Move to make garages show petrol prices
Wednesday 24th August 2011, 2:58PM BST.
Garages could be forced to display their prices
EVERY garage in Jersey could be forced to display its petrol prices if new proposals are accepted by the States.
Senator Alan Breckon yesterday lodged a proposition calling for a change in the law to force retailers to ensure that their fuel prices are visible to passing motorists.
It comes just weeks after the Island’s competition watchdog, the Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority, called for the law change after carrying out a lengthy investigation into fuel prices.
In its report, the JCRA said that when taxes and duties are removed, Island motorists are paying more for fuel than drivers anywhere else in Britain and almost anywhere else on the Continent.
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Yes, but when there are signs, they are misleading.
For example the ones that show a price in a large font and have small writing below saying “with a Rubis card”
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they,ll put their prices up to pay for the new signage
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Has Alan Breckon nothing better to do?
Do we really need large and prominent signs showing the price of a litre of 4 star when there are only a handful of petrol retailers on the island and most of us visit a retailer on the basis that it is conveniently located and where the price is reasonable.
Driving round the island looking at signs represents poor research when the information is already published by the consumer watchdog. Clearly visitors might not know how to access this information however more than anyone else their buying behaviour will be influenced by convenience.
I am all in favour of competition on price and service grounds however don’t believe this proposal will help.
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about time…
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I hope that the Senator regards http://www.jerseyfuelwatch.com as going some way to helping to promote better price competition in the Jersey road fuel market. It makes prices visible wherever a consumer is able to access the web – they don’t even have to drive past. Better forecourt signage would help too.
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Yet another about turn by the States – it was them that would not allow forecourt signage in the first place !!!
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‘Island motorists are paying more for fuel than drivers anywhere else in Britain’
Blatantly untrue.
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I went into a shop the other day for a packet of crisps. When I saw the packet cost ten pounds I felt compelled to pay. After all, what else could I do; I was in the shop and had looked at the crisps. Now I’m broke.
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Good idea. I also think that they should get rid of the rediculous .9p prices too. It isn’t feasibly possible to buy a litre of petrol in Jersey!
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Hasn’t this man anything better to do? like most current states member’s he is a waste of space, time, and our money!……the price is clearly advertised on the pump and most motorists know where to buy the cheapest fuel anyway.
More bureaucratic administration and someone to monitor the garages I suppose!
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Seems like a good idea to me, I read the local consumer newsletter that comes through the door and Motor mall is always cheapest, I always go there. I can’t understand why people even go to the more expensive garages, it’s an extra £10 a week to buy petrol from some, that’s over £500 a year – more money than sense.
garages could display the price with those offering discount schemes showing the pump price and discount price, not rocket science is it.
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There’s method behind the madness, but ultimately the customer will suffer the costs of this in the end with,
Cost of making these signs,
The space taken up on the forecourt,
Will planning permission have to be applied for.
Insurance on these signs.
These added expenses to name but a few!
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I doubt the expenses would add up to much in terms of the total turnover of the garage.
I reckon the small ones must turnover a few hundred thousand a year and the big ones must turnover millions.
Last year the island got through 51 million litres of road fuel, that is about £60 million worth split between fifty odd businesses. I doubt a few signs would put much of a dent in that and it might improve competition by making islanders more price aware.
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Hopefully this will help to make the different prices charged on Jersey a lot more transparent – as let’s face it people are not constantly looking at the prices on the jersetfuelwatch site – not only that some of the garage prices are out of date – my local garage is 3.5p cheaper per litre of unleaded than on that site.
However taking the prices from this site the cost of filling up the average car (60 litres) with unleaded petrol is £12 different – when you compare the most and least expensive. Such a huge range is amazing. Anyone who gets their petrol at the St Marys filling station needs their head examined.
They could be saving in excess of £350 per year at little or no inconvenience.
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I live on the mainland and am used to prices being displayed outside filling stations.
When I am in Jersey I sometimes have to drive right in to see the price on the pump. If it is not competitive I drive on out (and unlike many Jersey drivers I observe the proper direction of travel when using petrol pumps).
