Your Comments

"What do you mean, it is like that - goes up by 2p per litre daily!"

it can fill like that, use the average price on this site to find out what your local garage pricing is like. I'm not saying every garage is fair with pricing but the majority are, unfortunately garages often get more bad press than they deserve, even if by some miraculous method the garage ran for no profit at all, you are likely to be looking at 2-5ppl cheaper with the majority of garages. I presume you realise by looking at this site were the majority of the cost of fuel comes from?


"further north you go the cheaper fuel gets???? why is that??.."

There can be a difference in the region of 1/1.5ppl attributed to the distribution cost of the fuel, i.e. Sites further away have a higher distribution cost than ones nearer the terminal.

£1.169 is a little excessive with today's prices, but you can look at the average price yesterday of 1.12 to work that out :)

Oil prices are dropping? Why then, has the price of unleaded in my local Asda gone up over 6.5% in the last month? This is after the increase caused by the VAT rate increase!

The increased prices would appear to result from the Petrol Retailers' Association cartel action, started over the last few weeks, to encourage UK petrol retailers to hike prices together.

We know prices this high are not justified by the current fairly benign underlying cost pattern.

We can, of course ignore retailers' dubious contrary claims that appear even on this discussion page along with the counter-productive PRA press releases to the UK media which try to excuse unreasonable price rises.

@152

"We can, of course ignore retailers' dubious contrary claims that appear even on this discussion page along with the counter-productive PRA press releases to the UK media which try to excuse unreasonable price rises."

Ok no problem, as retailers and PRA are all wrong (in your opinion)then use a source your happy with, how about this website

http://www.petrolprices.com/price-of-petrol.html
http://www.petrolprices.com/fuel-tax.html

less than 8% of the cost of fuel is retailer and oil company.

154 John

I asked the question of Price Action to see if he/she had any knowledge to back up his/her argument. The lack of reply would indicate not. The answer is:

Assuming mid-CIF pricing, unleaded was $696.50/tonne and Derv $615.25/tonne for delivery on 2nd Feb. Convert this to litres and use an exchange rate of $1.6024/£ then add on 2.5 pence per litre to deliver to the petrol station and you get a cost price excluding VAT of 91.495 ppl for unleaded and 91.304 ppl for Derv. 56.19 ppl of both these prices is Duty. Selling at the prices stated gives a gross profit ex. VAT of 2.03 ppl on unleaded and 3.93 ppl on Derv. Recognise that NO overheads have been taken out of this.

I don't "expect" you to pay any price - the market dictates that. However, you might want to consider your interpretation of "competitive behaviour" if you think that the dominance of the Hypermarkets and the consequent dimunition of choice by the erosion of local businesses is a good thing

No doubt you complain about the cost of fuel to drive to your chosen Hypermarket!

@152

Robbing bstrds at 4ppl?

so lets say retailer drops his price by 4ppl then (3% of the 111.9), now you got 3% off who would you like to call robbing bstrds now?

Do bear in mind that 4ppl is gross profit (before sites costs) a site will run for around 2-3ppl costs, and these margins are deemed as quite reasonable. so lets run the site for £0 a profit a year, take site costs of 2.5ppl and that gives a profit of 1.5ppl or 1.3% of the price that can be taking off.

Gee, you got a price were one group is 3% and another group is around 70% of the price and you complain that the 3% are the ones doing the 'robbin'?

For you info, the price the last 2 days has gone up 2.5ppl, no site around me has gone up, so if they making 4ppl and it cost them 2.0ppl to run the site, they are now losing a small margin on there fuel sales.

Next time you complain about the price of fuel, can i suggest you read this site and then direct your efforts to the largest casue to the price of fuel?

I'm not sure how your point about climate change is relevant in regards to garages robbin people at the pumps?

If you mean about the government increasing fuel duty and citing climate change as the reason then that is a valid but different point. Garages don't impose climate changes taxes.

You lost me with the buses, but again i'm guessing that your referring to the fact that public transport is not a viable alternative to driving in some areas, again a valid but irrelevant point. Garages don't run the bus service.

Also for info the price today dropped 2ppl, so in the last 3 days a small increase overall of 0.5ppl. Now if garages were as quick to pass on the savings then I would assume that the same swiftness for price rises would also be passed on?
If garages passed on the daily price, as a customer who filled up yesterday I would be miffed to pay 3ppl more than Monday because of mid-week price increase only to find it back to the lower price the next day. This is how garages act as a 'buffer' zone and don't pass on the immediate saving and rises, they follow a trend rather than the daily swing.

Hopefully some people will understand a little now of how a garage retailing fuel operates

I don't really care that retailers are making 4p per litre or whatever it is. They're running a business at the end of the day.

