Do something about fuel prices

[PD186]

Join the resistance!!!!
Do you want petrol prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united action.

Philip Hollsworth offered this good idea. This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the 'don't buy fuel on a certain day' campaign that was going around last April or May!

The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves by refusing to buy fuel. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever thought of this idea, may just have come up with a plan that can really work. Please read on and join with us!

By now you're probably thinking fuel priced at about $1.00 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently around
$1.30 per litre for regular unleaded. Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a litre of fuel is CHEAP at $1.00, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace - not sellers. With the price of fuel going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of this fuel come down is if we hit someone in the pocket by not purchasing their fuel! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.

How?
Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying fuel. But we CAN have an impact on petrol prices if we all act together to force a price war.
Here's the idea:

For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY fuel or any products period, from the biggest company in Australia, CALTEX. If they are not selling any fuel, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of CALTEX fuel buyers. It's really simple to do!

Now, don't bail out on me at this point ... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!
I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) ... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) ... and so on, and by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers .... A reasonable chunk of Australia!!!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people - that's all! (If you don't understand how we can reach 3 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people....

How long would all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all three MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next few days!!! I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you! Acting together we can make a difference.

If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. I suggest that we not buy from CALTEX ** until they lower their fuel prices to $1-00 or below ** AND KEEP THEM THERE ** START THE BOYCOTT TODAY!!!!!!!!

 

[mongoliantreesloth]

Makes more sense than the no-fuel day, however how many branded outlets does Caltex own? Aren't they in some kind of partnership with BP?

 

[Jase]

Join the resistance!!!!
I suggest that we not buy from CALTEX ** until they lower their fuel prices to $1-00 or below ** AND KEEP THEM THERE ** START THE BOYCOTT TODAY!!!!!!!!

.Oh well looks like I walk or ride a bike a little sooner than most, my company has Caltex fuel cards, so I cant see it working for me

 

[Muels1]

Kinda good in theory but what happens when u give one business all of your business, they can do what they want. They would more than likely bump there prices up so forcing u to go back to the other servo and then they have ur bus and they can then do what u like.

We need to find someone to do a "beverly hillbillies thing" and go shooting in the country/bush and find a massive oil well or something like that and sell it cheap to us bowlers.

 

[mongoliantreesloth]

There's always one awkward one

 

[Scotty H]

Before I say anything, I am in NO way affiliated with a petrol company or any other group, just an average citizen paying the same high prices for my fuel as anyone else.

Firstly, the price of petrol/oil simply can not remain constant. As with everything, as time goes by and this limited resource will become more and more valuable. So the price of petrol will inevitably rise, and its sorry to say foolish to think that we the consumers can really 'force' the petrol companies to lower their prices on a resource that is getting harder and harder to supply. This resource, just like many others is non renewable and will one day be so depleted that it will be so expensive to buy that maybe the consumers might push their governments a little harder to develop alternative energy sources which are as effective as our old faithful fossil fuels.

Secondly, for anything to really change the price of fuel, we need to reduce the demand on it. As with any commerce, supply and demand govern the prices of basically everything for sale. If people reduce their dependancy on fuels, reducing the overall demand on the resource, in theory the prices should fall. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Finally, this is the greenie in me talking, but isnt it finally time that the 'consumers' out there stopped to think about the greater good here? Im going a little off on a tangent, however perhaps the fact that the petrol prices are double what they were 5-10 years ago (remember when they were $0.60/L) might actually 'force' the consumers to think about what they are actually doing to the planet and their childrens children (and as many other buzz words as you can think of). We are by far the most destructive creatures occupying this little planet and we and our 'consumer' nature have caused more lasting damage than most people are aware of. Perhaps this major rise in fuel prices over the last 18 months has been for the best? It may hurt the bank balance now but if enough people get fired up about it, the government might be pushed into taking some real action, not just paying lip service to it and keeping the people quiet.

