubt it.

 

[Rappey69]

I have always found that BP are very good for charging at least 2p per litre more than anyone else, so I try to never use them.

 

[flowrider]

I wouldn't travel out of town for a 2p saving but when its 17p thats a different matter. My usual Texaco is generally 10p a litre cheaper than the fuel stations near me so thats my prefered place to go unless i am passing a supermarket filling station, but the nearby Esso at 17p a litre cheaper is hard to beat.

 

[LostKiwi]

17p per litre for 80litres is about £13.That's a good few miles fuel!

 

[oigle]

Do you guys not have this sort of app available there https://petrolspy.com.au/map/latlng/-27.21958134183818/153.04834627944342
Here in Oz, one just inserts local postcode and all prices are evident. Really handy when traveling away from home area.

 

[mioba]

It’s a cartel. The fuel stations, oil producers know the western world will stop dead without fuel. So charge a premium.