2026 Fuel Prices & Security of Supply

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452 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#3478117 5-Apr-2026 06:41

johno1234:

The supply chain is not impacted. Supply is normal. We are experiencing unusual demand from stockpiling eff wits. They’re the same people who stockpiled toilet paper under Covid.

That may be your view. The owner put it down to irregular deliveries. He has owned it as long as I can remember, he's got no incentive to bs.

Kinda felt sorry for him , driving in there to buy LPG for theBBQ. In an EV, I did not smirk .

We chatted about the impact of price increases on farming, especially as prices for crops would have been set before March.

Otautahi Christchurch

DjShadow

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#3478321 5-Apr-2026 18:49

Did a round trip to Auckland yesterday from my parent’s place in Matamata, noticed 99% of drivers not in a rush to overtake. E.g I could be doing between 95-100km/h and could have a ute behind me, normally I’d expect to be overtaken when on a straight or at passing lanes but this time none of that happened.

The 1% was a Tivoli car on the way home overtaking every vehicle along the way, ironically saw the same car further on pulled over by the police

PolicyGuy

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#3478341 5-Apr-2026 22:17

DjShadow:

Did a round trip to Auckland yesterday from my parent’s place in Matamata, noticed 99% of drivers not in a rush to overtake. E.g I could be doing between 95-100km/h and could have a ute behind me, normally I’d expect to be overtaken when on a straight or at passing lanes but this time none of that happened.

The 1% was a Tivoli car on the way home overtaking every vehicle along the way, ironically saw the same car further on pulled over by the police

Most cars use substantially more fuel at 100-110km/h than they do at 90-95km/h.

Better still is to set your Adaptive Cruise Control to 101km/h and cuddle up behind a big rig or house bus or caravan that's limited to 90km/h.
You not only get the benefit from only going at 90km/h, but even better you get to drive in the great big hole in the air that the large vehicle in front has made. You'll be astounded how little fuel (petrol, diesel or electrons, it's all the same) you'll use. :)

johno1234

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#3478350 6-Apr-2026 06:43

… And it’s a very stress free way to travel too.

SaltyNZ

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#3478375 6-Apr-2026 10:02

I wondered about bunker fuel the other day. In What's Going On With Shipping a few days ago he mentioned bunker fuel prices have doubled or tripled. Around 15:20.

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HarmLessSolutions

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#3478384 6-Apr-2026 10:29

PolicyGuy:

Most cars use substantially more fuel at 100-110km/h than they do at 90-95km/h.

Better still is to set your Adaptive Cruise Control to 101km/h and cuddle up behind a big rig or house bus or caravan that's limited to 90km/h.
You not only get the benefit from only going at 90km/h, but even better you get to drive in the great big hole in the air that the large vehicle in front has made. You'll be astounded how little fuel (petrol, diesel or electrons, it's all the same) you'll use. :)

While Adaptive Cruise Control makes this strategy a lot safer than conventional tail gating it is worth being aware that HGVs can brake surprisingly effectively due to having plenty of rubber on the road and weight to make the tyres bite. My late father had a fleet of earthmoving tip trucks and I well remember him sounding off about inattentive tailgaters driving under the back of them.

https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/

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fastbike

452 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#3478388 6-Apr-2026 10:44

PolicyGuy:

DjShadow:

Did a round trip to Auckland yesterday from my parent’s place in Matamata, noticed 99% of drivers not in a rush to overtake. E.g I could be doing between 95-100km/h and could have a ute behind me, normally I’d expect to be overtaken when on a straight or at passing lanes but this time none of that happened.

The 1% was a Tivoli car on the way home overtaking every vehicle along the way, ironically saw the same car further on pulled over by the police

Most cars use substantially more fuel at 100-110km/h than they do at 90-95km/h.

Better still is to set your Adaptive Cruise Control to 101km/h and cuddle up behind a big rig or house bus or caravan that's limited to 90km/h.
You not only get the benefit from only going at 90km/h, but even better you get to drive in the great big hole in the air that the large vehicle in front has made. You'll be astounded how little fuel (petrol, diesel or electrons, it's all the same) you'll use. :)

A safe following distance is 56m at 100km/h. Are you suggesting to use an unsafe following distance ?

Otautahi Christchurch

ezbee

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#3478399 6-Apr-2026 11:15

Getting too close to a Truck may also put you in the rock or sandblasting zone.
Aside from risk of close contact with trucks differential.

Aside from having really good braking such that conservative following distance is your friend.
I have noted modern trucks have great acceleration so that common short passing lanes maybe very marginal for more than 1 car at a time.

Suppose after Easter we may see more price increases, as market factors in this is not going away soon?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/apr/05/middle-east-crisis-live-iran-israel-us-war-trump-strait-hormuz-missing-pilot-downed#top-of-blog

""
Oil prices rose again on Sunday, with US crude climbing above $114 per barrel following a series of aggressive social media posts and interviews from Trump setting a new deadline for Iran to reopen the strait of Hormuz.

