Who sets fuel prices?

SmartAmg

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Gotta be a comedian! :)
 

davemercedes

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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.

We do oigle but they changed their methodology - you now only get 2 or 3 local stations and to get any more you have to become a paid up member. Shame - I used to find it useful because when travelling I could look up stations on my way and decide whether to fill up at home or wait and buy en route.

btw: Someone mentioned "cheap fuel days" in Brisbane and it was the same in Sydney last time we were there - does that still go on?
 
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flowrider

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Bryan88

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[QUOTE="LostKiwi, post: 1671015, member: 13982"

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???)[/QUOTE]

I have to disagree, only politicians truly know how to screw people. Here in SA the price is controlled by the government and has risen like mad in the past few months. Interesting to learn what you guys other parts of the world are paying though, I have been meaning to ask.
 

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Interesting to learn what you guys other parts of the world are paying though, I have been meaning to ask.

At the moment where we are in Suffolk in the East of England we are £1.18p per Litre. I think that equates to about 21.02 Rand :)
 

davemercedes

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We have PetrolPrices app and also all the prices are on Waze.
Hmm I haven't looked at Waze for ages (I've got a TomTom in the car) but I've got Waze on our iPad. I'll have a look even if we only use it for pricing!
 

PovertySpec

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Who sets prices? Depends on how much you buy.

For the average man, erm, LGBTQQIAAP+ person on the Clapham omnibus the pump price is set by the cartel first and the treasury second.

For those buying thousands of litres per week their 'bunker' price is set in advance, like pork belly or orange juice futures, and is substantially lower per litre than that paid by the average person at the pump.

Like 30p/litre lower.

Lower still for Tesco etc, who buy contracts well in advance and by the million litre quantity.
 

oigle

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We do oigle but they changed their methodology - you now only get 2 or 3 local stations and to get any more you have to become a paid up member. Shame - I used to find it useful because when travelling I could look up stations on my way and decide whether to fill up at home or wait and buy en route.

btw: Someone mentioned "cheap fuel days" in Brisbane and it was the same in Sydney last time we were there - does that still go on?
Not quite as described. We go through a cycle of big price drop followed by many small increases until it hits a max before the next drop. Used to be weekly but now varies. Usually once a fortnight out to 3 weeks. Designed to keep us guessing or we would just all wait for the weekly drop. Currently at a very low price due to world prices drop. $1.23/litre for 91 unleaded is common currently. Hasn't been that cheap for many months. Diesel, on the other hand, does not enjoy these cycles and remains high all the time. Completely counteracts and more the better fuel economy of the diesels. Diesel currently around $1.50/litre. Becoming quite uneconomical to have a diesel now.
 

davemercedes

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Not quite as described. We go through a cycle of big price drop followed by many small increases until it hits a max before the next drop. Used to be weekly but now varies. Usually once a fortnight out to 3 weeks. Designed to keep us guessing or we would just all wait for the weekly drop. Currently at a very low price due to world prices drop. $1.23/litre for 91 unleaded is common currently. Hasn't been that cheap for many months. Diesel, on the other hand, does not enjoy these cycles and remains high all the time. Completely counteracts and more the better fuel economy of the diesels. Diesel currently around $1.50/litre. Becoming quite uneconomical to have a diesel now.

Yeah, my cousin in Sydney used to fill up once a week on the cheap day (so did I).

You said:
...uneconomical to have a diesel now...

Ahh... Now AFAIK your politicians are as big a bunch of hypocrites as ours...
- Did they lie to you and say diesel was "safe" etc and encourage people to buy diesel vehicles?
- And now that the truth has been published, have they forgotten their big hints to offer some compensation in tax etc?
 
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LostKiwi

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Yeah, my cousin in Sydney used to fill up once a week on the cheap day (so did I).

You said:
...uneconomical to have a diesel now...

Ahh... Now AFAIK your politicians are as big a bunch of hypocrites as ours...
- Did they lie to you and say diesel was "safe" etc and encourage people to buy diesel vehicles?
- And now that the truth has been published, have they forgotten their big hints to offer some compensation in tax etc?
why should diesel owners have tax breaks in the form of tax breaks when they've had decades of tax advantage over petrol engine cars already? As a driver of a petrol powered car I think I should have a tax break for not pumping loads of nasty particulates and NOx into the atmosphere for 20 years :)
 

Dippo

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If you sign up to confused.com you can check fuel prices within a 5, 10, or 25 mile radius of a postcode.
 

davemercedes

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why should diesel owners have tax breaks in the form of tax breaks when they've had decades of tax advantage over petrol engine cars already? As a driver of a petrol powered car I think I should have a tax break for not pumping loads of nasty particulates and NOx into the atmosphere for 20 years :)

But we were told by Government that NOX etc was no longer a problem and diesel was okay.
- Many people switched to diesel on that basis.

