Its official you are not being ripped off

[MARK.B.]

Well having just watched the news i see that the wise oracle's at the "Office Of FAIR Trading" have concluded that motorists in the Uk are not being ripped off every time they put fuel in thier cars/ lorries / lawnmowers etc, in fact they go as far as to say that the Uk has some of the lowest fuel prices in Europe but only if you leave out one of the highest fuel duty taxes in Europe.
They have found no evidence that that the cost of fuel at the pumps stays high even when the cost of crude oil drops.
So tonight i shall sleep soundly in the knowledge that the next time i put £70 or £80 of fuel in my car i will have paid a fair price for it , and when i wake in the morning i feel sure that the prices at the pumps will have dropped in line with the cost of crude oil, and high fuel duty will be just a distant memory.
Just in case they got it all wrong i have just planted two more money trees in the back garden .

 

[henton49er]

the next time i put £70 or £80 of fuel in my car.

You should be so lucky!! My Discovery has a 90 litre tank and runs on diesel. It costs around £120 to fill up for a long journey. :shock: :shock:

The Office of FAIR Trading are a Quango presumably, so can be shut down or have their remit amended by the Government of the day if they do not toe the line. This is simialr to whichever goons advise us that inflation is only 2.7% p.a.!! :shock: :shock: The price of basic food is increasing at a dramatically fast rate at present; energy companies have just announced 8 - 10% increases in prices; fule prices remain high and yet we are told that inflation remains low [in my estimation our personal inflation rate exceeds 10% p.a.]. This solely due to the fact that benefits, state pensions etc are automatically increased in line with "official" inflation figures. IT IS A RIP-OFF; don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Sorry; rant over , and I realise that your post was heavily laced with sarcasm, Mark!! :lol: :lol:

 

[MARK.B.]

Sarcasm Mike :-" :-" :-" dont know what you mean :---)

 

[graduate_owner]

There's a label by the fuel flap on my old Discovery that says

'warning - do not overfill'

Just in case I was tempted - or if I was feeling flush and could afford to!!

I remember buying petrol in 1968 at 3 gallons for £1, and within a few years (about 1973) people were saying things like "it will be £1 a gallon by Christmas". I'm sure there'll be some of you forum readers who remember buying petrol at about 1s 6d a gallon (that's 7 1/2 pence to you youngsters) but that was before my driving days.

I also remember labouring during college holidays for 6s 8d an hour - that's 3 hours for £1, so if you compare with 3 gallons to £1 then obviously 1 hour's labouring buys 1 gallon. I suppose if you compare min wage today of about £6 an hour then you get £6 a gallon, which is not so far off today's fuel prices. It really does seem so much more expensive these days.

I have a Ford Focus diesel which is my normal vehicle - the Discovery is strictly for towing only, or for when we get snow.

K

 

[themackay]

Totally agree with the above official inflation figures are a joke I have been building an extension for 3 years and the cost of most matierials has increased over that time by 30-60% over that time also tools on my wish list since several years have also inceased out of all proportion.Someone is making a lot of money somewhere.The powers that be have been treating taking the p*** and treating us with contempt since years

 

[RogerS]

There is one thing in everyone's shopping basket that is seriously underpriced compared to anything else such as houses, fuel, beer etc and that is milk. If one applied pro-rata price increases similar to the amount other things have gone up then a more realistic price is closer to £1 to £1.50. Currently dairy farmers are getting paid for their milk the same price they got in 1996.

 

[mailee]

Well no surprise there then. I have no doubt that our fuel is cheap.........if you don't take into account the tax the Government places on it! Almost 3/4 of the price is TAX! Why don't the Government drop the tax on it and make it easier on everyone? Don't they realise that as fuel goes up so does the cost of everything else reliant on it, Delivery vehicles, heating, bushinesses, Food, just about everything is dependant on fuel so why the hell don't the government do something as we are in a depression. :evil:

 

[andersonec]

They say it is one of the cheapest in 'Europe', They didn't say that in places like Germany your road tax is included in the fuel price, they didn't compare it to the likes of the good old US of A where it's currently approx 58 pence per litre, so if you drive a Discovery or some such monster then either get a smaller car or move to the US. :lol:

Andy

 

[Cheshirechappie]

The actual fuel cost - exploration, extraction, transport, refining, transport to garage - is actually not that bad. The rip-off the amount of tax levied at almost every stage of that process. To add insult to injury, you then have to VAT on the tax you've already paid in fuel duty.

