Petrol stations aren’t like online shops, so Fuel Finder probably won’t help motorists much
Consumer reporter Tom Jervis is unconvinced by the Government’s Fuel Finder scheme as convenience will always trump marginal savings when buying petrol or diesel
Despite falls in price over recent months, petrol remains undeniably expensive. Yet throughout the ups and downs, one commodity has remained perhaps even more valuable: time. So with this in mind, I wonder just how effective the Government’s Fuel Finder project will be.
The concept appears, on paper anyway, to be a compelling one: give consumers access to pricing information so they can choose to shop around, a la online shopping. But unlike browsing the web, where you can traverse to another site in a matter of moments with just a few clicks, logging onto an app to only then have to drive over to the other side of town in order to get a better price doesn’t sound remotely convenient at all.
Of course, many of us do exactly this when it comes to our weekly shop, for example; you might live opposite a Waitrose, but you’d more than happily drive 10 minutes down the road to Lidl to avoid having to remortgage your house after popping in for some bread and a carton of milk.
Yet while the same shop at different supermarkets can vary wildly in price, that’s not quite the case when it comes to fuel; most of the time, the difference between retailers is as little as a few pence per litre. Of course, the cost of petrol and diesel does differ regionally, but I doubt someone living in Oxfordshire is ever going to drive up to West Yorkshire to fill up where it’s cheaper.
That’s not to say that providing live pricing data isn’t a good thing; the most tech-savvy or penny-pinching among us will certainly be able to save a small amount over the course of the year by keeping an eye on fuel prices via their favourite app. Most of us, however, will continue to fill up as and when it is convenient to us – whether that be at the petrol station down the road, or when coming out of our chosen supermarket.
What should be more of a focus, in our view, is directly cracking down on the sky-high profit margins of retailers; several organisations have accused retailers of pocketing the ongoing five-pence cut to fuel duty, meaning consumers don’t feel the benefits.
Fuel Finder will certainly play its part in this, but intervention from the Competition and Markets Authority will be the key to solving the ongoing petrol price problem. That and, of course, the calming of geopolitical tensions. But judging by the recent actions of the U.S administration, that’s not necessarily a guarantee.
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