Are Petrol Stations Ripping Us Off?

russellsnr

russellsnr

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Russell
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Yes
So why the question?
Got a voucher from Asda to get 5p a litre off fuel if I spend £120 in shop, so if they can give you 5p of a litre off and still make a profit are they really ripping us off in the first place and a lot of people cannot afford to spend £120 in a one off purchase.
Russ.fuel.jpg
 
Average profit on a litre of petrol is 7p
 
Checking on the Tescos around me I found prices vary, and of course my local two are the dearest around, I do try to fuel up when we’re out and a cheaper Tesco is on the route, my Honda want super unleaded so Tesco is the usual stop.
 
We always use E5 petrol when we need petrol. Everything we have that uses petrol will run very happily on E10 but the associated problems the extra ethanol can cause outweigh the slight saving we could make.
 
Petrol stations are not ripping you off.
The government adds a fuel duty and VAT as well. A tax on a tax.
It’s what’s known as a cash cow. You. The motorist.
 
We've been getting fuel discount vouchers from Tesco recently. Works well in my favour :ROFLMAO:

I filled up about £60 last Sunday with a voucher before we went to Exmoor for the week, and I've got a voucher which runs out next weekend to fill back up with when that tank gets as low as possible :ROFLMAO:

I'd only need a few vouchers a year for the Escort how little that gets used :ROFLMAO:
 
I got a voucher from our local garage Eurostar the other day: 5p off a litre after spending £20.
I got one today at Tesco's: 1p off a lite for spending over £100.
I know Tesco fuel is cheaper normally, so maybe the difference reflects the relative margin of these retailers?
 
personally i think fuel is still to cheap in the UK we need to move away from fossil to EV and the gov needs to stop pandering to the fossil fuel brigade.
We need to reverse the 5p reduction.
 
Mr Bump said:
personally i think fuel is still to cheap in the UK we need to move away from fossil to EV and the gov needs to stop pandering to the fossil fuel brigade.
We need to reverse the 5p reduction.
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Was it EV aeroplanes that transported you on your copious international flights?
 
One thing I have noticed is that the fuel prices tend to be cheaper with garages that are owned by local people , rather than run and / or owned by people from other countries . There really is no saving to be made from using supermarket fuel either as I often find them higher priced than the ones in my first sentence ..
I.e we have one local garage in particular that goes on Facebook and takes the time to publish his prices and explain why it’s gone up or down that week that helps to take the sting out of a purchase
 
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gman said:
Was it EV aeroplanes that transported you on your copious international flights?
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Yep I also like to travel when we can and do try to be green but do realise that I am not perfect as do most people
It’s difficult though as I love wildlife but also am adding to the problem myself by travelling around the world
 
It's a way to incentives you to use the supermarket and they make more margin on food. So basically they are selling the fuel at a bit more than costs, to get you to spend in store.

And £120 is nothing for a family shop! You can always stock up on cleaning products/frozen if needed,
 
Norkie said:
Petrol stations are not ripping you off.
The government adds a fuel duty and VAT as well. A tax on a tax.
It’s what’s known as a cash cow. You. The motorist.
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So an 8p a litre difference in petrol price at two Tescos 12 miles apart is down to what? Products in the stores same price but fuel in city centre cheaper than edge of town despite rates, property costs being higher, my local Tesco highest fuel price for miles around due to little competition, an ex Tesco manager told me they can charge as much as possible as long as sales don’t suffer.
 
Off course their ripping us of I've got two Tesco's within 10 miles of me the nearer one is always around 5-6p a l cheaper as are the corresponding shell stations and the cheaper one is further from the storage area.
 
tarric said:
Off course their ripping us of I've got two Tesco's within 10 miles of me the nearer one is always around 5-6p a l cheaper as are the corresponding shell stations and the cheaper one is further from the storage area.
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I wouldn't characterise it as that. It's just "good old" capitalism at work.

Of course, we could always go back to retail price maintenance but a lot of people appear to have taken against that...

www.economicsonline.co.uk

Retail Price Maintenance: What It Is & Why It's Restricted

What retail price maintenance means, why it's generally illegal in the UK and EU, the Net Book Agreement case, and limited exceptions.
www.economicsonline.co.uk

www.gov.uk

Resale price maintenance: advice for retailers

A short summary of what retailers need to know about resale price maintenance (RPM) agreements and how to comply with competition law.
www.gov.uk www.gov.uk
 
tarric said:
Off course their ripping us of I've got two Tesco's within 10 miles of me the nearer one is always around 5-6p a l cheaper as are the corresponding shell stations and the cheaper one is further from the storage area.
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But from the Tesco perspective they are aiming to maximise profits. If there are cheaper sites within the local it's down to the consumer to decide where to purchase. Tesco will adjust their prices if sales / profits decline dramatically. Its one of the reasons planners try not to let one retailer have a monopoly in a particular town
 
Two different fuel delivery dates?
 
