Amelia Harris
December 04, 2013
Herald Sun
THE mark-up on premium unleaded petrol can vary by as much as four cents a litre between service stations, a new survey reveals.
As thousands of Victorians prepare to hit the road in coming weeks for Christmas, the RACV research found the price of 95 octane premium unleaded petrol could be anywhere between nine and 13 cents a litre more than regular unleaded.
Motorists buying 98 octane premium unleaded petrol were slugged 14 to 17 cents more a litre.
Regular unleaded was selling for an average of 154.2c per litre late yesterday.
The RACV surveyed 180 petrol stations across metropolitan Melbourne last month as part of the research.
It wants fuel boards across the country standardised to include the price of premium unleaded and will raise the issue with Consumer Affairs Victoria in coming days.
Premium petrol accounts for about 21 per cent of all fuel sales in Victoria – or about 84 million litres a month.
RACV manager vehicle engineering Michael Case said most petrol stations didn’t list the price of premium petrol on display boards.
“So if someone is driving along the price board doesn’t specially say what the price of premium unleaded is so you don’t know until you drive into that service station what the price is,” Mr Case said.
“The second effect of not having the price on the boards is you can’t compare the price of premium unleaded fuel between service stations and choose the one that is the cheapest.”
He said the price gap between premium unleaded and regular unleaded was increasing.
“We have measured the trend in the difference between premium unleaded fuel and regular unleaded fuel and seen what was difference of about six cents per litre on average about 10 years ago to now somewhere between at least nine cents and up to 17 cents a litre,” Mr Case said.
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