And compensation via tax should be forthcoming, simply because many people bought diesel cars on the "advice" of government ministers. Now the residual value of used diesel cars has been shot to hell and back... so if you can stand the cost of a change you have to bear it but of course if you can't you just have to keep the thing and add to the pollution (as I am).

When she started on her holy vocational trip to "rectify injustices", Saint Theresa mentioned she would look at compensating all those who were now losing but then she quickly went shtum... (no doubt after the millionaire chancellor told her how much lolly was at stake).

So as usual, just look up... breathe in the smell and listen: "Oink Oink" - there they go flying by...
 

oigle

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Yeah, my cousin in Sydney used to fill up once a week on the cheap day (so did I).

You said:
...uneconomical to have a diesel now...

Ahh... Now AFAIK your politicians are as big a bunch of hypocrites as ours...
- Did they lie to you and say diesel was "safe" etc and encourage people to buy diesel vehicles?
- And now that the truth has been published, have they forgotten their big hints to offer some compensation in tax etc?

There has never been any Gov't persuasion in either direction here. It has just been consumer choice and as such, people have gone diesel generally with 4WD's and trucks. Towing with a diesel 4WD has always been the most favoured, both for economy and low down torque. SUV's are the flavour of the month here and any mid size or larger units are mostly sold in diesel. Small ones are usually petrol. Most cars here are petrol - don't know percentage. Don't know the wholesale prices of diesel versus petrol here but seems that service stations are using diesel as the milk cow whereas petrol, a much bigger seller, is discounted regularly. The price of diesel has been influenced greatly by the airline industry - jet fuel and diesel are from the same distillate level. The ever increasing demand for jet fuel has created a shortage in the availability of diesel and prices reflect this.
I think that, with the ever increasing problems associated with diesel and the higher fuel prices, there will be a noticeable swing to petrol engines in the near future.
 

LostKiwi

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But we were told by Government that NOX etc was no longer a problem and diesel was okay.
- Many people switched to diesel on that basis.

And compensation via tax should be forthcoming, simply because many people bought diesel cars on the "advice" of government ministers. Now the residual value of used diesel cars has been shot to hell and back... so if you can stand the cost of a change you have to bear it but of course if you can't you just have to keep the thing and add to the pollution (as I am).

When she started on her holy vocational trip to "rectify injustices", Saint Theresa mentioned she would look at compensating all those who were now losing but then she quickly went shtum... (no doubt after the millionaire chancellor told her how much lolly was at stake).

So as usual, just look up... breathe in the smell and listen: "Oink Oink" - there they go flying by...
No we weren't told NOx wasn't a problem - we were told CO2 is the big nasty and as a result of the lower CO2 emissions diesel cars enjoyed a tax break (lets not forget all those petrol car at the time were clobbered under new RFL rules).

So now what we see is a rebalancing of the equation - much the same as the one that took place all those years ago when diesels were given an unfair CO2 based tax break. The governments have finally woken up to the idea that pollution is not just one component in the mix of gasses but in actual fact a whole range of them. So given their new awareness of the higher toxicity of the mix of gases emitted by diesels you really think the government will give more tax breaks to drivers of diesels? Do you honestly think they should (given the tax benefits diesels have enjoyed for years)?

I certainly don't. If they are going to tax on emissions then it need to be done in a fair way where the full range of emissions needs to be looked at and taxed accordingly. NOx, sulphur and particulates are particular nasties that the combustion of diesel in motor vehicles produce in higher quantities than petrol combustion engines. The only nasty that petrol engines produce in greater quantity than diesels is CO2. LPG is even better than petrol in that particulates, NOx and CO is virtually non-existent, even without using catalytic convertors!

The other big difference in the emission content of each is that CO2 is a potential long term killer whereas particulates and NOx are much more short term killers.

Sorry but I have no sympathy for anyone who has bought a diesel. They're just going through the same pain petrol car drivers went through years ago and for years have enjoyed cheaper motoring through a flawed taxation scheme and also via much higher MPG.
 
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flowrider

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Not forgetting that electric car taxation is also changing, the government needs to get its cut somehow.
 

Dippo

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Petrolprices.com has been doing that for about 12 years.
Yes, but Petrolprices started messing around with the number and type of searches you can do if you're not a paying member.
 

Bryan88

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At the moment where we are in Suffolk in the East of England we are £1.18p per Litre. I think that equates to about 21.02 Rand :)
Thanks. We are paying R16.50, but our buying power/earnings suck (your minimum wage is something like 30k a month here :D) We should all move to Venezuela, apparently cheap fuel is a birthright.
 


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