Thursday 10 March 2016

It’s Time To End Price Fixing at the Pumps

Oil prices have fallen lately. We include this news for the benefit of gas stations, which otherwise wouldn't learn of it for six months.
William D. Tammeus

This blog isn’t a complaint about the price of gas. In fact gas prices are lower than they’ve been in a long time. What frosts me is price fixing at the pumps. Who decides the price of gas and on what basis do they make that determination?

I live in Toronto and last weekend I went to Kingston for the weekend to visit friends. Kingston is a nice 2.5 hour drive due east of Toronto. One would assume that the gas prices would be the same. When I left Toronto the gas prices were 90.9/litre. The bandits on the highway were cheaper than Toronto at 89.9/litre. When I arrived in Kingston the prices were 82.9/litre and 80.0/litre at the “no name” stations.

Would someone please explain to me how two cities in close proximity to each other have an 8 – 10 cent difference per litre in the price of gas! How do they come up with these prices? The price per barrel doesn’t change. Both cities are in Ontario so the tax doesn’t change. What on earth accounts for such a huge price discrepancy?

We have government people who do nothing but track gas prices, so why aren’t they doing something about this? We’re all getting screwed by price fixing at the pumps. Isn’t price fixing illegal? I guess if it’s the government who’s screwing us, it doesn’t count.

A pedestrian is someone who thought there were a couple of gallons left in the tank. 
Author Unknown

Make someone smile today.

Geri

No comments:

Post a Comment