MSE News: Petrol prices - New road signs will compare service station costs

Herzlos

I'm not keen on throwing money away, but I'm not sure I'd want to take a detour off motorway to save a couple of quid on fuel after the extra fuel I've burnt. It'd be less hassle to just drive slower

zappahey wrote: »

Why would you buy <20 litres of fuel on a motorway run?

To get my to the end of the motorway run, where I can pay less to fill the tank up? :beer:

Normally I fill the car up at a station to avoid making additional trips, and I'll always fill up before a long journey but if I'm running low on the motorway (I get a range of about 300 miles) I'll happily put in enough at a service station to get my to my destination next time I'm stopping for a break anyway.

In my 9 years of driving (mostly motorway), I think I've bought fuel at motorway service stations 2 or 3 times.

londonTiger

I don't think it's out of order for motorway service stations to charge 5p-10p extra. They're only banking on passing traffic on motorways, they're ususally in the middle of nowhere and provide an invaluable service to anyone dumb enough to go close to empty on a middle of a motorway trip.

Frankly, if they were forced by law [for arguements sake] to match supermarket prices or inner city prices they will not be viable at all.

Just think how expensive it will be for the government to roll out this digital display boards all across the motorway network.

The only person benefitting is probably the contractor fitting these. The petrol stations will not change their prices and they're the only pumps for the next 20 miles, so they can charge whatever they like and often drivers will not have any choice but to drive to the nearest pump.

Also consider then fact that it probably costs them a lot to get refuelling trucks driving 100mile or so from a refinery to fill up their reservoiors. The trucks probably run at something ridiculous like 5mpg, so their supply cost is expensive too.

Caddyman

londonTiger wrote: »

.......Also consider then fact that it probably costs them a lot to get refuelling trucks driving 100mile or so from a refinery to fill up their reservoiors. The trucks probably run at something ridiculous like 5mpg, so their supply cost is expensive too.

Transportation costs to motorway service stations shouldn't be any different to that of transportation to any other fuel station off the motorway in most cases. I live just two miles as the crow flies to a motorway service station. The nearest petrol forecourt off the motorway to that service station, is just a mile or so and the nearest supermarket forecourt is just two miles away. The supermarket fuel tankers fill up at the same refineries as the fuel supplied to the motorway service stations and probably the vast majority of the fuel tankers that refill my local forecourts, have to use the M1 to get the fuel to the forecourts in my locale in the first place, passing motorway fuel stations enroute.

Motorway service stations are not value for money in any sense but are there to allow people to rest when required and to alleviate the problem of people running out of fuel and being stranded on the motorway. I'm just surprised there are a number of people who honestly believe that coming off the motorway to find the nearest cheaper fuel station is too much trouble or will cost them more in fuel than what they would save. If some people planned their journey before they set off, they would see it really isn't so difficult after all.

thor

I didn't even realise that motorway service stations don't display their price until I read this thread. I have always assumed that they cost far too much and thus have never been curious about their prices when going past on the motorway.