Reason for Adelaide's petrol price spikes revealed by petroleum industry advocate
The petrol station industry has defended Adelaide’s bizarre 33 per cent fuel price jumps by explaining “some outlets provide barista coffee”.
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Bowser bandits are reaping up to $850,000 a day in profit by charging 40c more a litre for petrol in the same Adelaide suburbs.
Real-time fuel app MotorMouth studied the volume sold late last week when a small number of large retailers forced a spike in the market, charging up to $1.75c a litre.
While the average price was 130.5c/l as the spike hit, outlets across Adelaide were soon selling fuel at 174.9c/l, an additional profit of 44c a litre.
This was despite the wholesale price paid by retailers being 136c/l during the spike.
MotorMouth has found that the combined total motorists could have saved was $861,901 based on a daily sales volume of 1.9 million litres.
“Depending on how much you drive, this could add up to $500-plus per year by using the real-time pricing available from the MotorMouth website and app,’’ the spokesman said.
The 174.9c/l spike has become a standard pattern in Adelaide’s price cycle, which takes about five days to peak before easing to the minimum price over two weeks.
Motorists have been left angry and confused at how fuel costs can be subjected to a 33 per cent price increase in a matter of hours. Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association boss Mark McKenzie defended the price variations.
He claimed it was evident that the market “was working and large savings could be made”.
“The other thing people must realise is that the variation in price they see from outlet to outlet can be from the very different overheads each outlet has,’’ Mr McKenzie said.
“The price of an apple will also vary greatly between a large supermarket, a corner store and an organic farm set-up.
“There are seven different business models operating in service stations, and you only have to look at the size of some of them to see this.
“Some of the larger outlets provide barista coffee, a large range of supermarket items and fuel can in total have more than three times the staff of the smaller outlets.
“If all prices were the same, there would be a fair chance the market would be investigated for collusion.’’
A spokeswoman for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it updated website information three times a week.
“We encourage people to shop around, particularly with independents and use fuel apps,’’ the spokeswoman said.
“Currently, prices likely to decrease further and if possible, motorists should delay buying petrol until later.’’