Keep on at your MP and local paper about fuel price's

[Steve L]

I have been regularly E-mailing our local MP Bill Wiggin to show him some of the dirty tricks of our local supermarket fuel station (yep there's only 1 in Leominster). Below is what got published in the Hereford Times county paper.

The point being, if enough of us can be bothered to spent 10 mins tapping the keys to fill the MP's and Newspaper's "in box" then eventually he/she might start to listen to the constituants. All too often what we get today is supermarkets blaming the chancellor for the price hike, the stock market dropping the barrel price of crude oil, the refinerynot discounting the retailer enough be competative.

Then there's us, (Mr & Mrs Genaral Public) the poor hard working sods who just have to cough up the price of fuel regardless because we need to work to run the car to get to work to put food, shelter and clothing into our family.

So go on. Make your stand today.
Dear Mr Wiggin MP, Mr Quentin Wilson and Herefordtimes readers.
The cost of running your car/taxi/business vehicle or even your Moped to get to college is a subject that is virtually top of any discussion at work/home or in the pub (for those fortunate enough to have spare income).

Petrol and diesel prices have been taking a "one way" spiral journey upwards for some time now. I highlighted a certain supermarket fuel stations antics just prior to last month's budget. Where they consistantly put 1p per litre per day on the cost of diesel for seven consecutive days prior to a 1p discount being awarded us the tax payer in the budget.
It some what sadden's me to have to raise the same antics yet again, but until someone decides to stand up to be counted it seems I'm the only one in Leominster willing to speak his/her mind.
On Monday 18th March our local supermarket fuel station on a directive from head office started it's campaigne of supposedly giving us the public a welcome 6p per litre discount on the current price of a litre of petrol or diesel if we spend £40 on groceries in their store. Now I do applaude them for trying a new business tactic to increase the foot fall both in the store and the fuel station. But whta I and many others didn't like when we went to fill our diesel fuelled cars and lorries the very next day was that , they had added 1p to the cost of a litre of diesel. Thus now discounting fuel at 5p per litre effectively.

When I passed comment at the pay point in the petrol station I was clearly told that It was the government's fault that the supermarket had been forced to put the price of fuel up, not even 24 hrs after starting their sales driven discount drive.

Now while the govenment via customs and excise and the inland revenue do take a very substancial percentage of the cost of fuel to us the public, they don't appear to be the driving force on deciding the daily cost of fuel at the pumps. That "pleasure" lies firmly in the hands of the supermarkets who sell the fuel to us. Now let's not be further led astray by the supermarkets as they are currently posting end of tax year profits in the millions and billions yet again.

I realy would of thought that for once, there could of been a genuine discount given to the public to try to give a real feel good factor to the first holiday period. After all, what is a few pence to a conglomerate who stand to increase basic food sales by a substancial percentage while we the general public scrabble for every penny of our hard earned income.

It would be very interesting to hear what our MP and his government propose to do to curtail excessive profiteering at the expence of the general public? That is the same general public who voted them into a position of power hoping that somebody somewhere would actually try to look after the interest's of the masses instead of the gains of the few.

It will be very interesting to see the replies to this subject.

Yours sceptically

 

[mullsy1]

There has been a day of protest around the Stanlow refinery today.I doubt it will have any impact to supplies since the action protestors can take is limited.Unless people are prepared to confront politicians head on nothing will change.HM gov need as much revenue as it can get its hands on and the motorist will always be in the crosshairs.As an aside,I read recently that the allowance for tobacco products that you can bring in from abroad is to be slashed in an attempt to reduce the loss of tax revenue.

 

[drsorento]

Steve, just for you information a barrel of Brent crude and WTI crude has droped by around 4% over the last 2 weeks.
But still my local Tescos sees fit to add another 1p per ltr to both unleaded and diesel.
When Mr Osbourne dropped the duty on fuels by a whole 1p in the budget he assured the british public that he would be "Watching the oil companies" for unfair increases in fuel prices, well come on Mr Osbourne take Stevie Wonders glasses off and have a look !!!!!!

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

It is a fact that fuel prices are higher than they should be given the price of crude oil. however aming a shot at the supermarkets is like firing a blank shot at a rabbit, it may make it nervious but will do no harm the profiteering is nation wide with price fixing cartels in charge of the pump price no ammount of moaning (sorry Steve) will make any difference.
before the budget every petrol station in our area put the price up by a few pence in antcisipation of a duty reduction on buget day as it turns out it was only 1p so the fuel pump price was higher BECAUSE the chancellor reduced the duty since then the price has gone up a further 3p and now stands locally @ £1.43p a litre for diesel. the cheapest fuel locally is from the super market @ £1.41p with no fuel deals on offer the queues at the pumps have to be seen to be believed even at 10pm on a night as the lemmings try to save a few pence per litre (less than £1 on a tank full).

the only real way to combat the fuel price is I believe TO USE LESS FUEL. end of story.

colin

 

[Surfer]

We stopped using supermarket fuel about 5 ytearfs ago when we realised it was false economy. We do get better consumption, more mpg and cleaner burning using non supermarket fuel. We found this applied to diesel and petrol engines!

