A GLEN Innes independent service station owner is not happy with a state government initiative that requires service stations to upload prices onto a website as soon as their petrol boards change.
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Local motorists will be able to compare petrol prices online after FuelCheck, launched last week as part of changes to the Fair Trading legislation.
The online tool provides consumers with real-time fuel price information covering every service station across NSW.
But local independent service station owner Ralph Panebianco said the initiative is a disgrace.
“If we are being petty about the price of fuel then why aren’t we being petty about the price of oranges, apples, steak and the like,” he said.
“What this is going to do is make the big multi-national petrol stations powerful and the small independents like me suffer, the small independent will slowly die away.
“I think this will work the other way to the way the government thinks it will because the big multi-national will play with this system by advertising the price at $1.60 on the website but then sell it for $1.40 on their board, the multi-nationals are smart they will find a way to play with the system, but the small indy won’t have the wriggle room in their price to play such games.”
Mr Panebianco said that to the best of his knowledge the state can’t set or interfere with a price for an item to be sold because that is anti-competitive.
“With fuel the customer either likes the price they see on the board or they don’t, if they do you’ll buy if you don’t you won’t,” he said.“Fuel is not cheap for us to buy; we don’t make any money on fuel anyway, what we are doing is selling petrol at close to cost and hoping people buy a coke or a packet of chips, that is how small independents make their money.”
But the NRMA said the initiative is a win for the state’s motorists.
The motoring body also launched a new fuel app, where members can search for the cheapest fuel via price, location or fuel type.
“There will be more competition across the board, especially in regional areas where it’s needed,” NRMA spokesperson Peter Khoury said. “The service stations will drop their prices and that’s what we’re hoping to see in regional areas.”
NRMA president Kyle Loades said the new NRMA app will result in a significant power shift in favour or the public every time they fill up and change the petrol landscape in NSW forever.
“By forcing service stations to post prices in real time, more of the power will rest in the hands of the informed motorists rather than the oil companies,” she said.