Petrol stations based within miles of one another are able to charge at different rates for the same fuel. Why is this blatant rip off being allowed to happen?
Last week, we highlighted how fuel was being sold 10p a litre cheaper less than 10 miles away.
In Blackburn and Darwen the prices were markedly higher with prices still above the £1.47 per litre mark.
There were five petrol stations in Preston where you can fill up for less than £1.40 a litre.
If you ask the likes of Asda, Tesco and the other major supermarkets why this happens, they will say they are keeping to the market prices for that area and this is common.
But it is a poor excuse if there ever was one.
The aim is to set the price for that area so that you can make more money from drivers from those forecourts. There is no other reason why this is happening.
You can understand why independent petrol owners or some of the smaller forecourt companies may do this but there is no reason why the likes of Asda or Tesco should be charging a higher price for the exact same fuel.
I point out Asda and Tesco in particular because traditionally these tended to be the cheapest places to buy fuel in our town.
Nobody is going to tell me the petrol being delivered to Blackburn is ‘better’ than that being shipped over to Preston.
To continue to do this, especially in a time of higher prices is simply not good enough.
I know some will be saying, ‘then drive over to Preston to fill up’. But I shouldn’t have to should I?
I would expect the supermarkets who are always marketing themselves as the cheaper option to do the right thing.
This comes at a time when BP and Shell reported record profits of £23 billion and £33 billion respectively for last year.
Their profits are high because they were able to massively put up prices on the oil and gas they sell.
So where did the Ukraine war come into it? Here's a question customers might want - if the price of getting access to petrol is higher then why have profits not come down?
You would think that profits would be lower if the base rates and costs of getting that fuel was being ‘affected by the war’.
