Nullarbor Fuel Prices

Hi Polaris, I am from Cairns and on my trip I found Cairns - $155.9 and Winton $152.9, in Mt Garnet it was $147.9.
We have always had high prices in Cairns, not sure why, they all have different reason???????????
Damien

Totally agree with you Joe I don't complain about outback prices but I do about coastal towns and cities. Cairns is on the run from the middle east and the far east on its way to Brisbane, it should be cheaper in Cairns than outback ah. as per my earlier comet Mt Garnet is cheaper by 8 cents a litre than Cainrs and they get it from Cairns, follow that one mate

Damien

Yes - agree with both of you. I don't have a problem with paying for freight, and as Damien has highlighted - the Mt Garnet fuel comes from Cairns anyway, so why is the Cairns seaport price so high.

What does get me is when outback retailers jack the price by 30 cents claiming it is freight. When I offered to cart it for them at 20 cents a litre, they go very quiet. Why? Because they are probably only paying 10 or 12 cents freight - but jack the price 30 cents!

I worked in oil terminals in Brisbane and Cairns (Total/Ampol/Caltex) (1970's and 80's) and in those times we had a good freight subsidy scheme in this country. Unfortunately a minority of greedy operators were claiming freight on fuel that wasn't being delivered to the destinations and after a lot of investigation the scheme was scrapped. Case of a few spoiling it for all.

Hi Polaris,
I am a bit curious as to how you work it out.....
If i buy fuel and you charge me 20 cents a L to cart it do you mean the following ..
I buy it at $1-20 a L, add the freight of 20 cents a L and sell it at $1-40 a L ??????

Cheers
Joe

Joe - what you have said should be correct. BUT what happens in reality is that often the retailer will sell it at $1.50 instead of the $1.40 like you worked out. He will then tell joe public that his freight cost is 30c when we both know it is in fact only 20c.

There are many places around this country that charge over $1 a litre more than capital city prices and claim that it is freight cost. Believe me - the truckie isn't getting $1 /L cartage! So if you offer any of these retailers to do the cartage for 50C /L they will go very quiet! Because they are already paying even less than that.

Think of the logistics of a semi load of petrol - not a double or tripple road train. Just a single semi - with petrol he would carry around 30,000 litres in the barrel - at $1 a litre = $30,000 per trip!

Believe it - they don't get anything like that.

so i read it right then, buy it for $1-20, add 20 cents freight and sell it for $1-40 ....
Interesting but it lacks something ..... who pays for the power to pump it from the ground, and the staff wages, and the rent, and the insurance, and MANY more overheads ???????
I hope i am reading it wrong but if i am not then PLEASE buy all the servos accross Australia and i will then travel around Aussie, i would LOVE cheap fuel but i am interested how you can earn a living ?????
Cheers
Joe

Sorry Joe - I thought you were only referring to the 'transport' component in the cost - yes of course all retailers will have a 'mark up' or proffit margin.

I was only referring to their claim that all the excess cost was due to freight costs when in fact we both know that they use the 'freight' claim to actually boost their margin.

Back on Cairns fuel prices - can anyone tell me how Woolworths can sell fuel in Atherton 3-4 cents cheaper than they sell through the 3 Woolworths outlets in Cairns. Same fuel, same cartage contractor, comes from same depot!

yeh thats cool..........
I will "enlighten" some of the readers with some basic facts that a fuel retailer goes by conducting business ..............
The industry standard is set at about 30 cents per L mark-up to recover costs and if you have fuel as the bulk of your income then it will have to be higher, so very simply put if i buy it at $1-60 per L delivered i HAVE to sell it for $1-90 in order to earn my living, i know most reading this will have run a business at some stage, if you were successful and made a good living out of it and set enough aside so you can travel in the style you are doing it in then compare the margins or GP that you had on your services or products to what a fuel retailer makes ....... your products or services had a lot more GP than fuel does eh..
I am aware it does hurt the traveller most as they are basically on holidays when they fill up and the biggest cost at the servo is the fuel so that is what gets "attacked" first and foremost, i mean really, do you post price differences between bottle shops for 1974 Jacobs Creek bottle of wine per L, it would vary from shop to shop more than that !!! but nobody really cares about that do they, we just buy it and dont really care, we pay top dollar for caravans when one half the price would do exactly the same job and the differance would pay for 2 years of fuel .............. and $80,000 grand for the cruiser, man that is a LOT of fuel.....
I guess we need to remember there are more bad people in business selling stuff other than fuel that screw up peoples lives far worse than any fuel retailer ever has, at the end of the day if it is so bad out there we actually have the option of just staying at home, we stop by CHOICE where we fill up, we have the knowlage and ability to simply go to the next one but we dont, why ????? because fuel is not really that expensive "yet" so we still fill up and then drive away and then complain, we could have stayed at home, we all know how much it is BEFORE we go there, after all we planned the trip and we worked out how much the fuel would cost us .....
So a few tips ....
Stay at home, it is cheaper..... sit here like i do reading ExOz (hahaha)
Buy a 4 cyl, cheaper to run ....
DONT tow anything, use less fuel..
Plan you trip, set aside the money and just enjoy your trip .....
Buy a book .....
Cheers guys
Have a safe trip please and go slower, it saves fuel
Joe

Joe - I have no idea what the current "industry standard" markup on automotive fuel is - so when you quote 30c/L I am amazed!

In the early 80's I was in an aviation refueling partnership and our commission was $0.007/L - yup you read that right 0.7c/L.

And we made a good living!

3 Ways has always been a rip off. Pays to go the extra to Tennant Ck.

Puma1 - spot on!

However while petrol may seem very cheap when comparing it with beer OR BOTTLED WATER - the prices we pay in some parts of Australia are clear rip off.

There are places like Iran where petrol is still less than 10C a litre!

Nigel, a good point...Curtin Springs is offering a carton of XXXX for $70.00 and Kings Canyon diesel @ over $2.10/litre - again probably a fair price for their location, costs and service component.

Ant

You can't blame Woollies or Coles ultimately it's our choice where we fill up.