No fuel again... petrol stations closed in my area

hollydolly said:
Currently we're paying here an average of £1.65 for unleaded .. some places charging more, and of course the higher the octane the more expensive, but I use the cheapest unleaded, at an average high price of £1.65 per litre.. so 5 litres is £8.25 UK pounds , that is how much we're paying for ONE gallon of Petrol... and that equates to $10.77 US
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As we have discussed before your high prices are mostly higher taxes. The British government could bring the cost back down to where it was by cutting the tax, could happen very quickly.

Some US states, like Maryland, are doing this, see: https://governor.maryland.gov/2022/...lation applies to,to cost nearly $100 million.
 

Alligatorob said:
Others have answered the cost per gallon or liter question, so I won't try to address that.

We used to have a lot of small service stations, but they disappeared in the 80s. And so did the "service". Almost all of our stations today are high volume serve yourself. While prices do vary a bit I am not sure there is much relationship to freeway proximity.

A note Oregon and New Jersey do not allow self-service, but have what they call mini-service, nothing but pumping gas. Its been 40+ years since I have seen a service station attendant clean a windshield or check the oil...
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Don't get me wrong, just because we don't have many fuel stations out here in the countryside compared to the city, they're exactly the same type of fuel stations as in the city.. no old fashioned garages, with fuel being pumped for you.. we've not had that for decades.. , and the prices are also the same as in the city
 
Alligatorob said:
As we have discussed before your high prices are mostly higher taxes. The British government could bring the cost back down to where it was by cutting the tax, could happen very quickly.

Some US states, like Maryland, are doing this, see: https://governor.maryland.gov/2022/03/18/video-release-governor-hogan-signs-emergency-legislation-to-immediately-suspend-states-gas-tax-for-30-days/#:~:text=This emergency legislation applies to,to cost nearly $100 million.
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they did that just 2 weeks ago..brought the price down by 5p a litre... . I posted this before, but on the day he reduced the price.. I heard it on the car radio and happened to be parked right next to a petrol garage .. £1.68 a litre.. this was at 2pm, he announced fuel would go down by 5p at 6pm that evening.

Between that announcement at 2pm and 6pm... garages all over the country upped their prices by yet another 5p...so by the time 6pm came around they didn't lose a penny in revenue.. and further to that 90 % of the petrol garages did not reduce their prices at all for several days after the due date..

Further to everything I said before.. this also affects not just the average joe going about his daily business, not just the shopper who is limited to food in the stores.. or the health workers who can't get to work in hospitals.. but also the price of public transport will go shooting through the roof.. including huge hikes in train and air travel...
 

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hollydolly said:
Here we go again.! Not the pandemic this time, but something else beginning with P, causing the lack of oil, and petroleum...

Petrol stations are few and far between here in the sticks.. so most of the towns in the area only have one Petrol station if any at all... I visited 3 separate towns today and all the garages were shut, no fuel at all.

Fortunately I have a a couple of gallons stored, and I still have 3/4 of a tank.. so I'll be ok for now.. but here we go again, people with empty fuel tanks , and garages dry.. and folks with no way of getting to work .. :eek: This causes such a knock on effect on everything.. particularly in the health sector and NHS waiting times for operations and procedures because Doctors and nurses cannot get to work... . The elderly at home who have daily care , will also be severely affected...

I've just come back from one of our Major supermarket branches in a nearby town. I stood in the queue to be served for 20 minutes because they're so short of staff, they only had one till manned... I was getting extremely concerned about the frozen fish I 'd bought thawing.. .

I would have used the self service tills but there was a huge queue for them and I had a full trolley and there's never enough room at the self service tills for a full cart..... and further to that 1/2 the shelves were empty ..seriously bare..( Morrisons for all the Brits reading this )... which will be due to the lack of diesel again for delivery trucks...
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Sorry to hear about your "bad hair day" at the supermarket. I'm not sure who is to blame: over population in the UK, transportation problems, Putin and his war, lack of fuel? All the books I have been reading recently are telling me that high prices are coming for groceries and fuel. It seems that there is room to "cut the fat" in the Western World, so the books say. The future looks grim. Glad my 76th birthday is coming next week. The world is in a bit of a mess and I think it's going to get worse. Where I live, in the middle of Canada, plenty of gas for my car and plenty of groceries with several specials. I went shopping yesterday and there was plenty of room. No line ups at all. In that way, I feel very lucky. I have no more patience for standing in line for 20 minutes. Actually, I don't think I ever did! Good luck to you where you live!
 
hollydolly said:
they did that just 2 weeks ago..brought the price down by 5p a litre... . I posted this beofre, but on the day he reduced the price.. I happened to be parked right next to a petrol garage .. £1.68 a litre.. this was at 2pm, he announced fuel would go down by 5p at 6pm that evening.