Pound Coin said:
Two different fuel delivery dates?
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Ah and now the penny has dropped, if garage A has a delivery at £1.99 a gallon but garage B buys two days later and pays £2.25 a gallon . Garage A sells out faster but next delivery is £ 2.40 a gallon so the prices are up and down like a yo yo .. there is no current answer to the way it’s done it’s down to actual tanker price at the delivery point / day
 
the black fox said:
Ah and now the penny has dropped, if garage A has a delivery at £1.99 a gallon but garage B buys two days later and pays £2.25 a gallon . Garage A sells out faster but next delivery is £ 2.40 a gallon so the prices are up and down like a yo yo .. there is no current answer to the way it’s done it’s down to actual tanker price at the delivery point / day
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I think that's more likely than two closely Tecos deciding different prices? But who knows - Tesco I guess!
 
the black fox said:
Ah and now the penny has dropped, if garage A has a delivery at £1.99 a gallon but garage B buys two days later and pays £2.25 a gallon . Garage A sells out faster but next delivery is £ 2.40 a gallon so the prices are up and down like a yo yo .. there is no current answer to the way it’s done it’s down to actual tanker price at the delivery point / day
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I think you meant to say "up, up, down, up, down, up, up, up, up, down, up" :ROFLMAO:
 
the black fox said:
Ah and now the penny has dropped, if garage A has a delivery at £1.99 a gallon but garage B buys two days later and pays £2.25 a gallon . Garage A sells out faster but next delivery is £ 2.40 a gallon so the prices are up and down like a yo yo .. there is no current answer to the way it’s done it’s down to actual tanker price at the delivery point / day
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I'd be happy to pay double that per GALLON!

Water can be more expensive than even Diesel... https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/produ...SeOencCnizhOS2XG-JL7lsGcNThaRLcrh0WxWPntVASn8
 
LCPete said:
Yep I also like to travel when we can and do try to be green but do realise that I am not perfect as do most people
It’s difficult though as I love wildlife but also am adding to the problem myself by travelling around the world
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It's his hyprocrisy whilst trying to virtue signal. That aside, I've nothing against people wanting to travel and aeroplanes have been getting more and more environmentally friendly, in fact I believe that each new generation of aircraft engines typically brings a 15%-20% reduction in fuel burn and also CO2 emissions compared to the model it replaces. I'm sure we will eventually see EV commercial planes when battery tech advances accordingly.
 
gman said:
It's his hyprocrisy whilst trying to virtue signal. That aside, I've nothing against people wanting to travel and aeroplanes have been getting more and more environmentally friendly, in fact I believe that each new generation of aircraft engines typically brings a 15%-20% reduction in fuel burn and also CO2 emissions compared to the model it replaces. I'm sure we will eventually see EV commercial planes when battery tech advances accordingly.
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Yes that’s what I meant too, the hypocrisy
 
in GC cheap white wine is 80c per litre cheaper than bottled water
 
Just back from turkey they pay the equivalent of £1.27 per litre for diesel . Does make you wonder 84.9 TL a litre probably cheaper if you know where to buy
 
Pound Coin said:
Two different fuel delivery dates?
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With the fuel price apps it possible to check fuel prices on a whim, since the price difference between stores near me is constant, I don’t see oil price changes being the cause.
 
the black fox said:
Just back from turkey they pay the equivalent of £1.27 per litre for diesel . Does make you wonder 84.9 TL a litre probably cheaper if you know where to buy
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don't they do most of the refining in Turkey though?

Refined Petroleum Products: Turkey exports approximately 15 million tons of refined products (including gasoline, diesel, fuel oil, aviation/jet fuel, and marine fuel) annually, valued around US$12.1 billion
 
Turkey were still refining Russian oil and the EU were buying it, despite the sanctions. The EU have started to address this (presumably when it came to light) and I believe Turkey have had to start sourcing their oil from elsewhere, but I don't know if they are still accepting Russian oil and maybe using it domestically.
 
Try going to the US. On my trip there I saw unleaded from 4.09 a gallon to 7.05 a gallon!!! I know that some states (and maybe even counties) have different tax rates, but I literally drove 5 mins and it had increased by a dollar!

Also, most/all seemed to charge about 20c a gall less if cash v card
 
I used to work in a petrol station for longer than I care to admit. No They are not ripping you off!
If you knew how little is made on petrol an how much it cost to keep a petrol station running you would wonder why anyone did. In fact so did the owner of the station I worked at which is now a small block of flats.
 
Mostly Vintage Cameras said:
I used to work in a petrol station for longer than I care to admit. No They are not ripping you off!
If you knew how little is made on petrol an how much it cost to keep a petrol station running you would wonder why anyone did. In fact so did the owner of the station I worked at which is now a small block of flats.
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I'm sure I've read it's only a few pence profit per litre with just the fuel.
 
It's a few pence per litre margin. The profit of the station after the running costs of the station (weights & measures; insurance; upfront purchase of the fuel; wages; bilking; etc) erodes that substantially.
 
Had a little hope there with some strong drops, but it's creeping back up a little.

I no longer seem to see the petrol stations match the changes, usually there's about a week's lag but I'm not really seeing much movement now, nor with fuel bunker deliveries that tend to operate closer to live pricing, in fact I've even seen their price go up from a previous week, despite oil prices having dropped significantly over the same period. I suspect profiteering is occuring further back in the chain.

Interestingly, I've not seen lubricant prices increase any further since a few increases back in April. It seems like they've kept their prices high throughout, instead of bringing them back down since the peaks of April and May.


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hunnymonster said:
It's a few pence per litre margin. The profit of the station after the running costs of the station (weights & measures; insurance; upfront purchase of the fuel; wages; bilking; etc) erodes that substantially.
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If I compare several supermarket sites in a 15mile radius to me, the price varies a few pence, I don’t see Tesco not have a universal purchase price for their supplies so some could well be making more profit than others in the chain, only variable I see is the rates charged by different councils on the sites, wages, overheads etc should otherwise be the same?
 
Fuel bunker price has dropped by over 12 ppl since last week, but I've noticed the high street stations are staying high, despite the fluctuations in wholesale, which is now back to late August price.

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