25 February 2008

Petrol Pricing?

| maloomike
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As a Gungahlin resident I found it odd last Friday when I went to fill up the car at the local Servo. Given that Woolworths have had the petrol monopoly at Gungahlin for quite some time I have decided to use the newly opened Shell (Coles Express) servo. I have never been one to look at the cost per litre before entering, but Friday was different. For some reason I took a special interest at the prices between Shell (Coles) and Caltex (Woolworths). Shell had a non-discouted unleaded price of $1.44 per litre and to my amazement Caltex fuel non-discount was advertised at $1.28.

16 cents on a full tank ended up saving me over $7.00.

It is normal to see some flunctuations BUT 16 cents come on. Did the Woolworths express staff miss the memo about Public Servant Pay Day?

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Bought a (medium) glass-bottled coke lately: $3.50 ! for %$#$%^$ sake. Still, back to servos and good food – Hungry’s $5 meal is a filler. of course there is the very loud rock music to dicourage the local white-cap-on-backward 14-yr-old leaders of the future from hangin’. Oh; no…they are the ones with the extra $$$ in pociket cause they don’t shell out (pun there) $1.45 a ltr t get there! Although too many chessburgers may add to the carbon-air problem.

Holden Caulfield2:29 pm 26 Feb 08

Caltex at Lyneham went up 16¢ per litre in one friggin day last week. I’m all for supporting the little guy and all, but when Mrs C filled up on her way to work at 128.9 in the morning and the price was 144.9 when I went to fill up on my way home from work I thought stuff the little guy!

The Caltex at Lyneham used to always be very keenly priced, but in the last month or so it’s prices have been all over the shop.

Boo hiss!!!

still $1.24 with the 4c discount at caltex at belco – been that way for a week – can’t work it our.

When there is no competition the operators can charge what they like. In Tuggeranong there are 2 Shell; 1 Mobil; 1 independent Caltex and 6 Woolworths outlets. Woolies offer the 4c discount, but there is no benefit from shopping around, from Calwell to Erindale for example as the price is the same at both outlets

I paid $1.20 at curtin on wednesday, and it was back to $1.44 on thursday

Yep petrol prices seems high and all over the place but it’s still cheaper than coke and some bottled water. Now thats puzzling to me.
I read someone where that per pound, a burger from Macdonalds is worth more than the average family car.

Growling Ferret10:25 am 26 Feb 08

Petrols cheap. When we start paying the true price, including a carbon tax and it is $2.50 a litre, then every tosser in his Landcruiser, Pajero etc will realise how cheap petrol was…

Yep petrol prices seems high and all over the place but it’s still cheaper than coke and some bottled water. Now thats puzzling to me.

Gungahlin Al9:52 am 26 Feb 08

Very important points minime2 – all issues GCC has been raising wth Neil Savery at ACTPLA and David Dawes of CMO.

We have been pushing for an additional servo site on Flemington Road and our preference was the Nullabor Rd intersection, so the suburbs also have something in the way of corner store access. Also the physical separation from the other servos would mean more likelihood of price competition.

LDA have now allocated land for a servo – at the Wells Station Drive intersection you refer to!

[Sigh]

Flemington Road is rapidly heading for a traffic meltdown. The solution I’ve been proposing is for a direct link across from Horse Park Drive to Federal Hwy, perhaps coming out at the existing Antill St roundabout. This would provide a quick alternative route to Northbourne that also bypasses the Gungahlin town centre.

I agree with neanderthol … Shell is usually higher than the others. At Gunghalin at least they have good food now. That’s Hungry Jacks!
And that corner with the two servos is another good example of Nohope’s planning team. Has to be about the bisiest corner in town at that roundabout …and its an 80k zone too. But wait till we all try and get out of town with the new intersection on Flemington Road near the tip! Just gets better as they cram more people on the open spaces out here. And they wanted us to use the kid’s jail as a community pool…

Has anyone seen the result under the WA system if a rogue independant posts a cheap price for the following day? Does that happen at all? Can servos lower their prices the following day?

Would generate a lot of traffic, and considerable competition. Now wouldn’t that be lovely.

I’ve paid $1.28/L ($1.24/L dicounted) for the past two weeks filling up on a Monday night (including tonight). Guessing they forgot to change the price, or trying to price the shell out lol.

