The sure-fire way motorists can cut their petrol costs

ONE little change to your behaviour can save you from being a victim of big oil — and save you a bundle at the petrol pump.

Price fluctuations can leave many motorists at the mercy of big oil — but small behavioural changes can have a big impact on your yearly petrol bill.

I NEVER pay top dollar for petrol. Not any more. I’ll tell you why.

Like most people, I used to drive my car around until the low-fuel light came on. And then I’d drive it a bit more.

What did I care? I had a four-cylinder car that used hardly any petrol. If I happened to be running out when prices were near the low point of the cycle, well, happy days. If not, too bad. Big Oil got me.

Then we started a family and got an SUV that guzzles 14 litres per 100km.

I had to get smart. So what did I do?

ON NOTICE: Petrol companies warned not to hike prices before Christmas

I stopped buying when the tank was nearly empty and instead started filling up whenever fuel was at the low point in the cycle.

The hard part was getting out of the habit of driving until the light came on. I’d been doing it for 20 years. My wife thought I was mad at first, but now she gets it.

It does mean having to pull in to a servo more often, but I’m fine with that if it means I’m not getting ripped off by Big Oil.

I am no longer a price taker, in the economics sense of the term. I only buy when the fuel companies’ profit margin is at its slimmest (in fact they are probably losing money on me most of the time).

I think it’s a reasonable assumption to say that I’m saving about 10c/L compared to what I would have been paying, on average, if I had not changed my behaviour. The difference between the bottom and top of the cycle is at least 20c/L.

A driver who does 20,000km annually getting 10km per litre of fuel will save will save $200 a year employing this strategy. I save about the same, because I don’t drive that far in a year but my SUV uses more petrol.

It’s easy to monitor the cycle. The ACCC has a section of its site which provides guidance on how close to the bottom any capital city market is at any given time. And there are a range of apps now on the market (such as MotorMouth and GasBuddy, or in NSW, FuelCheck) which help you find the cheapest servo in your area.