As for the boycott on Caltex products, I dont know whether it will work the way you say it will but by all means give it a try. Personally, my little 4 cylinder car needs to run on premium unleaded, and Caltex is one of the only ones that sells it at around +5-6c/L as opposed to BP & Shell who are in the order of around +9-11c/L. Which would you choose?

So to sum up, my recommendation would be to get the old bike out of the shed and dust it off for all those smaller trips, and God forbid walk to the local shops (this obviously doesnt apply to those getting their weekly shopping).

So for just one day in your average week try to leave the car at home. You will be doing everyone a favour - traffic, pollution etc.

Rant over. Please rebutt these comments if you like. I appreciate the discussion.

Edit - Ive just noticed the "V8 or Turbo" thread down the list a bit! I suspect that many of these people are the ones with the loudest voices over the high fuel prices?
-Scott.

 

[Easy Tiger]

Can you at least give me some warning so I can quit my job at Caltex/Ampol and jump to Shell or BP? I'd like to collect a dollar or two this week to put back into bowling amongst other things.

But seriously, by doing what you have suggested will only affect the franchisee, who makes very little on the sale of fuel anyway. Fact - In most cases, for the owner of the franchise, it's not the fuel sales that keeps the doors open, it's the shop sales. How much do you really think they individually make on fuel?

The refineries make the profit margins along with OPEC, not the servo's. I'll put it to you another way. If everyone stops buying from Caltex for say a month, the Caltex refinery is going to have an excess amount of fuel on its hands. On the other hand, Shell/BP or whoever else has a massive extra demand to cover. With the current supply into Australia from OPEC, chances are they are going to run short. Now think logically. Since Caltex can't move its contracted supply (which keeps coming, whether it sells or not - hence the term contract), and the other companies don't have enough to cover demand, what are they going to do next? That's right, sell it to Shell/BP/Mobil, take your pick. Then what have you achieved? If anything, Caltex will be able to mark up the sale price to the other companies. Which does what to fuel prices? Hmm.

I'll leave you with that thought.

Cheers.

 

[Feral]

In Brisbane, there are the BP and Caltex refineries. I was involved in live fire training for employees of these companies and worked out of the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service Academy at Lytton, right beside the Caltex refinery. Every day I noticed all sorts of trucks picking up petrol etc except BP trucks. Shell, Matilda, Mobil, independents etc all got fuel out of the refinery. I don't see how this boycott would work as it would only affect franchisees as Easy Tiger says.

Good luck

Feral

 

[tonx]

Heres a thought?

Howard runs the government, and he taxes fuel up the hill. The current government has admitted that the current tax scheme is the highest ever, yet Australians keep voting him in?

Draw your own assumptions from that.

 

[CV]

A boycott on buying fuel from Caltex would not work. Caltex and Woolworths joined forces two years ago so that Woolworths could take a bigger slice of the Australian Petrol market. This was followed By Coles Myers entry into the petrol market when they joined forces with Shell.
Between Coles and Woolworths, they own approx 80% market share of supermarket trade, about 60% of the liquor market (and still growing fast) and now more than 50% of the petrol market through their independently owned and co-branded operations with their respective partners (and growing rapidly as independent operators are being squeezed out).
Trying to launch a price war against these companies will only result in us paying the difference at the supermarket, or the bottle shop.
And with the fuel vouchers you can get by shopping at Coles and Woolworths, people won't be swayed to go and buy fuel at say BP which is traditionally or percieved to be higher in price than its competitors.

And about taxation?
Currently we pay 38.143 cents per litre in fuel excise tax (obtained from the ATO website). A one cent per litre reduction in this excise tax would lose the government $400 million in taxation from the public. Do you think the government will cut that out of it's budget, despite the fact we will have a record surplus this year?