By Sunday evening, US crude (WTI) had jumped more than 2% to $114.16 per barrel, while international benchmark Brent crude rose 1.72% to $110.91
""

mudguard

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#3478400 6-Apr-2026 11:16

fastbike:

A safe following distance is 56m at 100km/h. Are you suggesting to use an unsafe following distance ?

Guess it depends what the adaptive setting is. Mine has three and I have it on the biggest gap. Computer will react faster than I will. My car will do a full stop in about 35m so probably not close enough for a decent draught anyway.

fastbike

452 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#3478520 6-Apr-2026 15:14

mudguard:

fastbike:

A safe following distance is 56m at 100km/h. Are you suggesting to use an unsafe following distance ?

Guess it depends what the adaptive setting is. Mine has three and I have it on the biggest gap. Computer will react faster than I will. My car will do a full stop in about 35m so probably not close enough for a decent draught anyway.

Same, my propilot has 3 distance settings . Stopping distance depends on more factors than what the reviews show.

Anyway I'd rather have to recharge a little more often than take the additional risk .

Otautahi Christchurch

fastbike

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Ultimate Geek
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#3478522 6-Apr-2026 15:27

ezbee:Oil prices rose again on Sunday, with US crude climbing above $114 per barrel following a series of aggressive social media posts and interviews from Trump setting a new deadline for Iran to reopen the strait of Hormuz.

By Sunday evening, US crude (WTI) had jumped more than 2% to $114.16 per barrel, while international benchmark Brent crude rose 1.72% to $110.91

The refineries that supply us generally do not buy crude priced as WTI or Brent.

Arabian sour and other ME grades are now priced above Brent which was not the case prior to this war.

Also refinery margins in Asia have increased and shipping/insurance are more expensive.

Bernard Hickey did a good explainer on his Substack last week .

So lots of reasons that retail prices do not reflect the two benchmarks the msm reference.

Otautahi Christchurch

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mudguard

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#3478537 6-Apr-2026 16:50

fastbike:

Same, my propilot has 3 distance settings . Stopping distance depends on more factors than what the reviews show.

Anyway I'd rather have to recharge a little more often than take the additional risk .

A nice surface and soft tyres probably key. I don't know what the treadwear rating of my RE003s are, I don't think they are crazy soft.

johno1234

3379 posts

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#3478566 6-Apr-2026 20:01

ezbee:

Getting too close to a Truck may also put you in the rock or sandblasting zone.
Aside from risk of close contact with trucks differential.

Aside from having really good braking such that conservative following distance is your friend.
I have noted modern trucks have great acceleration so that common short passing lanes maybe very marginal for more than 1 car at a time.

Suppose after Easter we may see more price increases, as market factors in this is not going away soon?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/apr/05/middle-east-crisis-live-iran-israel-us-war-trump-strait-hormuz-missing-pilot-downed#top-of-blog

""
Oil prices rose again on Sunday, with US crude climbing above $114 per barrel following a series of aggressive social media posts and interviews from Trump setting a new deadline for Iran to reopen the strait of Hormuz.

By Sunday evening, US crude (WTI) had jumped more than 2% to $114.16 per barrel, while international benchmark Brent crude rose 1.72% to $110.91
""

Truck braking is much slower and longer than cars. Cars are light, have sticky tyres, disc brakes and ABS. Trucks are heavy, have hard tyres, air driven drum brakes and no ABS.
Luckily trucks are mostly driven by competent drivers unlike cars whose drivers mostly don’t know what they’re doing.

NZTA advises: At 90 km/h, a truck-trailer unit will generally take more than twice as far to stop as a car, because of the unit’s weight and brake design. This is a key reason to leave extra space when following or merging near heavy vehicles.
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/safety/driving-safely/sharing-the-road/sharing-the-road-with-trucks-and-oversize-vehicles

tweake

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#3478568 6-Apr-2026 20:15

johno1234:

Truck braking is much slower and longer than cars. Cars are light, have sticky tyres, disc brakes and ABS. Trucks are heavy, have hard tyres, air driven drum brakes and no ABS.
Luckily trucks are mostly driven by competent drivers unlike cars whose drivers mostly don’t know what they’re doing.

NZTA advises: At 90 km/h, a truck-trailer unit will generally take more than twice as far to stop as a car, because of the unit’s weight and brake design. This is a key reason to leave extra space when following or merging near heavy vehicles.
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/safety/driving-safely/sharing-the-road/sharing-the-road-with-trucks-and-oversize-vehicles

not all that true these days.

modern trucks have disk brakes and abs. they can stop very well.

johno1234

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#3478569 6-Apr-2026 20:23

Be that as it may, the laws of common sense, physics and the NZTA agree that trucks take a lot longer to stop from the same speed as cars.
Plenty of literature online about this. It’s not even close.
https://engineerfix.com/how-much-longer-does-it-take-a-truck-to-stop-than-a-car/

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