It now occurs to me that driving in and out without making a purchase is a better way of conveying one’s dissatisfaction with the price to the station staff, management and even proprietors than driving straight past a sign which is visible from the road.
Said As Seen #14
‘They could be saving in excess of £350 per year at little or no inconvenience’
I would wager that many of those who are prepared to throw away that sort of money per annum also go to considerable lengths to move their money around to get the best interest rates. They might even have come to Jersey as 1(1)(k)s to get the best tax deal!
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Matthew Robins (5) http://www.jerseyfuelwatch.com …. helping to promote better price competition
Yes Matthew it is working. I have started to monitor prices and almost all retailers have started to move towards the Motormall benchmark low price. If you take Pip’s figure of 51 Million litres per annum, that is a saving to the general public of at least £500,000, even without the signs. Power to the consumer.
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It comes from the official figures;
http://www.gov.je/SiteCollectionDocuments/Industry%20and%20finance/ID%20Quarterly%20excise%20duty%20statistics%2020100101%20JL.pdf
Interestingly islanders drink a litre of beer for every five litres of road fuel consumed.
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17 Pip Clement –
Interestingly islanders drink a litre of beer for every five litres of road fuel consumed.
I must be in the minority, I only drink beer, I let the car have the fuel.
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Said As Seen #14
Thanks for your feedback. If you’ve seen a price on http://www.jerseyfuelwatch.com that’s out of date please do update it – the site depends on consumers reporting the prices and it only takes a few secs. You’d be doing everyone a favour.
Thanks
Matthew
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Whilst not being signed up to any I am led to believe, and stand to be corrected, that some of the larger, chained, outlets give a 10% reduction if you are signed up to a no strings attached loyalty/store card.
So if every motorist in the Island signed up to one of them all would pay 10% less.
This tells me that the outlets are currently over charging a smidgen under 9%! They must be if they can afford to give all motorists the 10% discount for loyalty because that is a distinct possibility in a small catchment area like this. Come on petrol comparison man take that to the States
No doubt if challenged as to why they can only afford to sell it to you 10 % less when the holder of a loyalty/store card or similar they will immediately pull the deal outlining how projections on take up always indicated that the majority of motorists would not take up the deal but if everyone did they would make a loss.
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Why not make pubs put big signs outside saying how much a pint costs?
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Why not make dentists put huge signs up out side their practices stating the chrage for a clean and polish?
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7 R B Bougourd
You didn’t quote the entire sentence, of course its going to be untrue.
I’m all for these signs, even ones outside pubs. The price difference inside these establishments is more shocking than at the petrol pumps.
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This is just Breckon trying to raise a flagging political and media profile. it’s a nonsense, non story really, particularly as he’s just copying someone else who suggested it weeks ago. Everyone knows as well where the fuel is cheapest. Breckon is just wasting states time once again.
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RON 98
’7 R B Bougourd
You didn’t quote the entire sentence, of course its going to be untrue.’
Didn’t need to, Ron. I’m not concerned with how much petrol costs on the Continent.
In any case, the article writer did not place the word ‘almost’ in such a way as to include Britain as well as the Continent.
In fact, the story would have been more accurate if the writer had stated that petrol can still be bought at lower prices in Jersey than almost anywhere in Britain.
If people choose to pay the higher prices in Jersey or on the mainland, then they are fools. Apart from anything else it encourages sellers to push their luck with prices, knowing that large numbers don’t care what the price is.
Of course, a significant percentage of motorists don’t pay for their petrol themselves anyway and an even greater percentage of diesel users fall into this category, hence the totally unjustifiable higher price of diesel.
It’s ‘what the market will bear’, pure and simple and it’s high time that there was serious uproar about it. In fact I sense the beginnings of serious uproar on a number of fronts in Jersey, at long last.
http://www.jerseyfuelwatch.com should be congratulated for leading the way.
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Pubs display signs showing the cost and quantity of all alcoholic beverages available.
They also display signs showing the name of the person holding the license and the category of license held.
Requiring petrol stations to show prices would not require a big law change or a huge cost to the suppliers but it would be a benefit for the average islander.
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Should be standard procedure.
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