People seem to think that the price watch scheme is actually going to bring the price of petrol down? morons is all I can say, as much as petrol prices are a pain.. it’s not going to fix a thing. The high prices will just be set at the beginning of the day, less of a discount at the beginning of the week and when demand is higher from thursday to sunday the prices will still be higher and the same with public holidays.. demand higher.. higher prices, basic supply and demand.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy8:58 pm 25 Feb 08

Personally, I’d much rather we leave the servos and fuel companies alone to move the prices up and down during the week. Everyone knows the price is usually substantially higher Thurs-Sun than it is Mon-Wed, and many people take advantage of that. I strongly suspect that if we lay the boot in too much, the oil companies will simply say ‘screw it’, and leave prices undiscounted across the weekly cycle. Petrol is not that expensive in Australia, and in real terms is no more expensive than most times during the 80’s anyway. Plus, we choose the cars we drive. So if I drive a V8, I can’t really complain about fuel prices, can I?

I’m with Vader: bring on Fuelwatch and enjoy the ability to know the prices online before you even leave home.

This was all over 2CC the other day, about how it was happening all over Canberra.

The guys at the actual servo itself don’t decide the prices, well, for the woolies ones that is. Somebody just calls up, tells them the price, and they change it.

Yep, Wednesday is Getting Petrol Day. Last Wednesday it was 124 ish at the Manuka servo, next morning 144 at the Qbn servos. It’s down to 135 in Qbn today.

$1.24 at Mawson Wollies/Caltex last Friday, which is what I normally pay on Tuesdays.

V8 Berlina with a three tier spoiler4:21 pm 25 Feb 08

Wasn’t a mistake. Down in Lanyon, Caltex had the same price. Shell in Manuka was just as high as up north too. Something tells me Caltex is edgy about the new oversight, 1.22 in a Friday is unheard of in this day and age.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy3:57 pm 25 Feb 08

I fill up my cars on Tuesday or Wednesday evenings. That way I always get petrol pricing at the low point of the cycle. It probably saves me 5 bucks a week. Woohoo!

Growling Ferret3:05 pm 25 Feb 08

There is now also a third servo in the Gungahlin area, with Caltex opening up at Gold Creek Village, just off the highway. I wonder how much traffic this place will get, as you can’t see it from the Highway until you pass it….

System over in WA is great.

All servos have to advise the govt by 2pm what price they will be charging the following day. Govt puts it up on a website, usually by around 2:30pm (http://www.fuelwatch.com.au/). People can then see where the cheapest petrol is, as well as having advance warning of price hikes.

Petrol prices change at 6am each day, so you know the price you see on the way to work is the price you’ll pay when you fill up on the way home in the evening.

Great for the consumer all round.

Gungahlin Al2:43 pm 25 Feb 08

You must have caught it mid-change. They were pretty much all $1.28.9 until Thursday then jumped 16c, but – very strangely – were back down again Friday morning. Can’t say why but a nice change to not be stang on a weekend…

The 4c discount BTW was just over $1 on a Forester tankload – NOT worth driving around for.

The dude who is the petrol commissioner implemented a scheme in WA where all servos had to lodge their price for the next day the previous evening, and then could not vary from it. Now that would lock in some competition if he could get it into place nationwide…

neanderthalsis2:38 pm 25 Feb 08

I have noticed that many Shell servos have an inflated price compared to other servos. Recently I was about to fill up at the Shell in Manuka when some git decided to park and fill his Statesman at the only bowser there that has a diesel pump (my greatest annoyance, servos with only one Diesel pump integrated into a bowser with numerous forms of unleaded). I hiked out and down to the BP at Kingston where diesel was 7c per litre cheaper.

I have a suburban servo near my house who is routinely five cents cheaper than the nearest Woolworths\Caltex.

Not surprising at all.
Coles Express at Hawker was $1.24 p/litre last Monday – Wednesday and, lo and behold, come Thursday morning, it was up to $1.44 p/litre.
This morning it was back down to $1.28 p/litre.
I initially thought the low prices were Woolies and Coles reaction to the government appointing a Petrol Commissioner, but it’d appear that was only wishful thinking…

It happens in other places too. I work in Queanbeyan and have seen the isolated Caltex near Letchworth charging $1.44 whilst down near main street they’re only asking $1.28.

You burn up too much fuel driving around looking for the best price so the rule of thumb is to go where petrol stations cluster.

I was wondering when Gunghalin was getting another Servo. That monopoly had to end eventually.

Must have been a mistake. They are usually priced identically. Having two servo’s was supposed to increase the competition and bring down the prices but it hasn’t happened…until now.

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