Petrol, Cycling and Rollercoasters.
The BBC are reporting that the approx. 20% increase in the price of petrol in the last year or so is driving people off the roads. This doesn’t surprise me at all - however in many cases I suspect this means that people are also travelling less, rather than switching to (in many cases, non existant) alternatives like buses and trains.
Despite the ever rising costs of motoring (partly thanks to the Labour government’s obvious policy of “fleecing drivers for every penny they’ve got”) the alternatives are still more expensive - the fuel cost increases also of course affecting buses, taxis etc. Until public transport returns to state ownership and can be subsidised by the taxation raised from motorists, it will not be able to compete with the car - for no matter how much fuel increases in price, those increases will also apply to the public transport operators, who in turn will raise fares in order to remain profitable.
I’m unfortunately stuck with using the car for work as the showers in the building where I work are not working at the moment, leaving me with 2 options. Drive in, or cycle in and not be able to freshen up when I arrive. Urgh. (and walking in leaves me feeling equally unpleasant)
I certainly think twice about getting in the car these days, I’ve not visited any UK themeparks this year - the cost of driving to Alton Towers or Thorpe Park is a substantial part of the cost of the day out (plus travelling somewhere like that on my own just makes it prohibitively expensive - even if I’m meeting someone when I get there). It’s also clear from the availability of offer tickets for the parks that I’m not the only one - the parks aren’t usually giving tickets away in supermarkets this early in the season, it’s obvious that guest numbers must be down substantially.
To anyone reading this in America - $4 a gallon is not expensive. We’re paying £1.15/litre here in the UK, which converts to around $8.50 per US gallon for regular unleaded gas, and with the premium on Diesel, that’s closer to $8.75.
Fuelling Rage
Well, in answer to the fury at the obscene cost of petrol and diesel (even after the recent 10p/litre price drops) I’ve discovered a website where you can find the cheapest source of Petrol/Diesel in a given place.
Simply enter a postcode, and once you’ve registered on the site, you can find out where the cheap fuel is.
See http://www.petrolprices.com for more tips to save fuel, as well as the search for cheap fuel.
Finally some good news…
Woohoo! I’ve actually found petrol for under 90p a litre recently, and Diesel at 93…
Fuel Prices = Inflation
Final the news media (notably, the Financial Times) has figured out that the effects of extortionate prices for fuel has a knock-on effect to everything else.
If the Government wants to keep inflation under control, it’s got to do something about the spiralling costs of fuel, which are impacting everything used to calculate “inflation” (which does not include the price at the pumps of Unleaded and Diesel) - but those massive 10%+ increases in fuel in the last few weeks will start affecting everything that has to be transported as part of it’s manufacturing or distribution to customers.
Pound A Litre?
Yup - I’ve seen 99.9p per litre for Diesel in several places over the last few days - I can only assume it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing more protests and unrest over the sheer costs of fuel (and the taxation that amplifies the effect of the crude prices) Read more
Budget 2006
Well, today was the day for Chancellor Gordon Brown to make clear the governments budget for the this year, would it be a “family friendly” budget, with more benefits and breaks for couples and parents, or would, for once, the government recognise the very different needs of the single person, already hit hard in recent years by increasing petrol, gas, council tax, national insurance etc.
In the early stages, it looks good Read more
Pipeline - the power of bulk purchasing
There’s an organising called “Pipeline Card” who are currently building up a user base of people interested in getting fuel from a “major retailer” at a discount.
At the moment they’re guaging interest by getting folks to register with a mailing list - it seems the only information they require to register is your name and email address.
Go check it out - I’ve signed up - but how much use it is to me depends on which retailer it is, and how much discount they give - currently around here the supermarkets are already 4 or 5p a litre cheaper than the “branded” garages - and if the branded garage in question isn’t one that has branches in my area, it’s not going to help me much!
One to keep an eye on certainly, and it should be interesting to see how this pans out - but I certainly can’t see any harm in signing up to get the information mailings, and if as it seems, this isn’t going to cost anything, why not. If I can use it great, if I can’t use it, so be it - I’ll stay with my regular supermarket diesel.
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