Indeed, the whole tax take is far too high - the amount taken out of the economy in tax (currently 42% of GDP) is stranging the economy. If it could be reduced to the 35% of GDP that it was in the 1990s, we would have all the growth anybody wanted. (Unfortunately, it's not that simple. The deficit level is too high to allow tax reductions, and until public spending is properly controlled, both tax-take and deficit spending remain high. Most people do not appreciate just how bad the country's economic position is. However much any government would like to stimulate the economy by reducing taxes, they have absolutely no wiggle-room to allow them to.)

 

[Benchwayze]

The actual fuel cost - exploration, extraction, transport, refining, transport to garage - is actually not that bad. The rip-off the amount of tax levied at almost every stage of that process. To add insult to injury, you then have to VAT on the tax you've already paid in fuel duty.

Indeed, the whole tax take is far too high - the amount taken out of the economy in tax (currently 42% of GDP) is stranging the economy. If it could be reduced to the 35% of GDP that it was in the 1990s, we would have all the growth anybody wanted. (Unfortunately, it's not that simple. The deficit level is too high to allow tax reductions, and until public spending is properly controlled, both tax-take and deficit spending remain high. Most people do not appreciate just how bad the country's economic position is. However much any government would like to stimulate the economy by reducing taxes, they have absolutely no wiggle-room to allow them to.)

I'm inclined to agree. However, it isn't the oil companies that are so bad; it's the Government ripping us off. Remedy? Well, it might not work, but just vote for someone else next time around. Probably ( :-" ) nothing will change.. but at least it's a try!

 

[Cheshirechappie]

The actual fuel cost - exploration, extraction, transport, refining, transport to garage - is actually not that bad. The rip-off the amount of tax levied at almost every stage of that process. To add insult to injury, you then have to VAT on the tax you've already paid in fuel duty.

Indeed, the whole tax take is far too high - the amount taken out of the economy in tax (currently 42% of GDP) is stranging the economy. If it could be reduced to the 35% of GDP that it was in the 1990s, we would have all the growth anybody wanted. (Unfortunately, it's not that simple. The deficit level is too high to allow tax reductions, and until public spending is properly controlled, both tax-take and deficit spending remain high. Most people do not appreciate just how bad the country's economic position is. However much any government would like to stimulate the economy by reducing taxes, they have absolutely no wiggle-room to allow them to.)

I'm inclined to agree. However, it isn't the oil companies that are so bad; it's the Government ripping us off. Remedy? Well, it might not work, but just vote for someone else next time around. Probably ( :-" ) nothing will change.. but at least it's a try!

John - the economic situation is one that will take about a decade or so to control, no matter who is in power. The mistakes made between about 2002 and 2008 (excess borrowing and spending, basically) were such that the global slowdown brought about by the banking crisis hit the UK harder than almost every other western nation. Recovery is not being helped by the rank mismanagement of the Eurozone for political ends, but we can't control that. We can only nurse our own economy back to some sort of health, and the current administration is doing pretty much what government of any colour would be doing, despite the political rhetoric in the media, because basically there is no other option. You can't borrow and spend your way out of a crisis caused by borrowing and spending.

 

[henton49er]

They say it is one of the cheapest in 'Europe', They didn't say that in places like Germany your road tax is included in the fuel price, they didn't compare it to the likes of the good old US of A where it's currently approx 58 pence per litre, so if you drive a Discovery or some such monster then either get a smaller car or move to the US. :lol:

Andy

If you can suggest a vehicle that can seat 5 in comfort for long journeys, tow a cattle/sheep trailer with a 1.5 tonne load on board, go into fields to tow mobile field shelters around and also get us around when there is 6" of snow on the ground, I will willingly swap. I have previously had an Isuzu pickup (even more expensive on fuel and much pricier on insurance), a Landrover Defender (better off road and in snow but just AWFUL for long journeys), and also had Toyota Landcruisers, Isuzu Troopers, Nissan Patrols etc etc. We are fortunate that we only need to do about 3000 miles per year in the Discovery; the rest of our motoring is done in a 65 mpg Corsa.

 

[nanscombe]

Fred Dibner seemed to do okay with his road roller and living van. :lol:

Probably cost a fortune in coal instead. :?

But if you could run it on waste wood ... :wink:

 

[Graham Orm]

My Peugeot Boxer van costs £105 to fill. I fill up once every ten days, which means it now has to be factored in to every job I price. That only started a few years ago as necessity. This is probably one of the reasons that food is going up so much.

