By Brendan Rees
A Lyndhurst resident says surging fuel prices at the pump was hurting his hip pocket.
Michael Drew, who drives a Subaru Liberty to his workplace in Bayswater, said fuel prices were such a rip off he had avoided using tollways.
“If I go on the Eastlink it costs me 20 bucks a day,” he said. I’m only getting $23 an hour. It costs you an hour’s pay.
“We’re paying far too much for fuel. I always try and buy it at the right times.”
Melbourne’s unleaded petrol prices had risen since March 15 as the retail discounting cycle ended and global crude oil prices lifted, according to CommSec senior economist Ryan Felsman.
However, he said motorists should start to see relief as fuel prices “should weaken” in the next week with the next discounting cycle expected to start after pump prices peaked on March 20 at 152.4 cents a litre.
“Rising fuel costs are another constraint on household budgets, especially with most Aussies booking-in blocks of annual leave for the upcoming school, Easter and Anzac Day holidays,” he said.
Some of the highest unleaded prices revealed on Petrolspy.com on Friday 29 March was Coles Express Berwick on Clyde Road (149.9c a litre); BP Hallam Road Hampton Park (143.9c a litre); Caltex Cranbourne North on South Gippsland Highway (138.9c a litre), and Cole Express Hampton Park on South Gippsland Highway (145.9c a litre).
According to Mr Drew, Coles and 7-Eleven didn’t “seem to have a lot of cheap stuff.”
“United seems to be the cheapest all the time. Coles is a joke with their four cents discount,” he said.
Mr Drew, who works as a courier truck driver, said the company he worked for was also feeling the pinch: “The boss isn’t happy. It’s another 30 bucks he can do without.”
RACV manager of vehicle engineering, Michael Case said when fuel prices reached an “unsustainable level” where profit margins were very low or even running at a loss “the fuel price gets driven back up again by some of the retailers.”
“The majority of petrol stations will then follow this upwards trend,” he said.
“As the price is currently still near the top of the cycle and trending down, we would advise motorists to top up rather than fill up where possible.”
