Petrol stations drying up

Surely Fife is in the best position.

The chances of existing stations surviving is best in the areas with high car per station ratios. The areas with current "best access" are most vulnerable to further closures as the stations cannot survive on such small numbers of customers. Think the adjectives should be reviewed.

By cfhughes on 20 October, 2011, 12:00pm

not cpmpetative prices

some places dot help 4 your custome if u live in a small town u can pay up to 10 pence a leter more than a town just a bit bigger and if you got to go to that town you going to get the cheaper fuel than local.and then when u go to a bigger town 3 fuel stations in 400 yards at differnt prices of 3-4 pence.

By jono1982 on 20 October, 2011, 5:02pm

When e.v's take over there will be no petrol stations left and we won't have to put up with the extra few cent per litre they add on, but it's the same situation here in Ireland, I blame tax and not fuel prices, only for the ridiculous tax applied by our governments we would not care about the current price of oil!

They don't understand the damage they are doing to our economies!

By Mad_Lad on 20 October, 2011, 5:11pm

Car to station ratio isn't important, station per square kilometre is

The number of stations per car is irrelevant. One station in a large town can serve many motorists a day, one in the middle of nowhere may not. Looking at Fife and Powys, in Fife there is one station per 36 square kilometres, in Powys there's one per 79 square km. I know that the number of stations per mile of road is more important than this, but wikipedia doesn't have the number of mile of road in a county listed.

By Cardimawr on 20 October, 2011, 8:01pm

Finding out the hard way

I noticed the lack of fuel stations the bad way last time I was in the UK, visiting my sister in Devon. Ran out of fuel 2 miles before a station, reason being, as a kid I remember there being loads of petrol stations along that road, not now unfortunately, learnt my lesson.

Is this all because cars are getting more economical and small franchise businesses are becoming harder to run and survive?

By JFalck on 22 October, 2011, 10:19am

Actually, it's quite easy to buy fuel in Fife.

As a Fife resident, I've seen filling stations closing, but these are mostly in villages where the number of customers means that they aren't viable. The nearest to my home is significantly more expensive than, for example, supermarkets so I tend not to use it. I know, if you don't use it you lose it, but in my defence times are hard and every penny counts. The only time I've struggled to buy fuel was in 2008, when the usual panic-buyers were forming long queues everywhere. I didn't run out and did manage to buy fuel. Since the profit on selling fuel is so low, the trend seems to be for bigger, town centre franchised sites which do compete on price. There may be fewer sites, but the price is competitive. It's a shame for small businesses selling fuel but, unless they sell other products as well, the profit margin on fuel sales doesn't make it worthwhile.

By n50pap on 23 October, 2011, 9:10am

Petrol in Fife

As a student, I used to work in a petrol station in Fife. This was about 7 or 8 years ago, back then it was extremely busy!

This was the only 24 hour petrol station within about a 10 mile radius, there was once a petrol station across the road from it ("Blue Chip" I think it was called) but this closed and apartments were built on the site.

The only competition was from a supermarket 2 or 3 miles up the road, which was sometimes a penny or 2 cheaper (though we did have to price match), but it wasn't 24hr and it was somewhat off the beaten track for visitors / those passing through.

I was told that the real profit was not in fuel, but on the purchases made in the shop - groceries, snacks, papers etc.

By SirWiggum2 on 24 October, 2011, 11:44am

Small town "High Price"

I NEVER buy fuel locally, it's priced way to high, I wait till we go to a larger town ( were fuel is priced more sensibly ) and fill up their.
The other fuel station I avoid is BP, total rip-off prices everywhere, avoid them like the plaque.

By john550i on 24 October, 2011, 7:06pm

I noticed !

Your story is interesting and confirms the thoughts I had earlier this year when realising this closure trend I started ( as a personal project ) to photograph garages open or closed in and around my home county of Shropshire. There seems to be two ways the garage owners have decided to go, either to shut up altogether of cease petrol sales and just concentrate on servicing and repairs. There is always a sinking feeling when arriving at a garage in a rural area to find they have no longer sell petrol. I suppose it is the old thing of not missing something until it is gone, we all want the best petrol prices as sold by the supermarkets but then have regrets when the garage in an isolated area has closed due to lack of business. My project continues.

By Arthur69 on 25 October, 2011, 12:12pm