Allspares (Auto) Ltd.

Well commonsense would suggest yes, but it ‘s very rarely the case, is it?  Forecourt prices appear to change constantly (usually up), irrespective of the price of oil.  Oil companies state they must buy it in bulk and this charge is passed on to the forecourt, usually immediately, but reductions can take weeks to take effect.

Now I would agree that if the price per barrel rises, and it’s purchased in bulk then it’s only fair to pass this on, but (and it’s a big but), oil companies can’t have it both ways, (although they invariably do).  If the price has to go up immediately, even when not every service station is re-fuelled every day then it’s only fair that if there is a drop in the price of the barrel that it comes down equally fast.

Oil companies cannot say the price needs to rise immediately because they make regular deliveries (even though they are probably using existing supplies of petrol and diesel), and then delay lowering the price when oil prices fall, using the argument that they are using existing supplies that they paid a higher price for.

Do you see my point?

Currently, the reason given is the poor state of Sterling, but there is always an excuse. Since 2009, the average price of petrol has risen by a massive 56%!

Nevertheless, the RHA is stating that the cost of oil has reduced by 13% since the end of July on the world market, but forecourt prices (not those of supermarkets to quite the same degree) have not come down noticeably.

Assuming that it takes two weeks for the price to fall whenever there is a reduction in the cost of oil, they are expecting to see a 5 pence drop in forecourt prices by the end of next week – 26/8/2011.

We shall see, because every day the oil companies delay dropping the price, means huge profits for them and despite protestations to the contrary, none of them appear to be suffering because of the poor economy, even though most of their customers are!