Melbourne petrol price gouge catching out motorists
These Melbourne motorists are forking out as much as 40 cents a litre extra to fill up their tank and are now being urged to “top up not fill up”.
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City motorists are getting slugged more than 40 cents a litre for petrol than their country counterparts alarming results show.
And suburban drivers are being urged to “top up not fill up” until prices fall back down to within the 130c/l range.
Melbourne motorists are paying up to 175.9c/l for unleaded fuel compared to some regions such as Ballarat and Bendigo where fuel can be purchased within the 130c/l to 140c/l range.
It costs $87.95 to fill up a 50 litre tank at 175.9c/l compared to $65 at 130.9c/l – a difference of $22.95.
RACV spokesman Brody Bott blamed a lack of competition for the price discrepancies between metropolitan and regional markets.
“Melbourne petrol stations follow a price cycle, with a sudden surge in prices followed by a gradual decline,” he said.
“Once the retail price nears, matches or sometimes falls below the wholesale price, petrol stations tend to raise their prices.”
He said a lack of competition in the regional areas meant motorists filling up in these areas had “similar prices all year round”.
Mr Bott urged motorists to fill up “when prices are low and top up when prices climb.”
There are more than 1000 service stations in Victoria and about 750 in the Melbourne metropolitan area.
Figures from the Australian Institute of Petroleum found despite recent petrol price hikes in Melbourne the wholesale price for unleaded fuel has fallen in the past week from $112 per barrel on January 6 to $104 on January 14.
But industry price monitoring service Fueltrac’s spokesman Chris Kable said city motorists don’t always get gouged.
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“If you look at the average that metropolitan price it would be lower on average than the regional areas over a period of a month or six weeks,” he said.
A spokesman for Viva Energy – which determines Coles Express’ outlet prices – said the price differences “can vary across metropolitan and regional areas, reflecting transport costs, competition and other local area factors”.
A BP spokesman also said their prices were impacted by a number of variants including “international product prices and competition between service stations in a local area”.
“There are also other factors including exchange rates, taxes and operating costs,” he said.
NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said “the prices in the regions really don’t change that much”.
“In the capital cities you see price cycles where they have more dramatic price movement,” he said.
“There’s nowhere else in the world that has this movement in prices.”
He said prices have been higher than they are now in the capital cities.
“For premium fuel we almost nudged $2 when prices got really high late last year,” Mr Khoury said.