Cheap fuel days end in the Northern Rivers

CHEAP TRICKS: The days of a cheap day in the fuel cycle no longer exist according the NRMA.

SAY farewell to the ‘cheap Tuesday’ and ‘fill-up Friday’ in the petrol cycle as data suggest service stations are straying away from price promotions at the bowser.

The promotions usually involve pricing below the recommended fuel price to entice customers to stop a specific station.

However, NRMA spokeswoman Bridget Ahern said that those days are likely to be over.

“Gone are the days of cheap fuel days, what used to happen was some of the servos would decide they would offer cheap prices to have a sale day and get more people through the door and they don’t do that these days,” Ms Ahern said.

“At the NRMA we believe that prices should be fair and low all the time, that they shouldn’t promote cheaper petrol at a certain time, they should just be offering well-priced petrol all the time,” Ms Ahern said.

Part of that reason is the Northern Rivers operates in a different manner to the fuel pricing found in metropolitan areas like Sydney.

“What we know is that prices don’t fluctuate like they do in Sydney – in Sydney we know we have cycles and usually they go anywhere from 20 to 40 days,” Ms Ahern said.

“We’ve seen a lot of price jumps in Sydney and areas around Sydney but what has happened in the Northern Rivers is you saw some early increases as the world oil price and wholesale price went up, you’ve had very incremental rises,” Ms Ahern said.

With restrictions lifted and NSW travel being encouraged, it is important that the residents remember different areas sync with different markets.

“The Tweed does tend to follow more closely what the Brisbane market is doing and Brisbane’s fuel market spiked earlier so prices got high up towards the Tweed,” Ms Ahern said.

For live updates see the My NRMA app or the NSW government’s FuelCheck website.