Thread: The great fuel boycott

Originally Posted by Homestar

Geez, that old chestnut. That’s been around since petrol hit 80 cents a litre and it has never had any legs. We all need fuel, we’ve become reliant on it - they will squeeze us for every cent while they can. While I too am looking forward to mass produced cheap electric cars I can charge off my solar they’ll find a way to make money from that too.

Yep, the buggers have most of us by the nuts & squeezing hard. I say most, because not all AULRO-ians are blokes.

It really is a no win situation. Ok, today you boycott. A couple of days later you NEED fuel so what you gonna do, pray that someone will fill your tank overnight for free while you sleep? Fill up with water from the tap?

None of the above, right? No, you sheepishly return to the local fuel outlet while trying to appear as though you don't give a s**t & fill up yet again & the price has probably increased as a point is being made by the Operator saying "That'll teach you to ***k with my living".

Guaranteed.

Originally Posted by jonesfam

Pricing fuel is comlicated.
In Doomadgee our fuel is over $2.00 a litre which sure aint cheap.
This year every time I buy in fuel it has gone up by .05c per Lt, then you have all the costs of storing & selling it.
EG At the start of the Wet I'm holding 70,000Lt of Opal & the same in Diesel, thats a lot of money sitting in the tanks which is money I can't spend elswhere or may even have to borrow with interest.
If we have a big Wet I hardly sell it because no-one can dive anywhere but I have to have that much because the fuel suppliers won't deliver during the Wet & if we are not shut off I have to be able to supply but can't get deliveries.
Then you have the cost of Drive Off's (more regular than you would think) the cost of carrying accounts, the cost of repairs (huge out here), staffing, put some money aside for capital improvements, paying off infrastructure, Environmental costs, compliance costs & the list goes on.
So, after much mind boggling mathematics I have worked out I have to make a certain number of cents per Lt to break even & then I actually have to make some profit or what's the point?
So, I buy my fuel delivered for $Y then cover all my cost for $X then try to make some money out of the whole deal, lets say $Z. YXZ = $2.01 for Opal & $2.05 for Diesel at the moment. But 12 months ago YXZ was = $1.25 for both, I made the same number of cents per Lt (actually a couple more than I do now) but sold more fuel so I make less out of fuel now than I did 12 months ago.
I'm not saying that some places don't gouge but firstly it is very expensive to sell fuel & secondly you are far more likely to be gouge when wholesale fuel is cheap because even at a couple of cents more than what it should be you still think it's cheap.

Justification/rant over.

Jonesfam

Im hearing ya, we hold near on 2 million ltrs in Karumba over the wet season when the fleet are all tied to the wharf , only because if the place floods , or , a cyclone is coming, we need to have fuel for the fleet at the start of the season.

I never question the cost of fuel at remote places , and even if I don't need fuel I will buy a stubbie cooler or something just to give back even tho its not much. I would bet that if I walked into your store after seeing the price at the pump , I wouldn't see a sign saying ' spend $10 in store and get 10c a ltr discount on the fuel, like I did 2 days ago when I fuelled up the work ute.


As for LPG - we have 2 of the biggest gas plants in the country on the other side of the harbour , piped in from the gas fields out at sea, I haven't seen the LPG price under $1.00 for atleast the last 10 years , prolly longer.

Cheers Ean

Mostly the sales price has nothing to do with the local servo you buy from, the supplier dictates when and by how much they have to hike the price. Some years back there was an independent in Vic offering cheap fuel and the supplier threatened to cut off their supply.

If there are a few servos close together there may be a slight price variation (a few cents) but none of them 'compete' for fuel because they don't have to.

When I first came out from the UK I picked up the Thursday price hike almost every week and asked someone why. I got a blank look and the comment "because it bloody pay day". The ACCC have been threatening for years to sort it out but nothing changes......

Maybe the oil companies need to boost their profits now before there is a move to electric cars ?

I mentioned in another thread that when cars were first sold you went to a shop and purchased a gallon can of petrol and took it home. How long before we get back to buying fuel like this when everyone is going electric .......??

Colin

That is if you will be able to find an outlet. Here, BP Stations seem to be bought up by one family so they'll have us by the nuts as well if our Tanker doesn't arrive from the West each week & I can picture queues 10 miles long as servos have been closed & there aren't as many around these days even though the population seems to be increasing.


Mind you back then cars probably did a Million miles to the gallon because they didn't have all the crap hanging off them. so that would have lasted a few weeks.


Mobil saw fit to close Port Stanvac, so now no refinery here anymore instead we got a SA Govt built Desal Plant on the site. Never been used in anger but 'they' keep telling us "you will be thankful one day".

Not me Gunga Din, we have our rainwater & excellent Artesian water so no cost to those leeches anymore.

It's certainly a different situation in remote areas compared with the cities. Near me over the last week unleaded peaked at 169 and then on Friday arvo I paid 150.5 for E10 minus the RACQ 4 cents discount, that's a major price variation. I suppose I should be grateful to even get a discount, unlike remote customers.
Meanwhile diesel seems stuck on about 165. I just spent $115 to fuel up the Defender.
It's true that the oil price is up, which means LPG is also up, the US$ is up and the AU$ is down.
Venezuela is in financial trouble and it's a big oil producer. OPEC wants a higher oil price.
What does that all mean? Stuffed if I know.

Drove past the local independent tonight. 149.9c/L for 91RON petrol. Different independent has diesel for 155.9c/L. South of Adelaide.

Aaron

I don't know how the little indies do it. The local paper had a story about a guy who had a lot of old customers that he'd fill cars for, and it was cheaper for him to put drums on the back of his ute, drive to the local Woolies servo with his 4c off vouchers, than buy from the fuel co's.

I got a win at the pump this am . Somehow they set the price for 98 at two cents per litre less than regular unleaded. Doubt this gad anything to do with the boycott.