Petrol prices! Collins to get to the bottom of it

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Petrol prices! Collins to get to the bottom of it

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Ultimate Geek
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#1713844 1-Feb-2017 11:42

MikeAqua:

Geese: As someone from the south island, uniform petrol prices is bad enough, but we don't even get any ethanol blended petrol either, not even in Christchurch.

And long may that continue. We get enough water in petrol already.

Agreed Ethanol is bad for cars that are not designed for it. Rubber degrades and clogs injectors.

Also 91 might be cheap at Gull but it is crap fuel that is mixed with whatever flammable product they can find.

ubergeeknz

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#1713846 1-Feb-2017 11:43

Surely stations/companies can charge whatever price they wish at whatever location ... otherwise it's price fixing

Supermarkets do the same, nobody is chasing them down for it.

Comes down to supply/demand. Of course people are going to pay more in wealthier areas; also overheads are higher and that has to come from somewhere.

MikeAqua

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#1713852 1-Feb-2017 11:54

shrub:

MikeAqua:

Geese: As someone from the south island, uniform petrol prices is bad enough, but we don't even get any ethanol blended petrol either, not even in Christchurch.

And long may that continue. We get enough water in petrol already.

Agreed Ethanol is bad for cars that are not designed for it. Rubber degrades and clogs injectors.

Also 91 might be cheap at Gull but it is crap fuel that is mixed with whatever flammable product they can find.

Water is bad for cars that are not designed for it - which is all of them.

If service stations with ethanol blends don't manage their tanks correctly they can get water layers in them.

Get that in you car and ...

Having a boat is educational. You fuel filter shows you how much water is in regular petrol. Quite a lot sometimes ...

Mike

alliao

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Ultimate Geek
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#1713853 1-Feb-2017 11:58

Geese: As someone from the south island, uniform petrol prices is bad enough, but we don't even get any ethanol blended petrol either, not even in Christchurch.

Grass is greener on the other side huh, ethanol's good for the environment but it lowers fuel efficiency as it's less dense in terms of energy.

NZ petrol prices is deliberately confusing for the purpose of milking consumer demand data. Think smartfuel/fuel cards/supermarket vouchers etc.

With more data they're able to profile drivers at a person level. And profiling is where the game is at.

By profiling they're able to determine price elasticity of a region and set prices accordingly. They're able to gauge demand, and conveniently have cheap fuels on the massive oil liners out on the sea while demand is high.

Never mind the extra cost involved in setting up all these data collection projects.

Welcome, to the brave new world of data.

Rikkitic

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#1713857 1-Feb-2017 12:10

timmmay:

I wondered if rent and wages were higher, but that wouldn't account for the difference. I assume it's greed and perhaps collusion between companies, because there's no monopoly.

How do you define a monopoly? There are only two supermarket chains in this country and that is known to hurt consumers. Z just bought out Caltex and Gull, so that leaves us with Z, BP (hardly a price breaker) and Mobil.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

MikeAqua

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#1713859 1-Feb-2017 12:13

Other companies in NZ have different pricing structure in areas with more competition - e.g. in transport, telecommunications, entertainment.

Mike

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#1713860 1-Feb-2017 12:17

alliao:

Geese: As someone from the south island, uniform petrol prices is bad enough, but we don't even get any ethanol blended petrol either, not even in Christchurch.

Grass is greener on the other side huh, ethanol's good for the environment but it lowers fuel efficiency as it's less dense in terms of energy.

NZ petrol prices is deliberately confusing for the purpose of milking consumer demand data. Think smartfuel/fuel cards/supermarket vouchers etc.

With more data they're able to profile drivers at a person level. And profiling is where the game is at.

By profiling they're able to determine price elasticity of a region and set prices accordingly. They're able to gauge demand, and conveniently have cheap fuels on the massive oil liners out on the sea while demand is high.

Never mind the extra cost involved in setting up all these data collection projects.

Welcome, to the brave new world of data.

And those of us who object to this in principle and are prepared to go to a tiny bit of trouble can easily undermine it. I never use discount cards and I pay everything in cash. It's not hard unless you just have to be one of those trendy dorks who think it is cool to wave your way through life. The data profilers must really love you.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

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Shop now on AliExpress (affiliate link).

vexxxboy

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#1713863 1-Feb-2017 12:20

Rotorua has been in a price war for months and the result is some of the cheapest Petrol in NZ. Its all been because of the Pak n save station who undercuts any station in Rotorua by at least 6 cents a litre . It has been around a 1.70 for 91 for a while and even in Tauranga ,where the refinery is , the prices are 15 cents a litre dearer

Common sense is not as common as you think.

