The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has said that both motorists and residents can benefit from using fuel price data.
ACCC chairman Rod Sims spoke at the Asia Pacific Fuel Industry Forum recently, saying that websites and apps providing this data can empower price-sensitive consumers.
Mr Sims said many customers are convinced that petrol prices are a rip-off and fluctuations in prices do not help this view.
“Consumers can see that international petrol prices have not risen but fuel prices have. These perceptions have been around for many years and remain today,” he said.
“This is why the current focus of the ACCC is to highlight to consumers the ability of technology to help them find where the cheapest petrol prices are, to encourage them to buy where petrol is cheapest, and to reward retailers which have the lowest prices.
“This takes us from a long-standing arrangement whereby only the major retailers had access to comprehensive information about petrol prices, to consumers now being empowered to make purchasing decisions through a range of fuel price apps and websites. We believe this will, in turn, help drive more competitive markets in petrol retailing.”
Available fuel pricing apps include the NSW FuelCheck scheme, the GasBuddy app, the NRMA app, the MotorMouth app and the 7-Eleven app.