UK fuel prices...

**imported_pugoman** · 08-18-2005, 12:04 PM

I had this email sent to me today - might be of interest to some of you UK Autopians...

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We are hitting 95p a litre in some areas now, soon we will be faced with paying Ã‚£1 a ltr. Want petrol prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united action.

Philip Hollsworth offered this good idea:

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don`t buy petrol on a certain day" campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn`t continue to hurt ourselves by refusing to buy petrol. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them.

BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work. Please read it and join in!

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a litre is CHEAP, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace not sellers. With the price of petrol going up more each day, we consumers need to take action.

The only way we are going to see the price of petrol come down is if we hit someone in the pocket by not purchasing their Petrol! And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.

Here`s the idea:

For the rest of this year, DON`T purchase ANY petrol from the two biggest oil companies (which now are one), ESSO and BP. If they are not selling any petrol, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Esso and BP petrol buyers.

It`s really simple to do!! Now, don`t whimp out on me at this point... keep reading and I`ll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!! I am sending this note to a lot of people. If each of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) ... and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers! If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted!

If it goes one level further, you guessed it... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!! Again, all You have to do is send this to 10 people. That`s all (and not buy at ESSO/BP). How long would all that take? If each of us sends this note out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!! I`ll bet you didn`t think you and I had that much potential, did you! Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on.

PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE 69p a LITRE RANGE

It`s easy to make this happen. Just forward this note, and buy your petrol at Shell, Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons, Jet etc. i.e. boycott BP and Esso.

**Richt** · 08-18-2005, 02:31 PM

It`s getting this to reach enough people and then people actually acting upon it and doing it unfortunatley. Wish some one would do something.

**imported_lix** · 08-18-2005, 11:12 PM

Saw this last year, made me laugh. Where does the author of the piece think the supermarkets buy their petrol from? I don`t think Tesco have their own refinery

Also, the big oil companies distribute petrol to a variety of "rival" brands from their regional centres. I know Shell`s Stanlow facility has more than Shell tankers rolling in and out. To me, it just seems like a thin disguise for the Stop E$$o campaign.

I wish the UK was doing more to promote bio diesel and other alternative fuels but no-one seems interested at the moment.

Anyway, just my 2p!

**benpocock** · 08-19-2005, 12:24 AM

This has been going round for years and it never makes a blind bit of difference, there are too many people in the UK who can`t be picky and simply have to buy the fuel regardless of how much it costs. Also, in the UK, most of the cost of fuel (about 70-80/litre) is tax, so if you really want the price to come down, we need to start targeting Brown etc, not the oil companies.

Ben

**imported_Tonyz** · 08-19-2005, 12:39 AM

Originally Posted by lix

I wish the UK was doing more to promote bio diesel and other alternative fuels but no-one seems interested at the moment.

Anyway, just my 2p!

Indeed, but it seems what ever fuel is popular with the public tax increases on it..For example LPG used to be cheap as chips at around 34p a litre. Once everyone had converted their cars the Gov. sticks on a higher tax and the convertees have to pay it. Same with diesel as higer performance diesel engines are coming out. Some diesel engines can use cooking oil to run, but with added tax it will be the same cost as diesel. The only way prices could be reduced is if people dont purchase the stuff, unfortunately hardly everyone is in the position to do so.

**whizzer** · 08-19-2005, 12:42 AM

The actual tax on fuel at the moment is 60%. Fuel itself has risen 27% since january, it really effects business like ours where we run 250 + artics !!!!

**benpocock** · 08-19-2005, 01:01 AM

Originally Posted by whizzer

The actual tax on fuel at the moment is 60%. Fuel itself has risen 27% since january, it really effects business like ours where we run 250 + artics !!!!

Oh well - not a bad guess!

**whizzer** · 08-19-2005, 04:24 AM

You hit the nail on the head ..... and yes we need to target brown to reduce tax , i think tax in the states is about 25%

**imported_lix** · 08-19-2005, 09:22 AM

Originally Posted by Tonyz

Indeed, but it seems what ever fuel is popular with the public tax increases on it..For example LPG used to be cheap as chips at around 34p a litre. Once everyone had converted their cars the Gov. sticks on a higher tax and the convertees have to pay it. Same with diesel as higer performance diesel engines are coming out. Some diesel engines can use cooking oil to run, but with added tax it will be the same cost as diesel. The only way prices could be reduced is if people dont purchase the stuff, unfortunately hardly everyone is in the position to do so.

It`s understandable really, the Government expects to make a certain amount of money from fuel duty so it must tax each fuel in proportion to maintain the income levels it requires. Not saying I support the level of duty you understand! I expect we`ll always have relatively high taxation on fuel, I just want to see us reduce our dependence on oil and all the politics that goes with it.