As for fuel prices dropping whenever oil prices do.....BS I'd challenge the clown that made the statement to take me to a garage that did just that.

 

[Alie Barnes]

we can't be being ripped off as the large conglomerate (cartels) petrol companyies are forced to survive on meagre profits of tens of billions of pounds! they are struggling too you know.

 

[RogerBoyle]

They say it is one of the cheapest in 'Europe', They didn't say that in places like Germany your road tax is included in the fuel price, they didn't compare it to the likes of the good old US of A where it's currently approx 58 pence per litre, so if you drive a Discovery or some such monster then either get a smaller car or move to the US. :lol:

Andy

If you can suggest a vehicle that can seat 5 in comfort for long journeys, tow a cattle/sheep trailer with a 1.5 tonne load on board, go into fields to tow mobile field shelters around and also get us around when there is 6" of snow on the ground, I will willingly swap. I have previously had an Isuzu pickup (even more expensive on fuel and much pricier on insurance), a Landrover Defender (better off road and in snow but just AWFUL for long journeys), and also had Toyota Landcruisers, Isuzu Troopers, Nissan Patrols etc etc. We are fortunate that we only need to do about 3000 miles per year in the Discovery; the rest of our motoring is done in a 65 mpg Corsa.

A Jeep Grand Cherokee running on LPG :twisted: :twisted:

 

[graduate_owner]

Well it showed on BBC news last night exactly what we pay in fuel duty - the breakdown was something like (If I remember correctly) 18p for distribution and retailer profits, 48p cost of crude oil and a whopping 88p tax.

So there you have it. As someone already pointed out, fuel costs affect everything - even tax exempt items such as books, childrens' clothes and food have to be transported. As I said earlier, I'm not sure that fuel is so much more expensive pro rata than it was 40 years ago, but it certainly feels that way.

Let's face it, we are taxed on what we earn, taxed on what we spend, and if we choose not to spend but save instead then we are taxed on any interest earned. And if you don't get paid interest on your savings then depreciation eats away at them. And if there's anything left when we peg it, the children get to pay inheritance tax.

However it's not all bad news because at least we know officially that we are not being ripped off, so that makes me feel so much better.

K

 

[henton49er]

Well, I've been idling away my time looking at oil prices, exchange rates etc and come up with the following:-

The graph, which is based on the information in the table, shows the price of Brent Light Crude converted from US$ to GB£ using daily exchange rates averaged for each month (as are the spot crude oil prices). I have used the average fuel price for unleaded from the AA fuel survey and converted this into a cost in £ per barrel. I have only used the period from February to October 2012 as that was all the information I could readily get hold of.

Anyway:-

The blue line shows the cost of Brent Light crude oil by month, converted to GB£.
The orange line shows the cost of a barrel of unleaded, assuming 159 litres/barrel.
The green line shows the markup (i.e. the difference between the two).

So far, so good.

However, when you look at the percentage markup compared to the raw cost of the crude oil (the red line) it shows a trend upwards (the dotted red line is a linear regression of the red line). This indicates that the oil companies are consistently taking a bigger markup over the base cost of oil - hence their multi-billion pound profits.

Clearly this is not a statistically accurate calculation as I have not taken inflation and other factors into account. However, having used the percentage markup as the factor to look at, it ought to decrease with increasing cost of crude rather than increase.

You can also see in the table that the tax on fuel remains pretty constant whatever the change in retail price.

I know this is a bit sad, and I really ought to get out more, but it does show that you cannot take what we are told at face value - not that any of us do!!

 

[Charlie Woody]

It appears that the general consensus of this thread is that fuel prices are too high and I agree.

So for the last year of so I have being supporting the http://www.fairfueluk.com/ efforts to do something about this. They seem to have had some success in that the most recent proposed duty increase was not implemented.

So, unless you have an objection to this type of lobbying, why not sign up to their campaigns and get as many of your family, friends and colleagues to do the same?

Incidentally they found some study that by decreasing fuel duty income activity would increase which would mean there would be no loss of revenue to the Treasury!

Big businesses etc do this sort of thing to the Govt all the time so why not joe public?

Apart from supporting their campaign I have no connection with the organisation.

 

[MARK.B.]

Signed up a while ago to the fairfuel campaign, dont know if they can continue to stop the increases in fuel duty but you have to at least try.