This may be fate. I was just talking about how no one could think of a way to get our UK petrol prices down when I got an email with what may actually work.

All it involves is selecting not to buy from BP or Esso. It said they are the same people now which I didn't know, so have to be boycotted together obviously, and doesn't mean we lose out by not buying petrol at all on certain days a week or periods.

If everyone who wants the price to go down (I think if it was in dollars we'd be paying about $9 a gallon now) then just pass the BP and Esso garages by and use the next one if not expensive. Shell is one of the cheapest anyway and has the most others plus all the supermarkets.

Once even a few days pass with drastically reduced sales what else can they do but reduce prices, and if they do then the smaller ones will have to follow.

Business should be led by the consumer not the producer, and they need us to show them that big time. If you agree tell everyone you know in the UK to spread the message as it won't work unless enough people hear it and then they can choose whether to do it or not. I know a few actually want a high petrol price. Mainly the ones in government...

Satguru, I've received a number of emails purporting ways to reduce the cost of gas. A number of them propose boycotting gas companies by not buying gas on specific days. That will, of course, accomplish nothing. It simply changes the day the gas is purchased.

However, the more effective way to reduce the cost is basically what you are saying. But people have to be agreeable to boycott specific companies indefinitely and there are just too many people who are not willing to give up their gas over here. If anyone needs to go 3 blocks to the store, it's "get in the car." I believe people living the U.S. are not going to be willing to give up their cars. We are a spoiled lot!

As it says, this method means we give up nothing. All we need to do is just avoid two brands. Unless you live so far out there aren't any others for miles everyone else has a few different places within a similar distance, and if as you say we just indefinitely boycott the BP/Esso brand then they will realise the people can mess up their market just as they have been messing ours up for years with little or no opposition.

The email suggested keeping it up until petrol returns to a reasonable level, ie around 70p a litre, which is only what we were paying around a year ago. Once the people show they have some power in a new area the companies won't forget.

My local garage, which is Esso by the way, is charging around £1.05 per liter for petrol and £1.10 for diesel. There doesn't seem to be much variation around here between different companies.

That's nearly the same as the Netherlands then. They pay 1.50 euro per litre for petrol. Much more than we pay here in Australia.

What RMG said Jillian, we have a small variation, just over the river in Richmond it's still £1.01 (the lowest I know of) but I also just passed somewhere in Ealing charging £1.09 for both. The tragic thing is over 70% of this is tax and nothing to do with the high oil price. It appears impossible to influence them as they have their easy money policy taxing the unavoidable, but we may not be able to avoid buying it regardless of cost (nb public transport prices go up equally, it's nothing to do with 'selfish personal transport' as the envirotwits say) as it means all transport costs more plus everything carried by it. They have guaranteed that everything in the economy is affected by one unnecessary tax. It affects everyone equally, rich or poor, and also all household bills which have gone up or are to by similar amounts.

ugh, that's bad isn't it? Does the tax work on a percentage? It does here and I think it's about 50% give or take.

The thing I hate most, which doesn't even affect me , is tolls on roads. If we're paying so much in tax for fuel why why why do we have to pay to drive on a road?

There are two taxes, one is VAT at 17.5% after the rest has been worked out, and I honestly don't know if the other is fixed or not but it's massive either way!

They charge for roads as well now, mainly in London but it's spreading. Why pay once when you can pay twice? Plus road tax every year. If we all just stayed within our local areas like they did 1000 years ago to save fuel and money the government would say we were ruining the economy.
But nowhere near as much as they are now. We can't do both, people either move freely or barely move at all. They want us all to feel guilty just for visiting friends and relatives. Apparently.

Isn't it 'duty' rather than tax David?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/world/2000/world_fuel_crisis/933648.stm

That is an out of date news item but gives an idea on the make up of prices.

I'm sure it is, I don't actually know what the distinction is, but I would have thought duty is a form of tax, and if not has the same result, ie raising cash and costing people money.

I had seen a couple of similar breakdowns with percentages but I couldn't tell whether the duty itself was flat rate or percentage rate.
Either way that table tells us the government have chosen to use petrol as the easiest way to raise cash, rather than have it on income tax which was the previous way Labour liked to do it. That became a vote loser so of course it had to be found somewhere else.

But to me there is a level of any taxation that becomes unreasonable, and just like the old 98% supertax which meant many rich people left the country, the fuel duty does not affect a small rich minority but a huge poor majority. This actually goes against Labour principles as it means poor people have to pay as much as rich people and the tax/duty has no relation to the ability to pay. The same goes for all road charges and car tax (although that is now reduced for smaller cars), but you don't see them adjust the congestion charge for income (which of course would be practically impossible).

Rather than trawl Wikipedia at 2am can anyone volunteer a quick explanation of fuel tax vs fuel duty. I think like whether you are paying for an item with the VAT separately itemised it makes not a jot of difference to the end user who simply loses more cash, but there clearly is a difference as far as the accountants are concerned. Rather like being asked how you'd like to die, the effect will be the same whichever method you choose. Rather like the way governments play with words which have no effect on the general public but make accountants and economists very rich sorting items into the correct columns before they end up in exactly the same place!

Tax is tax is tax. The government has to raise the funds to run schools, health service, pay rises for mp's and wars. If they didn't rake it in from fuel taxes they would have to raise it on VAT or Income Tax or Window Tax or Tea Tax.

The government is getting a huge windfall from the high fuel prices (for which I blame market speculators and oil companies personally) so possibly they may be able to give us something in the next budget, or plan to start up a new war, who knows?

The best way to reduce your fuel costs is to use less. Is your journey really necessary? Could you use public transport? Is your car fuel efficient or a gas guzzler? Drive with your AC off, your windows shut, (not a problem in a British Summer), keep your tyres at the right pressure and lay off the accelerator as much as possible.

Do your weekly shop at Sainsburys and get 5p. off a litre..

Yep, that thought did cross my mind too: I actually went to Asda this week (end of the month).... only saw Sainsburys offer the next day: wondered why the petrol station was so backed up with queueing cars!

Do get your loyalty card points too: all a bit of a shoppers nightmare to weigh everything up these days. (could there be a pun there?)

Sadly an economist has now analysed this method and found firstly the petrol companies have multiple brands so if you avoid one you'll probably still buy one owned by the same people. Secondly by avoiding certainbrands the others would put their prices up from the extra demand.
It seems the two variables we have are what the governments choose to tax (ie the British tax fuel the most or thereabouts so is a pure choice) and secondly the New York stock exchange had certain regulations relaxed allowing all and sundry to speculate on oil which is the major change allowing prices to rocket.

Oil production is hardly a factor as if they increase output now it'll just run out sooner and cost even more.