75ZT Community

Just received this email which is a great idea.....what do you think?

> > Dear All,
> >
> > Here is an interesting idea to think
> about (and act upon?)...unless you've already received the same message
> independently!
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Please see what you think and
> pass it on if you agree with it.
> >
> > We are hitting £129.9 a
> litre in some areas now and soon we will be faced with paying £1.50 per
> litre. So Philip Hollsworth offered this good idea:
> >
> > This makes
> MUCH MORE SENSE than the 'don't buy petrol 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 petrol. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it
> was a problem for them. BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up
> with a plan that can really work.
> >
> > Please read it and join in!
>
> >
> > Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have
> conditioned us to think that the cost of a litre is CHEAP, we need to
> take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS - not sellers control
> the market place. With the price of petrol going up more each day, we
> consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the
> price of petrol come down is if we hit someone in the pocket by not
> purchasing their petrol! And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.
> Here's the idea:
> >
> > For the rest of this year DON'T purchase ANY
> petrol from the two biggest oil companies (which now are one) i.e. ESSO
> and BP.
> >
> >
> > If they are not selling any petrol, 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 Esso and BP petrol buyers. It's really
> simple to do!!
> >
> > Now, don't wimp 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 a lot of people. If all of you 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. By the time the
> message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached
> over THREE MILLION consumers! If those three million get excited and
> pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been
> contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it.....
> >
> >
> THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!
> >
> > Again, all YOU have to do is
> send this to 10 people. That's all (and not buy at ESSO/BP). How long
> would all that take? If each of us sends this email out to ten more
> people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could
> conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!! Acting together we
> can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this
> message on.
> >
> > PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES It's
> easy to make this happen. Just forward this email, and buy your petrol
> at Shell,Asda,Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons, Jet etc. i.e. Boycott BP
> and Esso

Excellent idea, but Esso and BP are NOT one company;

BP is a conglomerate of the former Standard Oil of Indiana (Amoco), Atlantic Richfield (Arco), and BP

Exxon Mobil is a union of Standard Oil of New Jersey Exxon inc (Esso UK), and the former Standard Oil of New York (Mobil). It is easily the World no 1.

The proposed action would send a message, to these company's 'Branded sites', no doubt. Any 'victory' however, would be pyrrhic as all the oil based derivatives in Scotland for example, emanate from the lone refinery North of the border at Grangemouth, owned by BP.

Exxon's Refinery at Fawley in Hampshire, distributes and supplies BP (and most of the Hypers) on product swap agreements, or supply contracts.

For the distributors, such as the Hypers and other non refining brands, one of their prime costs is distribution and all the refiners utilise the 'UK pipeline' along it's spinal route up the UK. So selective penal retail withdrawl, would merely result, in say Esso's input to the pipe, being drawn upon by the uptake of their 'supplied' wholesale customers as an offset.

The tentacles of a highly intelligent and mature industry spread far, and like the Octopus regenerate if they are chopped.

The last three MMC inquiries into the 'Wholesale Supply of Petroleum' in 1966, 1976 and 1990 concluded that

... 'whilst their is an established oligopoly, it does not act against the public interest' ...

Also the majors proved they lose money retailing fuel (but that's another obfuscated story).

The problem currently stems from arbitrage traders, switching into commodities and crude oil in particular, from the currency markets. This advocates speculative future pricing, much as it did a few years back. The corollary of such events is amplified, when taxation rises contemporaneously to increment the ultimate consumed price.

Thank you Martin for your erudite view. It would seem the only way to penalise the oil companies and by proxy the government through loss of taxes is to buy and and use as little fuel as possible. Since the last fuel price hike and subsequent outlawing of picketing refinery gates, I have chosen to use my car as little as possible and to make my journeys as cost effective as possible by combining trips I may have once made singly into one. Notwithstanding, this type of action not possible for many and for those I have much sympathy.
One area where I have no choice is in the purchase of home heating oil, my village is without mains gas supply and electricity for heating and hot water is more expensive than fuel oil. This is a situation that is largely being ignored by government. Many people in my village and many others are elderly and on very limited budgets. Doubling the price of heating has made life very difficult and uncomfortable. In some cases a danger to life.

Well Ive saved 12,000 miles of fuel so far by road since not being able to drive!

Mike,

I concur wholeheartedly, by thoughtful planning I can reduce my use by 50%. It's the only way we can suppress the overall demand for this commodity.

I believe my age group (post war baby boomers) a la 'Grey Power' who now constitute a growing and influential part of the population, will be naturally more inclined to practice this behaviour any way.

My mileage is now so low that the switch to a smaller car, say a Smart or a Fiat 500, would be uneconomic as the capital replacement amortisation would exceed the fuel, tax and insurance savings. Others, through sheer logistical necessity, are not so fortunate.

Also as my 'values' mature with age, I'd rather spend what time is left me in a 75, with it's compensatory constituents, many specialist features to which I owe thanks to members on here.