 

[RickStevens]

I 100% agree with that Surfer, I stopped using Supermarket fuel quite some time ago too, and I noticed an instant increase in mpg. It also tends to be a bit cheaper than the supermarkets around here too

 

[ProfJohnL]

There is a lot of hype about fuels, and it is difficult to get to the truth, and depending on who you ask you get a different version of the 'Truth' – so much so that I am not sure one way or the other!

What seems to beyond doubt is that all motive power fuels sold in the UK have to meet certain BS standards, but as anyone in industry should know a BS standard is the minimum that should be achieved, and there is nothing stopping a manufacture from exceeding the standards, So rather than describing some fuel supplies as poor, it is more accurate to describe some fuel supplies as better and the remainder as being adequate. But this begs the question of what do you mean by 'better'

What Car have published the following:-
"Q: I know that diesel fuel has to adhere to standards, but do supermarket garages maintain that quality? Does unbranded fuel mean that they reduce the additives to sell the fuel at a lower price? I have heard they do this with petrol, or is this untrue?
Dennis Chester

A: According to the Petrol Retailers' Association, there is no difference between the standard petrol and diesel that you buy from either a franchised fuel station or a supermarket forecourt. In many cases, the fuel is sourced from the same refineries and sometimes delivered in the same tankers.

Supermarkets are prepared to sell their fuel at very little or almost no profit in order to tempt shoppers into the supermarket. The theory is that shoppers will think that if it sells cheap fuel, it'll also sell cheap food.
The difference in fuels is in specialist or premium fuels, such as Shell Optimax and BP Ultimate, which contain additives to improve performance and efficiency. When you buy these fuels, you pay for the special ingredients."
http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/what-car-q-and-a/is-supermarket-diesel-inferior/217130

A google search soon picks up all sorts of forums and threads about which brands of fuel are better ?, and from the ones I have seen there is no conclusive or single answer.

Different people have different meanings for 'what is better' and it seems to break down into five general categories:-
Price
Fuel consumption
Smoothness of running/power
Detergents/Cleaning
Emissions

Price is easy to ascertain but its has to be considered in relation to the other 'benefits'. As for cost differences, apparent savings of a few pence per litre are easily swallowed up if you have to go out your way to obtain the fuel.

Few cars cost less than 14p worth of fuel per mile to run(Approx. 45mpg or 10mpL), and when you take into account all the other running costs (Tax. MOT Insurance, Repairs Servicing etc) few people will get change out of 50p per mile. So the fuel cost saving has to be fairly substantial to warrant a diversion or a special journey.

Smoothness of running and power delivery are pretty subjective, but this is where I do believe my Diesel vehicles do seem noticeably worse on one particular supermarket brand. But the difference between other supermarket brands and the national brands regular fuel is difficult to distinguish. But I do note a marked change with at least one premium brand – the engines are definitely smoother, but is that due to a little less power – I'm not sure

Some significant claims are made for the cleaning abilities of the premium brands, One of my Diesels smokes under heavy acceleration (though it passes the MOT) and despite using a premium grade for quite some time, there was no noticeable improvement. This makes me sceptical about some of the claims, but then there are other respected journals that do confirm some of the premium fuels do help to clean the inside of the engines.

One is inclined to believe that a new and therefore clean engine (assuming nothing else is broken or out of adjustment) will minimise emissions, so in theory it makes sense that an engine that stays clean (and mechanically sound) is likely to keep any emissions at a minimum. Equally it seems sensible to believe that an engine that is kept clean is likely to last longer.

What constitutes a better fuel, is still therefore open to much debate. Improved MPG is a difficult one to prove outside of a laboratory. There are all sorts of variables which may skew the results, For example simply believing you have a a fuel that gives better MPG may subconsciously affect the way you drive - i.e. less aggressive acceleration and slightly lower top speeds both of which yields a fuel saving.

So I conclude – There is no conclusion yet.

 

[Surfer]

Some of you will remember Robjax who worked in the petroleum industry and it was he who advised that there could be a difference in using supermarket fuel or a branded fuel. I don't think any of us can surpass his knowledge of the chemical make up of the various fuels. Pity I cannot find his original post about it.

 

[Parksy]

I managed to find some posts from the late 'rob_jax' which may have some relevance to what you are saying Surfer:
This Topic was from October 2007 and rob_jax first comments are from post #89 onwards.