Between that announcement at 2pm and 6pm... garages all over the country upped their prices by yet another 5p...so by the time 6pm came around they didn't lose a penny in revenue.. and further to that 90 % of the petrol garages did not reduce their prices at all for several days after the due date..
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I assume the tax cut was 5p a liter, if so that was a pretty small cut, it would be hard to see any effect. In Maryland they suspended all state gas tax, and prices have come down, see https://gasprices.aaa.com/?state=MD
 
Alligatorob said:
I assume the tax cut was 5p a liter, if so that was a pretty small cut, it would be hard to see any effect. In Maryland they suspended all state gas tax, and prices have come down, see https://gasprices.aaa.com/?state=MD
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yes it was very small 25 pence on the gallon.. but at last it was an attempt at a reduction thwarted by the Big petrol companies..BP etc..
 
RadishRose said:
Thanks, HD. I don't know how I guessed, but I wasn't too far off. My goodness, $10.77 per gallon! My Corolla holds 13 gals. $10.77 x 13=$140.01 to fill up!!!

Yes, I knew about your Utilities as well. So awful. :cry:
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Rose, it wasn't until you wrote this that I fully grasped the effect of what Holly is paying. My RAV4 has about the same size fuel tank, so the numbers hit home.

Gasoline in the Los Angeles area runs about $5.69/gallon for regular right now, which is down a relatively inconsequential 20¢ per gallon from a month ago. Seems regardless of the proclaimed source of various fuel crises, big oil companies always manage to remain extremely profitable. Funny how it always works out in their favor...

@hollydolly, the knock-on effect of higher fuel prices and shortages that you described is very scary.
 
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Alligatorob said:
I remember when gas prices went up during the Arab oil embargo in the 70s. I was shocked to pay $5 for a tank of gas, higher than I could imagine... Times have changed.
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I don't remember high prices back then but I do remember LONG lines. One night, I was the last one allowed in and the station attendant put up a barricade behind my car so no more customers could drive in line to tank up. They were just going to close. :(
 
Gas prices have always been markedly cheaper in the US than in the UK. I'm not sure why. And I believe gas prices in Europe are also much more expensive than in the US,?????? Again, I don't know why. The difference in prices has been going on way before Putin, and Covid,. I remember news items In the '70s gas embargo, Brits paid 4 times more than we did.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
Gas prices have always been markedly cheaper in the US than in the UK. I'm not sure why. And I believe gas prices in Europe are also much more expensive than in the US,?????? Again, I don't know why. The difference in prices has been going on way before Putin, and Covid,. I remember news items In the '70s gas embargo, Brits paid 4 times more than we did.
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..and we're paying about 3 times as much as you now. On the continent fuel was always much cheaper than here..MUCH... but in the last 2 or 3 years Spain and many other European countries have become almost parity with the UK.

In Russia, Fuel is extremely cheap..
 
Chet said:
PA has the second highest gas tax in the country behind California but we have the worst roads.
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We have terrible roads here too... Potholes everywhere ( not quite so bad here in the countryside) .... It never used to be the case but again in the last 2 or 3 years ( given that the roadworkers were exempt from lockdown so still able to work)... our councils have cut back drastically on road repairs....some roads in some cities and towns are just so horrendous that people are having their vehicle suspensions seriously damaged , and of course that means Insurance claims and then higher premiums ..

We pay huge amount of taxes on Fuel .. we pay a high annual car tax, and we pay high council taxes .. yet we're getting very little for our money
 
Alligatorob said:
Yep, today an average of $2.35/gallon or 0.57 euro per liter.

Cheapest right now is in Venezuela, $0.10/gallon or 0.023 euro per liter.

https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/gasoline_prices/
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According to your source, using US prices and US gallons, US average is $4.57, average around the world is $5.13, the most expensive is Hong Kong at $10.89 and the UK comes in at an average of $8.10. Russia is $2.35.

Great source, by the way, @Alligatorob. Thanks for that. I've been surfing around on it. Lots of info about what's going on with prices around the world.
 
hollydolly said:
We have terrible roads here too... Potholes everywhere ( not quite so bad here in the countryside) .... It never used to be the case but again in the last 2 or 3 years ( given that the roadworkers were exempt from lockdown so still able to work)... our councils have cut back drastically on road repairs....some roads in some cities and towns are just so horrendous that people are having their vehicle suspensions seriously damaged , and of course that means Insurance claims and then higher premiums ..

hollydolly, your 'terrible roads", here in the US, are our good roads. We have potholes that alter the earth's orbit,
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When comparing the cost of fuel do we need to factor in the cost of the median income in various countries?
 
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