MotorMouth has extended the capabilities of its fuel price website and app, launching a combined fuel type search options for E10/Unleaded 91, and Diesel/Premium Diesel.
“It may not sound like much, but as many service stations only stock one of these fuels it is possible for motorists to miss out on a good deal when only searching for a single fuel type,” said MotorMouth spokesperson, Alan Cadd.
“This is especially important for NSW and QLD motorists due to those states’ ethanol initiatives,” Mr Cadd said.
MotorMouth updates fuel price data across Australia every 15 minutes. MotorMouth, part of the Informed Sources group of companies, was first formed in July 2000.
The company relaunched its website in December, providing users with real time, location-based information on petrol prices and service station locations.
“Somewhere in Australia, at least every 10 seconds, someone launches MotorMouth to find cheap prices and save money. This new initiative can only add to that success,” Mr Cadd said.
MotorMouth integrates service with NSW FuelCheck website
Another change to the MotorMouth platforms is the integration of the NSW fuel price data, now available on the NSW FuelCheck website.
FuelCheck was officially launched last week and it is compulsory for NSW service station operators to register. Around 2036 sites have so far signed up to the service.
For retailers to make a price change through the FuelCheck website, users log in using their mobile phone number. FuelCheck then responds seconds sending a unique verification code via email and SMS.
The user then identifies the relevant service station in their profile, changes the fuel price and confirms their update. All interactions with FuelCheck are logged and this information is available to the station owner.
Several fuel station retailers who spoke to C&I last week said there had been some initial teething problems with the site.
One multi-site operator told C&I that, as some of his oil-company-owned locations where initially registered by the oil company itself, he has effectively been locked out of the FuelCheck system. He said NSW Fair Trading would not reassign the location and he has “desperately tried to talk to them” so that he can upload his data.
Diann Melas, who operates the 60-store Budget Petrol group, says her experience with FuelCheck has been mainly positive. Ms Melas told C&I she expects the impact of the new website will be to see more price competition generally.
A NSW Fair Trading spokesperson told C&I last week it was working closely with the fuel industry throughout the launch.
“NSW Fair Trading is aware that there has been confusion amongst some franchise owners as to whether they will send their prices to FuelCheck or whether this responsibility will be handled by the franchisor’s head office,” the spokesperson said.
“Staff have been working through each of these issues to ensure that each service station has the right person (or entity) registered and able to access FuelCheck.”
Sign up to C&I’s free bi-weekly newsletter here to receive the latest industry news every Tuesday and Thursday. Follow C&I on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.