In November of the same year Robert stated in This topic that there was no discernible difference between normal (non premium) supermarket fuel and branded fuels.
I have to say that on my own (older but well maintained) towing vehicle I haven't noticed any difference between supermarket and branded diesel fuel except perhaps in price but every engine and every driver is different and different drivers might notice differing results when driving outwardly identical vehicles.

 

[ValA.]

In France, where I've been watching prices using the French Government website - Fuel Prices - prices at the pumps have come down between 8 cents and 14 cents a litre over the past ten days - reflecting the drop in the price of a barrel of crude oil. A litre of diesel is now beween 1.24 and 1.50 (depending on the fuel station) compared to 1.33 and 1.64 some days ago. In British pounds, that's around £1.08 (supermarkets) to £1.31 (autoroutes) a litre.
Like Parksy we haven't noticed any problem with using supermarket diesel, which we have been doing for a couple of years now..
I hate to say it, but some years ago when the Government became anti-smoking in a big way, and outlawed smoking almost everywhere, I forecast that they would have to recoup the lost revenue somewhere, and it now seems to be in the price of fuel.

 

[JP1]

If anyone does want to get in touch with their MP, but isn’t quite sure who it is or how to do it, there a couple of options. The Parliament web site lets you find your MP based on your postcode and will return both their web site and postal address.
A better option, however, is TheyWorkForYour.com. Not only will this site also find your MP based on your postcode, but it also presents links for sending them a message and you can also opt to get an automatic email that notifies you when the MP speaks in Parliament.
Better still, TheyWorkForYou.com also lets you look at your MP’s voting record, along with such interesting titbits as their expenses claims and topics of interest.

 

[Steve L]

Thanks for the info Jp and Val.
At least three of us are more concerned with the price of fuel rather thean it's chemical make up or waffle factor.
If everyone wrote a nice consice letter to their MP, it would have to be answered if you take the time to state you want a reply.

The overall affect from one person might go un-noticed but if 100'000 letters turned up at westminster that would get noticed. Better still if every caravan owner sent a letter they'd need a warehouse to hold the post.

There is no decernable difference between supermarket or branded fuel except COST .
Cost of fuel to the motorist is number 2 on the pud chat list and only surpassed by football banter.

In short, the french drop their fuel prices in line with the crude oil daily price because, they don't want blockades or farmers emptying slurry tankers all over their local council offices. The french know how to kick up a stink !!!

I've had the reply back from Bill Wiggin MP to my complaint about fuel price rip off's and basically I'm getting under his skin, by the tone of his letter. So rather than being the NIT in his hair or the Tick on his scalp, I'm aiming to get into the grey matter under the Skull. That way he might just wake up at PM question time and make a speach. He'll also find me at his constituancey office when he holds a surgery. But I won't be supping G&T's with him.

I'll scan and post his letter later.

 

[ValA.]

Thanks JP. I've just used that link to email my MP! I will add it to my armoury of 'protest' methods!

 

[Gafferbill]

……….in 1964 I bought my first car.
At the time petrol was 25p per gallon or 5.5p per litre and a good wage was £15 per week.
You could buy 273 litres of petrol with £15
Today you can buy 273 litres of petrol with £377.
Not much has changed really except the cars.
My first car did 28 mpg……my current run around does over 50mpg

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

……….in 1964 I bought my first car.
At the time petrol was 25p per gallon or 5.5p per litre and a good wage was £15 per week.
You could buy 273 litres of petrol with £15
Today you can buy 273 litres of petrol with £377.
Not much has changed really except the cars.
My first car did 28 mpg……my current run around does over 50mpg

Thanks for that Bill a man with my own thinking the last time this subject came up a wrote a similar post that was largely ignored, however the point you make is relevent I dont go quite as far back as you my first car a mini was bought in1967 the price if memory serves was just under £400 a fortune in those days equvalent to a 6 months pay. a gallon of fuel about 30p so a tankfull cost a days pay down the pit, and for that I could travel about 320miles or from home to devon.

before giving up work a small car could be bought for about 6mths pay and a gallon of fuel about £6 (in litres) a 40litre tankfull however would go 400miles or from home to cornwall on a darn site less than a days pay, if the added cost of tax insurance servicing ect is taken into account motoring cost less than it did 44years ago overall, at worst it is the same motoring was expensive then as it is now it is just a cost you have to bear to keep doing it. as Gafferbill said "no much changes"

 

[emmerson]

Like you two, I've been saying that for years! Instead of costing things in money, cost it in man-hours.
The only snag is, it doesn't quite work if you're a pensioner!
( I can remember when four gallons cost under a pound. I was earning 1s2d (around 7p). per hour, therefore that gallon cost almost four hours work.Today it would cost less than the minimum wage for one hour.)