Unfortunately due to world events, there is nothing we can do right now. As tensions between certain countries begin to subside, we may see a reduction in oil prices that will ease our pain somewhat. We may be paying record prices right now, due to record oil prices (Over $71US a barrel) but it is in line with what we were paying during the height of last years fuel prices which is in line with what the oil price was at that time (about $69US a barrel).

All I can suggest is, limit your trips, catch public transport if possible, car pool and all pitch in for fuel, do whatever you can to help ease each others burdens.

 

[Tiger]

Fact - In most cases, for the owner of the franchise, it's not the fuel sales that keeps the doors open, it's the shop sales. How much do you really think they individually make on fuel?

That's very true.
There's the Caltex Argyle down the end of the street here, which struggled along for the better part of 45 years just selling fuel, on the brink of closure dozens of times, it had been a Caltex, Shell, Mobil and now Caltex again.
About 18 months ago they bit the bullet and put in a shop and refurbished the whole site - it's now booming, and getting more custom to the site during the day than it's ever had.
According to the fella that runs it down there, their sales of fuel have also gone up in leaps and bounds ever since they installed a little shop in the place.
By the way too, petrol prices here are up around $1.40 atm, I was watching a some footage I shot on a video camera the other week of myself and a group of mates hooning about in the old Commodore on New Years Eve 1996, and in the background was the price board for the Shell servo down the main street here - 76.6c a litre

Showing my age a little now, but I can remember the Argyle (when it was a Shell) selling it for 32c a litre in the early 80's.

 

[Muels1]

Well i started driving in 2000 and i am pretty sure i can remember filling up for about 69c a litre and cracking it when the prices went up to 79c a litre.

Can you imagine the up roar in this world if prices on COKE or MILK went up by double in the next few years. I mean if COKE went up to $4.00 for a 2 litre bottle (i am talking about in supermarkets, they are already that expensive in servos) or a 1 litre milk carton for $3.50. Its criminal and people would stand for it. But really what can we do??? We cant really boycott fuel companys, we cant live without out milk and bread and stuff, coke we can get away with as we can just drink our JIM BEAM straight. Can u imagine it. JIM BEAM white label 700ml bottle for like $50-$60 bucks a bottle

AARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[mongoliantreesloth]

So, are we all going to do the original posters suggestion and boycott Caltex/Woolworths outlets? Got to be worth a try.

 

[Jase]

This site is not to be used to spam to promote nor used for the destruction of other companies please!
Totalbowling will not be held responsible for any advertising of participation of any events of the sort.

Thank you all

 

[DAWSY]

It is my opinion that things like petrol isn't priced according to its true cost. For many years fuel has been consistently cheap, it was and still is, to a certain extent, treated like it has a never-ending supply but now the fuel companies are aware of how much oil is left and what are they doing? They are starting to price accordingly, something that should of been happening years ago.


Have anyone ever heard of "PEAK OIL"?? We are on the verge of hitting peak oil. Peak oil is when oil production is at maximum output and from that point on, less oil is produced. Oil production roughly follows a bellcurve, so for instance if peak oil occurred in the year 2000, then in the year 2020 the rate of production will mirror that of 1980 and so on until oil becomes a real luxury for those who have money like Bill Gates. Some experts say that peak oil will occurr in 10-15 years time, some say we are there now.


The thing that worries me the most is that we are living in an economy that is based on and also heavily relies on oil, so there is a real risk of our economy crashing when oil supplies start to drop. It will not crash when we run out of oil, it will crash when oil becomes less widely available. Most items we buy are oil based products (hint hint).


The second thing that worries me and is probably the most "shocking" is that Australia, in essence, is a third world country living in the first world. I say this because we are abundant with resources and we export most of them all around the world but we do not have the expertise or homegrown technology to keep up with the rest of the developed nations. We import a lot of technology and expertise into Australia. The fact of the matter is that we have to heavily rely on other countries for alternative technologies.


