Taxi Driver Online

A long drive today from Gloucester to Lincoln via Stratford on Avon. Every forecourt I drove past was advertising diesel at 199.9 per litre. How weird is that?

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Former taxi driver

No more weird than pricing things in at 99p in the first place. Just that but on a bigger scale. Psychological pricing it's called - making you think it's cheaper than it is.

(I think that's why we ended up with our £3.95 flagfall on T2, and all the annoying 5 pences, when previously our smallest increment was 20p. Trying to avoid showing a flag of £4 on the meter.)

And obviously no one want to be the first above £2 per litre, but once the dam breaks, they'll probably all fall

It was probably much the same when the £1 per litre barrier was about to be breached

Looks like price fixing to me.

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Former taxi driver

the Competition and Markets Authority said a main driver of rises was the growing gap between the price of crude oil before it goes into a processing plant compared to the price once oil refineries have processed it into petrol and diesel.

The difference between crude oil and the wholesale price of petrol and diesel had tripled in the past year from 10p to nearly 35p per litre. The CMA said the increase accounts for over 40% - or 24p per litre - of the rise in fuel prices over the past year.

even the authorities think so

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Aye, well, it's probably due to the normal theory of oligopoly rather than a price-fixing cartel as such

So if prices are easily comparable then one outlet won't raise theirs, because they know they'll lose a shedload of customers.

On the other hand, they won't lower prices to attract customers because they know competitors will all lower theirs, so it's lose-lose.

So basically it's a small number of outlets rather than a monopoly or price-fixing cartel, and they end up all charging the same or very similar prices, and prices often seem to get 'stuck'.

Maybe a bit like you're in Tesco, and they advertise a few lines as 'Aldi price match'. Of course, what they don't tell you is that Tesco's other 30,000 lines *aren't* Aldi price matched.

But as regards fuel retailers, there's only one product that everyone's price comparing.

I do love that word.

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IDFIMH

price per litre

try buying 1 litre...

cant be done

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

Most pumps do have a notice stating minimum amount is 2 litres.
We have our Esso fuel filling station (see what I did there based on another thread) at 195.9, Tesco store at 197.9 and both BPs at 199.9

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Grandad,

I think someone is telling porkies

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

Fuel prices creeping down slowly now. Cheapest I’ve seen (non-supermarket) has been £193.9. (Diesel)

Currently £1.804 for Diesel on My fuel card.....But that doesnt mean it wont creep up again.

Esso closest to my house, now £186.9.

Main Shell in Dundee was down to 190.9 (diesel) a few days ago, and seemed to drop around 7p overnight. Oddly, for a few days before I'm sure Tesco in Dundee was charging the same as Shell, or maybe even a penny dearer

But Tesco has dropped at least 10p now, and think it's in the high 1.80s.

The Shell between Dundee and St Andrews is a penny or two dearer than the Shell in Dundee, but that's about the norm.

But the Shell in St Andrews hasn't budged from 1.99 for weeks. Guessing it'll drop a couple of pence soon, assuming the others don't go back up.

But the Shell is the only branded outlet in St Andrews, and Morrison's is on the wrong edge of town rather than bang in the centre like Shell. So to a degree there's less competitive pressure on Shell St Andrews, particularly with the town hoaching for the Open. So maybe that's another reason it hasn't budged from 1.99.

put my SECOND £20 worth in in 2 weeks

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most