GREATER customer interest in petrol will force down pump prices, according to the Guernsey Consumer Group. Group chairman Roy Bisson has welcomed an independent report into petrol prices, which said that garages took margins of 30%.
‘We’re delighted with the report and support the recommendations that with better information, namely boards showing the prices in each location, the consumer is going to get a better deal,’ he said.
Mr Bisson said that consumer pressure was the only way to influence changes in pricing.
He opposed a price being set by the States and said that customer pressure had already influenced the scrapping of the Guernsey Motor Trades Association’s recommended retail price a few years ago.
And he had been impressed at how consumer pressure in Jersey had led to a 10p fall in pump prices in the last couple of years.
But lower prices need not, he believed, result in garages going out of business - only one forecourt has closed in Jersey since petrol prices went under the microscope there. ‘The public will buy on two counts - price and convenience,’ he said.
As a non-States member of Environment, Mr Bisson hoped that a quick deal could be done to permit the siting of price boards at garages.
‘Proper signing, so that motorists can make a choice before they get to the pump, is vital. It worked in Jersey and I’m sure it will work here.’
Mr Bisson did not believe that the report signalled a new era of consumer power with the advent of competition laws.
He said that the report followed Jersey’s petrol one and paved the way for next year’s duty increases - when motor tax is scrapped - to be made more transparent.
Mr Bisson also backed the report in calling for change in some Guernsey Gas activities highlighted as anti-consumer and noted the accusations that fuel companies were overcharging on domestic heating oil.
THE author of the report on petrol prices took to the Guernsey Press’s sister website thisisguernsey editors’ blog yesterday to defend his report in the face of criticism.
Independent oil industry consultant James Milne repeated his argument that it was perverse for customers who paid cash at the time of purchase to pay the most for fuel.
He added that without formal trading standards controls, garages were able to make misleading statements about the cost of their fuel.
‘Unsuspecting customers can be seduced by slogans promising 50% discount that appear far more attractive than ﾓcheaper petrol hereﾔ,’ said Mr Milne.
‘Price transparency at the pumps allows all consumers to judge the value of their particular deal, to compare with other outlets and then to make an informed choice of where to buy their petrol. This happens every day in British life.
‘Why should this sophistication of pricing displays and decision-making be denied to Guernsey consumers?’
Article posted on 19th May, 2007 - 12.00am
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