Peak oil is inevitable whether you like it or not, petrol prices will rise whether you like it or not. The issue is whether we will cope or not. I am sorry if I am sounding like it is gloom and doom, all I am doing is trying to put this into perspective. I'm telling you now the government will not do anything about it until it becomes a crisis for the Australian people. So my advice would be to try and use less petrol (pretty obivious hey), try to if possible buy fuel efficient cars, use public transport, walk or ride places instead of driving, buy less oil based products (or maybe while you are shopping and are only buying one thing, don't get a bag), and there are many and many other things you can do.


I will apologize in advance because I know that what I said may cause anger in my direction but I am calling it how I see it. I am currently studying at university to become an urban and regional planner so these are the issues that I will have to deal with in the not so distant future. Further more what I have said was relatively brief and there are many other factors/issues involved, try googling peak oil and see what you get and make your own mind upon the matter.

Leonard.

ps something to ponder about: how much oil does Tenpin Bowling rely on and how would this affect us?

 

[Easy Tiger]

It is my opinion that things like petrol isn't priced according to its true cost. For many years fuel has been consistently cheap, it was and still is, to a certain extent, treated like it has a never-ending supply but now the fuel companies are aware of how much oil is left and what are they doing? They are starting to price accordingly, something that should of been happening years ago.

Yes, they are aware, and there is much more available than they are letting on. I'll ask a question - how much do Iraq and other Arab nations actually contribute to world oil supply? How does this compare with Australia's and Northern America's reserves? They are only two examples of (quite) abundant oil supply, and are largely untapped in some key areas. Natural gas from North Alaskan areas is being piped back underground, there is also plenty of that, aside from oil.

Have anyone ever heard of "PEAK OIL"?? We are on the verge of hitting peak oil. Peak oil is when oil production is at maximum output and from that point on, less oil is produced. Oil production roughly follows a bellcurve, so for instance if peak oil occurred in the year 2000, then in the year 2020 the rate of production will mirror that of 1980 and so on until oil becomes a real luxury for those who have money like Bill Gates. Some experts say that peak oil will occurr in 10-15 years time, some say we are there now.

I would like to invite one of these experts to dinner. We have not hit peak oil production, and won't for some time. The oil price is pushed up by demand - yes - and this is because they are withholding production. Less supply from withheld production = higher cost per barrell. Standard Economics.

The thing that worries me the most is that we are living in an economy that is based on and also heavily relies on oil, so there is a real risk of our economy crashing when oil supplies start to drop. It will not crash when we run out of oil, it will crash when oil becomes less widely available. Most items we buy are oil based products (hint hint).

True, but the economy is more likely to crash because of inflated prices and higher costs of living. Put up the interest rates and see what happens next. This will slow the inflation rate, but what will it do to our economy?

The second thing that worries me and is probably the most "shocking" is that Australia, in essence, is a third world country living in the first world. I say this because we are abundant with resources and we export most of them all around the world but we do not have the expertise or homegrown technology to keep up with the rest of the developed nations. We import a lot of technology and expertise into Australia. The fact of the matter is that we have to heavily rely on other countries for alternative technologies.

That's the great thing about "free-trade agreements" - our home grown produce rots on the trees, while we continue to import overseas produce and the like. We do rely on the world economy quite heavily (termed interdependence), but chances are that if we go down, so will most others. I personally don't think the USA is in a great economic position anyway, so we aren't alone. We will survive, I am quite sure of that. I would say we are a second-world country, not a third world country. Rwanda or Uganda would be better examples of what to think of when you say third world. On that note, would you really call the USA a first world country?

Peak oil is inevitable whether you like it or not, petrol prices will rise whether you like it or not. The issue is whether we will cope or not. I am sorry if I am sounding like it is gloom and doom, all I am doing is trying to put this into perspective. I'm telling you now the government will not do anything about it until it becomes a crisis for the Australian people. So my advice would be to try and use less petrol (pretty obivious hey), try to if possible buy fuel efficient cars, use public transport, walk or ride places instead of driving, buy less oil based products (or maybe while you are shopping and are only buying one thing, don't get a bag), and there are many and many other things you can do.

