NSW Finance Minister Victor Dominello uses his FuelCheck app at a service station in North Ryde Photo: Brook Mitchell
When the tank of his black Mini Cooper starts to run low, Victor Dominello hops onto the FuelCheck website to locate the best E10 deal in his area.
The NSW Finance Minister, who launched the real-time price comparison tool last year, says choosing the cheapest option has slashed his usual petrol bill by $12.
Advertisement
“I’m driven solely by price because petrol is petrol is petrol, and when I see prices escalating through the roof for no apparent reason, I want to use my purchasing power to put pressure on petrol companies,” he said.
With price variations of up to 43 cents a litre recorded in Sydney, savvy motorists who buy the cheapest petrol to fill up a 45-litre tank each week could save more than $1000 a year.
New data from fuel price app MotorMouth shows that in the first four months of this year, the gap between the highest and lowest E10 price in Sydney was anywhere between 26 and 43 cents a litre.
It also shows that over the 120-day period, the most expensive E10 was found at Coles Express service stations 77 per cent of the time, and the least expensive was found at Liberty petrol stations 73 per cent of the time.
The mid-range retailers were Budget, 7-Eleven and United.
Motorist should fill up their tanks if they’re in Sydney’s west and south-west, with the data revealing that service stations in Bonnyrigg, Casula, Guildford, Granville and Fairfield East regularly offered the lowest prices.
But the most expensive sites are scattered across Sydney, located in suburbs Edgecliff, Bexley, Prestons, Marsden Park and Thornleigh.
Despite the massive savings, a Canstar survey of more than 2000 motorists across Australia found that only 17 per cent were using smartphone apps to track fuel prices, of which 64 per cent said they acted on their findings.
It cautioned consumers to think carefully before deciding to travel the extra distance to nab a bargain.
“If people are travelling an extra 5km to the next fuel station, that’s about 2.2 litres extra consumed [and] to save, say, 2 cents a litre on a 50L fill up, that equates to $1,” it says.
“Given the cost of a litre of petrol is often over $1 a litre, you can see how ‘spending to save’ is redundant in some cases [and if you have to] backtrack after you’ve filled up, that’s 10km you’ve driven unnecessarily.”
Another money-saving strategy is to fill up at the low point of the price cycle - however this is becoming harder as the duration of each cycle has increased.
The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission says cycles in major cities range from two weeks to more than two months and are the result of deliberate pricing policies retailers, not wholesale costs.
Motorists should check the ACCC website to see how prices in Sydney are trending and whether to delay buying petrol.
David Byrne, assistant professor of economics at University of Melbourne, says fuel price tracker apps will become essential as regular cycles disappear.
“Since 2010 it’s been tougher to time your purchases or to avoid those really large jumps because it could happen Sunday, it could happen Friday, who knows,” he said.
“We used to have an ‘up’ every 10 days or two weeks, now it’s once a month and it’s hard to predict when it will happen.”
Apart from apps and timing, drivers can also save money by reducing their fuel consumption.
First, take a look at the way you drive your car. Experts say you’ll use less fuel if you drive smoothly and maintain a steady speed, instead of frequently accelerating and braking.
It helps if you’re travelling on a route with fewer traffic lights and corners.
Advertisement
Second, try to take fewer trips by combining your daily errands into one journey. The Department of the Environment says that cars are least fuel efficient and most polluting at the start of and on short trips.
Third, reduce your load by removing roof racks, bike carriers and heavy gear in the boot, because the heavier the car, the more fuel it will use.
“NRMA has found that loading a vehicle up to its maximum-rated weight results in fuel consumption increasing by 24 per cent compared with an identical unladen vehicle,” spokeswoman Rebecca Page.
“Take off roof racks if they're not required - they add to aerodynamic drag which increases fuel consumption by up to five per cent.”
A Coles spokesman says it seeks to provide a “competitive fuel offering” and offers discounts.
“In addition to the 4 cents per litre fuel discount voucher received when spending a minimum $30 in Coles supermarkets, customers can also save 10c per litre by spending a minimum $20 in Coles Express stores,” he said.
