"We think this can work."
Caltex manager speaking on subject of Fuel Watch.
Fuel Watch. I drive about 900km/week on my work commute. I fill up on Monday or Tuesday and top up on Wednesday, when petrol is at its cheapest. I'm always watching fuel.
With Fuel Watch it is thought that, as has happened in Perth, the deep troughs and highs in petrol prices will be smoothed out. People who fill when petrol is cheapest will be worse off.
I don't bother with the 4c/L saving from shopping dockets because on a $60 fill the saving isn't worth the effort. I object to paying a lot more for my groceries for the two leading supermarkets to turn the sale of groceries and petrol into an oligopoly*. I try to fill at an independent service station. The one where the soldier smiled at me is a good one....
(*Ahhh, high school economics, I should have paid more attention!)
6 comments:
ALP Fool Watch enough to drive a person to drink but drink is taxed to help fund the deficit caused by people buying less petrol that can be taxed. Merry go round.
Kae, if you’re driving 900km every week on your work commute you might want to look into leasing your car on a salary sacrifice package that includes fuel, insurance and routine services. You can sometimes break even or come out ahead tax-wise doing it that way. I know of one executive who commutes to work at VRWC HQ every day in a company-leased black helicopter that comes with two pathetic minions to polish the landing lights each morning before he wakes for coffee and reads the newspaper.
Splice, good idea. Should have known about it when I first started working there in 2001 - however, plans have changed a few times... and I'm hoping to sell and move closer to work.
Tragic, isn't it.
What a croc. I get annoyed when any of my staff use the words, "I think". It means they don't know.
I buy when my fuel gauge gets to E ... empty ... like tonight. Had to buy fuel tonight, the little fuel warning light was blinking. A tad over $90 for 55 lites. Why would I want to check the Web to see what is cheapest and drive out of my way if required, and top up more often? How do I check when driving? It's not the way I buy fuel, and I expect the same is done by many others.
I'm cranky about paying more for my stuff at Coles so that other people can save 4c a litre.
If I could use the vouchers, the 4c discount would save me $1.60 on a 40 litre fill up. That would allow me to buy an extra 1.06 litres at today's prices.
But I would have to burn 3 litres ($4.50) on the round trip to the nearest Shell station.
So I now shop at Aldi and buy fuel at IFS, both in the same suburb.
skeeter:
4 cents savings on $1.60 is 2.5% which is SFA. It's a con job. Always has been. The reason we notice it is because it is a commodity most of us need, and we see the prices yo-yoing or soaring, it's in our face. We, well I, drive past 30 petrol stations every morning to work. The average punter doesn't know what to think of it. They ring the local shock jock on the wireless to complain. They should be complaining about the lack of competition in our supermarket area, not fuel price fluctuations. But I agree, the fuel outlets will seem to be eventually be taken over by the grocery chains, that is a bigger evil.
That's my 2.5 cents worth ...
Stevo
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