Rikkitic

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#1713870 1-Feb-2017 12:31

Petrol is often relatively cheap in Hastings but our prices have been shooting up again. Are we subsidising a price war elsewhere?

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Geese

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#1713873 1-Feb-2017 12:34

There is a lot of myths and misinformation about ethanol blended fuel out there, I guess haters gonna hate.

In 2015 it was announced regional fuel pricing (discounting) was to end. I was pleased to enjoy it while it lasted. I was in SI for 10 months then returned to see discounting alive and well. I regularly see 42c off the price of 91 compared to SI price. So I'm not sure whether the discounted never in fact ended as reported, or whether prices did go up but tricked back down over following months.

Oblivian

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#1713932 1-Feb-2017 14:42

To me it reads the margin is being investigated. Not the daft head to head pricing we know exists. It comes down to these damn supermarket vouchers and unprecedented increases at pump I'd say.

As alluded to in the flybuys/airpoints thread. At present you can goto Mobil, get an instant 6-10c off for over $40 spend. No voucher required. Likewise as was the case of flashing a royalty card.

Supermarket, spend $1 and it now dishes out 6-8c off (that you cant really use at mobil due above). It use to be a minimum $20 spend and hit people like short buyers like me.

Has to be something in it (an artificial offset inflation applied at some point between this change) when they can change that headliner and discount instantly or spit out a ~$3-4 tank off for a $1 spend and still churn a margin.

Remember they all claim that 80%? of the per l price is the taxed tax and not raw cost+profit.

old3eyes

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#1713944 1-Feb-2017 15:02

reven:

south auckland i find about 30 cents cheaper than the central suburbs.

i often see 1.50-60 a litre for 91 (good day, petrol prices go up and down like mad) and drive past a petrol station i ellerslie for $1.97ish.

I just wish they all advertised their premium prices....

The average price I saw in central Auckland yesterday was 201.9c..

Regards,

Old3eyes

mattwnz

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#1713946 1-Feb-2017 15:08

NAI (Not another inquiry) that could take months. Isn't it the commerce commission who should be looking into this, as it appears to be another industry with a lack of competition.

Prices are really cheap for petrol in the Wairarapa compared to Wellington. In the Wairarapa you would expect them to be more expensive due to being a sparse population and it is a large area, and historically they have been more expensive . But they have a Gull, which creates some competition to the market.

jonathan18

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#1713983 1-Feb-2017 15:31

mattwnz:

NAI (Not another inquiry) that could take months. Isn't it the commerce commission who should be looking into this, as it appears to be another industry with a lack of competition.

Prices are really cheap for petrol in the Wairarapa compared to Wellington. In the Wairarapa you would expect them to be more expensive due to being a sparse population and it is a large area, and historically they have been more expensive . But they have a Gull, which creates some competition to the market.

Hence why you'll hear the term "Gull effect", as it is generally it is the areas with Gull service stations that the cheaper prices are. Lower NI is a case in point: Palmerston North, Levin and Masterton all have Gull stations, and these locations have some of the cheaper fuel in the country (across the brands). No such luck in Wellington though, hence the relatively high prices.

mattwnz

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#1714002 1-Feb-2017 15:49

jonathan18:

mattwnz:

NAI (Not another inquiry) that could take months. Isn't it the commerce commission who should be looking into this, as it appears to be another industry with a lack of competition.

Prices are really cheap for petrol in the Wairarapa compared to Wellington. In the Wairarapa you would expect them to be more expensive due to being a sparse population and it is a large area, and historically they have been more expensive . But they have a Gull, which creates some competition to the market.

Hence why you'll hear the term "Gull effect", as it is generally it is the areas with Gull service stations that the cheaper prices are. Lower NI is a case in point: Palmerston North, Levin and Masterton all have Gull stations, and these locations have some of the cheaper fuel in the country (across the brands). No such luck in Wellington though, hence the relatively high prices.

Although wouldn't that just prove that there is a lack of competition in the market, and that therefore NZers are paying too much in other areas? The probelm with a small population (although that makes NZ a relatively special place to live) is that there is a lack of competition in quite a few different markets, including food and building, which are staples.

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