kerosene/ heating oil prices

CliveOfIndia

rentaboy said:

Hay whats there minimum order do you know?

It's normally 500 litres (at least it is in my neck of the woods), the same for all of the local suppliers.  But the price per litre is more expensive if you only order 500 litres - I think the cutoff point to get a cheaper price per litre is usually 900 litres (again, just going by my local suppliers).

rentaboy

QrizB said:

rentaboy said:

400ixl said:

And you may have noticed that has not had much of an effect on heating oil prices to date on the mainland. The price today is in the 67-69p range.

Where/ who sells it for that price

Not quite as cheap as 400ixl, but here's what Boilerjuice quote me right now:

They might not be the cheapest but they're a convenient place to get a quote!

Mine is cheaper for some reason 

rentaboy

35har1old said:

QrizB said:

400ixl said:

What do you mean by at the pump? Where are you in the UK?

OP spent the last few days complaining about solid fuel and asking where to buy house coal, the sale of which is banned in England.

So I can only surmise that they're in Wales, Scotland or N. Ireland.

Perhaps he meant smokeless coal

No i ment house coal

rentaboy

Rodders53 said:

There's been some cold weather so the price of heating kerosene often goes up (supply vs demand).

The price of Kerosene has been steadily increasing I note via fueltool : around 70p/litre ex 5% vat today.  Pretty sure it was well under 60p/litre before Christmas (?56/57p?).

Mind that's for bulk delivery of 500 litres (min order).

Why is every single company minimum 500 litres? are they all working together or something? is there a monopoly at play hear or something?

rentaboy

CliveOfIndia said:

rentaboy said:

Hay whats there minimum order do you know?

It's normally 500 litres (at least it is in my neck of the woods), the same for all of the local suppliers.  But the price per litre is more expensive if you only order 500 litres - I think the cutoff point to get a cheaper price per litre is usually 900 litres (again, just going by my local suppliers).

but why are all companies 500 litres though?

lohr500

I wouldn't call it a monopoly. They aren't controlling the price and there are multiple suppliers.

See here : 

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2022-03-10/138014
  

CliveOfIndia

rentaboy said:

Why is every single company minimum 500 litres?

I suspect the minimum order quantity is down to simple economics.  I've no idea how much it costs them to send one of those big tankers out to deliver, but it can't be cheap - the cost of buying/maintaining the truck, the cost of fuel to run it, the driver's wages.  Then they've got all the usual company overheads to factor in, and of course they still need to make a profit.  I'd wager that delivering a very small quantity is simply not profitable for them.

Granted, they'll try and bulk up orders as far as possible, i.e. wait until they've got a few order from the same area and do them in one run.  But most companies (again, only going by personal experience) will deliver within a week of the order being placed, so there's a limit on how many orders they can wait for from an area before they need to deliver.

rentaboy said:

are they all working together or something? is there a monopoly at play hear or something?

There's no monopoly.  I have a list of about 6 or 8 local suppliers that I ring up every time I need to order, the difference in price from one company to another very often surprises me - 6, 7, 8 pence per litre difference is not uncommon, sometimes even more.  And more often than not, the company that was cheapest last time I ordered is not the cheapest this time.  It's just the same as why one garage sells petrol at a different price to another garage that's half a mile away - commercial competition, simple as that.

There's another factor that plays into the price they charge, and that's the price they themselves bought the oil at.  Since the price of oil changes on a daily basis, depending on when they bought their last batch, one company may have paid more than another company, so obviously have to sell it at a higher price to maintain their margin.

rentaboy

lohr500 said:

I wouldn't call it a monopoly. They aren't controlling the price and there are multiple suppliers.

See here : 

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2022-03-10/138014
  

So its the Weights and Measures Act that has set it at 500 right?

rentaboy

CliveOfIndia said:

rentaboy said:

Why is every single company minimum 500 litres?

I suspect the minimum order quantity is down to simple economics.  I've no idea how much it costs them to send one of those big tankers out to deliver, but it can't be cheap - the cost of buying/maintaining the truck, the cost of fuel to run it, the driver's wages.  Then they've got all the usual company overheads to factor in, and of course they still need to make a profit.  I'd wager that delivering a very small quantity is simply not profitable for them.

But they will deliver 2 sacks of coal if you are in the right area

400ixl

They will deliver 200 litres of oil as well, but you will pay a much higher price per litre for that small a quantity.

It also makes little sense to be ordering that small an amount for pretty much everyone. Tanks usually hold over 1000 litres minimum so most people fill them up or at least half fill them.