By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
Cranbourne the hot spot for petrol drive-offs
AN INDEPENDENT fuel retailer who oversees more than 20 sites across Victoria said his two Cranbourne stores were the worst hit by petrol drive-offs.
APCO Service Station director Peter Anderson, who owns a petrol station in both Cranbourne North and Cranbourne West, said petrol drive-offs had increased considerably over the last two years – with his two Casey outlets copping the worst of it.
He said drive-offs at the two Cranbourne stores, one on Narre Warren Road and one on Dandenong-Hastings Road, occurred roughly three times a week, more than any of the other APCO outlets state-wide.
On average each petrol drive-off cost the business around $80, amounting to roughly $240 of lost income a week for the Cranbourne stores.
It comes as the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce (VACC) announced fuel stations across the state were losing up to $20 million in revenue each year.
“It is higher than anywhere else in our network,” Mr Anderson said of his Cranbourne outlets.
“They are one of the worst.
“People fill their tank and they don’t just get $10 worth because when they do a drive-off they want to get everything they can.”
Mr Anderson, who is forced to cover the loss out of his own pocket, said he was “infuriated” by the high level of drive-offs, exacerbated by policy changes in Victoria Police’s response to the crime.
In July 2013, police stopped investigating fuel drive-offs unless it could be proven the car was stolen or had stolen number plates.
If a service station cannot provide evidence of criminal behaviour or intent – for example, if someone forgot to pay – the incident is now handled as a civil debt, with the responsibility on the service station to contact the driver and seek payment.
But the results of this year’s parliamentary inquiry into fuel drive-offs is due in December.
Victoria Police has recommended fuel stations adopt pre-pay systems to address the problem but this could cost an average fuel station around $20,000 to implement, according to a VACC report.
“That may not be a lot of money to Coles and Woolworths but to independent operators that could be crippling,” Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Geoff Gwilym said.
“This impost would make it yet harder for them to compete with these big businesses.”
APCO is a chain of independent petrol stations, with outlets throughout the state including Cranbourne, Geelong, Epping, Ballarat, Bairnsdale, and Mildura, among many others.