What annoys me is the fact that most of the cost of fuel is tax.

Blame the government, not the retailer!

round here petrol prices have gone down by upto 2p per litre depending on the garage brand... has it gone down anywhere else?

I do blame gov tax personaly because they have never reduced it " and I mean EVER ",

WE ARE BEYOND A JOKE AT PRICES TODAY " £1.12 P a litre unleaded and lets not complain about oil companies here there cost is miniscule to the rip off TAX the gov steal " why are people not complaining "?

Can anyone tell me why fuel prices have increased by 3 pence (in my area - Southern England) in one week? Last time I filled up a litre of unleaded was £115.9 but a week on I am seeing £118.9 at the main stations! When is it going to end - the £2.00 barrier will be hit soon and then what? This is a very clever ploy by the Government to reduce the amount of vehicles using the roads. Instead of dealing with the increasing amount of road users and traffic conjestion head-on - they are pricing the poor out of motoring by raising fuel prices hoping that it will reduce numbers of vehicles using the roads. Here's an idea... if we all stopped using the petrol stations for just one day this would have a huge impact on the Governments revenue - if we did it once every week or month then the damage would be catastrophic for the Government. BP stands for - BAN PUMPS...

Petrol Price Woe For Drivers As Costs Soar

8:00am UK, Tuesday March 16, 2010

James Jordan, Sky News Online
Petrol prices could reach an eye-watering 120p per litre later this year, the AA is warning.


The organisation is claiming that unleaded fuel could even top the price, equivalent to £5.41 a gallon, and Alistair Darling is being urged to delay the introduction of a planned 3p increase in petrol duty due to come in on April 1.

AA president Edmund King said: "The UK is barely out of recession, yet petrol prices threaten to rise to record prices seen during the boom of 2008 - shortly before the collapse into recession.

"If families, drivers on fixed incomes and those on low pay were unable to cope with record prices then, they are even less likely now."

AA research found an average family with two cars is paying £52 a month more to fill up now than a year ago.


Motorists are being legally mugged at the forecourt by petrol companies.
Lindsay Hoyle, Labour MP on the Commons business select committee


The average petrol price in the UK is 115.9p for a litre of unleaded and 116.6p for a litre of diesel.

Even if the 3p increase is withdrawn, the price paid by drivers could soon hit 120p a litre - £5.41 a gallon - according to the organisation.

This would overtake the previous high of 119.7p of July 2008.

The AA said the price increases were caused by the rise in the price of wholesale gasoline since the end of January.

Lindsay Hoyle, the senior Labour MP on the Commons business select committee, said it was "a complete disgrace".

He told the Daily Telegraph: "Yes, crude oil has gone up this year, but nothing like the rise in petrol prices. Motorists are being legally mugged at the forecourt by petrol companies


about time mabye now someone will do soemthing

Here we go again. Its down to us to car share because the government are using the motorist again to get them out of the debt they are in. Oil is currently $80 a barrel, nearly half the price it was when the prices were this high about 18 months ago, so, if oil is so cheap why is fuel so expensive? Why is there also a calm about this? No one seems to be as annoyed as they were 18 months ago and it about time to rise up again. Pure rip off.

I like in Glasgow but work in central Scotland. I do 500 miles a week from home to office. A further 500 business miles. When is the goverment and tax office going to raise the allowances that were set years ago. I.E i can only claim 12p per mile to compensate for the fuel and wear and tear on my car. COME ON !!

lets all get together and get the increase we deserve that has been overdue for years and years.....

Someone sent the following email to me just today. It has the makings of a plan to help bring fuel prices down, but see what you think:
"The price of oil is as low as it has been for a while, the oil companies have simply jacked their prices up and the government will not do anything as they rake in extra VAT for every increase. See what you think and pass it on if you agree with it.

We are hitting 114.9 a litre in some areas now, soon we will be faced with paying 1.50 a ltr. Someone has offered this good idea which makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the 'don't buy petrol on a certain day campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to hurt ourselves by refusing to buy petrol. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever thought of this idea has come up with a plan that can really work. Please read it and join in!

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a litre is CHEAP, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the market place not sellers. With the price of petrol going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of petrol come down is if we hit someone in the pocket by not purchasing their Petrol!
And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. Here's the idea:

For the rest of this year DON'T purchase ANY petrol from the two biggest oil companies (which now are one), ESSO and BP.

If they are not selling any petrol, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact we need to reach literally millions of Esso and BP petrol buyers. It's really simple to do!!
Now, don't wimp out at this point... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I am sending this note to a lot of people. If each of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) ... and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers! If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it... ..THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all You have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all.(and not buy at ESSO/BP) How long would all that take? If each of us sends this email out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8days!!! Acting together we can make a difference . If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on.

PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY ALL LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE 90p a LITRE RANGE

It's easy to make this happen. Just join this group and get all your FB friends to join or forward as an email to everyone in your address book, and buy your petrol at Shell, Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons, Jet etc. i.e.. boycott BP and Esso

Did you know that 5% of the unleaded you buy is Bio-ethanol from renewable sources

Did you know that Bio-ethanol costs 14p per litre more than unleaded per litre ?

Did you know that the government has been subsidising this Bio-ethanol so that it has been introduced without a price rise ? Until now !!

As from 1st April 2010 this subsidy will be removed adding 0.7p per litre plus VAT = 0.823p

As from 1st April 2010 fuel duty will increase by 1 pence per litre + VAT = 1.175pence.

Therefore ignoring the cost of oil and the low value of the pound, the cost of a litre of Unleaded will increase on 1st April by 1.998 pence per litre.

But we can't ignore the low value of the £ against the $ as it has reached its lowest point for a year at $1.4913 and the cost of a barrel has reached $80.28

This equates to

Cost of 1 litre unleaded = 40.262 pence
Duty on 1 Litre unleaded = 57.19 pence
VAT on 1 litre unleaded @ £1.199 = 17.86 pence

This leaves a profit margin of 3.905pence (excl VAT) per litre to share between the fuel suppliers and the Petrol station

Summary

Government take per Litre = 75.05 pence
Petrol station take per Litre = 2.00 pence
Supplier take per Litre = 1.90 pence
Cost of productpe Litre = 40.262 pence

So who's ripping who off ?

As per #180 Why don't we boycott the people making a fortune out of petrol - the Government !

Diesel is the same story as above

(When oil reached $147 a barrel the £ was worth $2.10 (25% more) Fuel Duty was 50.35pence per litre ( 6.84 pence less than now or 8.04 pence including VAT)) Do the maths yourselves

well i just dont understand, why is it we, the motorist are penalised. why should we have to pay through the nose,for vehicle tax and petrol. because you like to drive a car of your choice.

if someone wants to drive a 4x4 does it matter. if they enjoy it let them. it seems to me. its about jealousy.

Mark Pruden: Sure, they can drive a 4X4, but they better enjoy paying far more for that privilege (and it _is_ a privilege, not a right, to drive a gas guzzler).

But I suppose the entitlement generation believes that, even in an era of fast dwindling fossil fuel energy, they should be allowed to squander such a precious resource on driving stupidly large penís compensation vehicles to the local store for a snack or to drop the kids off round the block at school.

Also, whining about tax increases is hilarious. Guess what? The country is insolvent virtually. We can stop the tax increases immediately by having a debt jubilee and basically wipe the slate clean. Enjoy trying to buy anything with the worthless currency you call sterling if you go that route, though. The rest of the world will simply deem the UK uninvestable, and if you think it sucks now, try hyperinflation. You can at least buy groceries still now without using all your savings to buy a loaf of bread, a la Weimar Republic style.

So, we are now being attacked from three sides; taxation, lower pound value and rising oil price. I dread to think what the price of unleaded will be in 2 weeks time.

Btw, was looking around Google streetview the other day, so the evidence is there. A year ago, my local Esso station had u/l at 92.9 and diesel at 100.9 and further back the differential was 12ppl. Today, at the same station, prices are 120.9 for both fuels. What has happened over the last 12 months to close the gap?

So the General Election is about to be called.
A lot of votes could be won by the party that pledges to freeze fuel duty and the VAT on fuel for their entire term of office. 100/1
Or, introduce the Fuel Duty Stabiliser.50/1.
Or, they could say that it will be business as usual and raise fuel duty twice a year at the budget. 1000/1. They won't say this, because it will cost them votes, but they'll do it anyway.

Government ruthless Tax ... I just rang Morrisons to find out the price of their fuel since it is different in different towns - and they said quote
"It is 116.9 at the moment but we have been told to increase the tax on it so that it is 120.9 - when I asked him why - he said he didn't know especially as Oil prices have recently dropped !

Out with this Government once and for all...!

The authorities are charging VAT on Fuel Duty. Duty is charged on many iitems and follows the same trend. To charge VAT on duty is in fact charging tax on the tax we pay as duty, therefor we are paying tax on tax as it were. What this boils down to is paying VAT (Value Added tAX) on something we get nothing for. We are paying tax on nothing in physical effect so there is no value involved and VAT is not appropriate. Removing this unfair tax would bring petrol down to 96.04p and 57.19p of this would be duty. A further 5p can be for delivery to the garage. Somebody should be in prison for extortion.