I looked up an old invoice I had from when I last purchased 28 second heating oil in 1998. True I got the 'staff' rate, but a delivery to Worlingworth Suffolk was only 9.8p per litre! If I remember correctly then, unleaded was costing my 'refining major' employer 6.9 pence as an 'At Gate Produced Cost' from Milford Haven.

The present lack of competition in many industries, by the last government allowing mergers and acquisition with the same skill set they showed for interdicting banks, has resulted in a curtilage upon pricing, reminiscent to the ruling byzantine empires of the middle ages.

The so called 'Government/Coalition/call me Dave, w.h.y.' need to give bodies such as the laughable FSA and the Competition Commission a robust set of new principals and powers to control industries too long used to sitting these highly paid civil servants upon their laps and manipulating them accordingly.

As they stand, they are a huge waste of public funding, and little more than cliche speak PR agents to many of the companies they're supposed to regulate. A cosy little job, that creates, nothing, does nothing and is nothing

Unfortunately I just cannot see a useful change happening any time soon, just the usual politico, talk about it, Question Time Monologues of time immemorial, with zero action as the inevitable conclusion.

Have managed to reduce my mileage and wear on the car by 50% by planning and car sharing.
Since October have been car sharing for work and we both do alternate weeks.
Most of the time we are able to arrange our days so that we start and finish at similar times.
Only a couple of downsides
With the cold weather every other week I have to wrap up warm as the other car is a very efficient diesel with a poor noisy heater.
Need to get a trickle solar battery charger as some weeks the car doesn't get used for up to 4 days at a time.
Like Mick some things you don't have a choice about such as only one petrol station unless you want to travel at least 7 miles.

Sorry, this stupid email appears every time the petrol price rises and think I saw it first in the mid 90s. As already pointed out, the idiot who has sent it clearly knows nothing about the industry if he thinks BP and Esso are the same company. If the fool had spent a nanosecond on the news about BP’s disaster in the Gulf of Mexico last yeat he would not have posted this mindless bilge.

The fact that oil prices are likely to rise in the short to medium terms has been glaringly obvious to anyone with more than 1 brain cell for the last 20 years. Surely the message has got around to everyone that you either have to moderate your driving or earn more money to cope with this simple fact.

Finally if he thinks that a few deluded drivers in the UK stopping using BP or Esso in the UK is going to have any effect on the global oil price he should be sectioned for his own safety and most assuredly should not be allowed to drive a car

As further proof that this is the product of an idiot you only have to see that he thinks petrol has reached £129.9 a litre. Not quite yet dear boy!

Patrick
As we have written above the email is ill thought out, probably by some well meaning 12 year old.

However, in some areas the price of unleaded has already exceeded £1.30, I have seen it as high as £1.35 on motorway. It is in my area on £128.9
Duty and taxes are in region of 80+ pence per litre so in my view there is room for manoeuvre by the government. Motorists / Road hauliers are being used as a cash cow to support various services, such as public transport. I don't recall the exact figures quoted but from memory approximately 20% of the duty and taxes go back into supporting road network repairs and upgrades. The remainder?

The total raised from the motorist via Vehicle excise duty, VAT and the Hydrocarbon tax annually is around £35bn.

The entire D.O.T. budget is £10.1bn.

In comparison, Defence costs £554bn, and the NHS £110bn.

In 2009 the UK GDP, was £2.16 trn.

Historically directly devoted costs for 'road spending' have been 'convoluted' to unwind.

For example the London Congestion Charge was originally supposed to be designated to pay for underground upgrades. By 'creative accounting', a near impossible factor to unravel. At Westminster, a virtual army of 'Sir Humphreys', skilfully shroud statistics within a plethora of semantics, discouraging the endeavour for scrutiny.

The same frame applies to the UK as a whole. For example local authority grants from the exchequer do have funds allocated specifically for road maintenance. Once banked these dissolve via osmosis to other 'good causes', probably depending upon how many 'Greens' are in the sack at the Town Hall.

Be prepared for Highways, recently 'valued' by the Treasury at £65bn, to transmogrify into PFI's, (Privately Financed Initiatives), some time from now on.

Thus In one move the cost burden for this 'modestly' priced asset goes permanently 'off-sheet', as far as UK liability is concerned. Parallel benefits would be savings through down sizing centrally at the D.O.T. and dedicated departments at a local council, somewhere near you.

So we could have 'The M6 bought to you by 'Tesco' @ only 6p a mile - every little helps ...

Chartermark wrote:So we could have 'The M6 bought to you by 'Tesco' @ only 6p a mile - every little helps ...

Each lane would have its own price
Slowest and cheapest would be basics
Fastest and most expensive would be the finest range

Don't actually mind that idea if they did that........
As long as the Road Fund Licence was cancelled and fuel prices reduced, so no hope of that then.

JohnDotCom wrote:Don't actually mind that idea if they did that........
As long as the Road Fund Licence was cancelled and fuel prices reduced, so no hope of that then.

Almost every time some new fees are introduced in conjunction with a promise other duties would be abolished or at least won't go up, it just won't happen.