I don't disagree with using less fuel. I thankfully now have public transport. When I move again in 7 months time, I won't, so I'll be driving everywhere again. For people actually close to cities/public transport systems this is an option.

I will apologize in advance because I know that what I said may cause anger in my direction but I am calling it how I see it. I am currently studying at university to become an urban and regional planner so these are the issues that I will have to deal with in the not so distant future. Further more what I have said was relatively brief and there are many other factors/issues involved, try googling peak oil and see what you get and make your own mind upon the matter.
Leonard.

Yes there are many other issues involved. Nobody should respond in anger to what you are saying, because there is nothing to be angry about. You haven't tried to say anything controversial. It is your opinion, and that's fine, you don't need to apologise for it.


I'm not trying to have a go at you in any way, I'm just calling it how I see it, with my opinion, with the facts and figures I have seen. Maybe we have seen different figures, I do not know. I'm all for cutting fuel consumption, regardless. The rest of it we are going to find out for sure in due time anyway. It's not something we can escape.
ps something to ponder about: how much oil does Tenpin Bowling rely on and how would this affect us?

Getting to and from the bowl could be a challenge, could also be a challenge getting interstate as well as to other countries. The greater risk to bowling right now is how are people going to pay for the next tournament with such a high cost of living? Could this be a reason why tournament numbers are down?

 

[*chook :>*]

I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) ... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) ... and so on, and by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers .... A reasonable chunk of Australia!!!
Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people - that's all! (If you don't understand how we can reach 3 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people....

If you dont do this in 5 minutes you will have bad luck for 1000 years and petrol prices will become so expensive everyone will have to buy a bike or walk EVERYWHERE!!!

 

[mongoliantreesloth]

....and petrol prices will become so expensive everyone will have to buy a bike or walk EVERYWHERE!!!

After reading some of the articles on Peak Oil I'm not so sure that isn't a good idea

Whichever argument is put forward, it is inevitable that the stuff will run out eventually.

 

[little lefty legend]

i read an article not too long ago, this is just a short summary of it that i have created.

basically it talks about this controversy with irans nuclear projects and president Bush's speeches on it. aparently this is the reason oil companies are pushing the price of oil up per the barrel. why again, because a majority of the oil comes from the middle east, start another war over there ontop of iraq and afganistan and fuel is said to hit $85 per barrel. so say at present fuel is sitting on $70 per barrel, this is around $1,35-$1.40 at the bowser. if it were at $85 per barrel then we could expect the price to be around $1.60. now imagine how much we would love $1 a litre back then. there is no simple solution to it, the oil companies seem to base the prices on global politics and supply and demand.

 

[DAWSY]

I guess I should of made the point in my last post that future fuel prices is only part of the future's problem but my post was long enough anyway and I wasn't really thinking of stuff other than oil.


It will be frightening to see what happens when India and China start to consume the amount that we consume per capita- oil, technology, everything. Right now I have the thought in my head wondering what would the effect be? The richest/most developed populations of the world (which is 20% of the world's population) consume about 80% of the world's resources. How would that change when India and China start to live like us, even if only say half their population start to live like us in the next 30-50 years? And I mean these people own 1 or 2 cars, travel 1-3 hours a day for work and stuff like that. There are a few websites around the place that workout your ecological footprint, I can't remember any of the addresses this second but if you google "eclogical footprint testing" or something along those lines you should find it. Australia's footprint is quite large, if everyone consumed as much as the average Australian, we would need the equilivent of2-4 Earth's worth of resources. When I did them, I normally got around 2 Earths.


Back to peak oil, on reflection I believe that it is quite possible for world peak oil to happen during my lifetime. Especially with India and China using more and more and when Saudi Princes pretty much give it away within their country.


There will be more to come later as it is such, i guess, a complex issue.

Leonard