|
| There are fresh calls for the Victorian state government to introduce a petrol price reporting scheme, with Victoria now the only state without a mandatory program to help motorists find the cheapest bowser. Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia have moved in the past year to join Western Australia and NSW by adding price reporting system, which requires service stations to regularly notify the government about their fuel charges. The data is then made publicly available. Victoria last looked at the possibility of a mandatory reporting scheme in 2017 during its inquiry into petrol prices. But a parliamentary committee chose not to recommend changing the current system and instead urged people to use private websites and apps instead. But Compare the Market's head of strategy, Emma Alberici , said it often took days or weeks for fuel prices to be fully updated on those, and the time had come to re-examine mandatory reporting. "In other states they are all real time, often you are meant to lodge your price the minute you change it," she said. "Queensland only did this last month after a two-year trial so it's a very live issue. "The savings are quite significant , they said an average family in Queensland could save up to $147 a year on filling up, if they shopped around with the apps. "I believe that to be conservative ." Ms Alberici said some service stations could have a price difference of 51c a litre within 10 minutes' drive of each other. "Victoria is the last holdout ," she said. "At the moment we've engaged a model that's a bit like crowdsourcing to provide data for Victorians in our app. It really does pay to compare prices in real time." RACV senior manager Peter Kartsidimas said his organisation would welcome the introduction of a mandatory scheme. "Before implementing any petrol price reporting system in Victoria, we should look at the systems that have already been implemented across Australia to ensure we have an efficient system for Victorian motorists that provides price updates as frequently as possible ," he said. "We are not sure why this hasn't been implemented in Victoria, but we believe the introduction of a mandatory petrol price reporting system would provide Victorians with more accurate and up-to-date information to help save money at the bowser," said Mr Kartsidimas. This article is from the January 16 issue of The Herald Sun Digital Edition. To subscribe, visit https://www.heraldsun.com.au/. KIERAN ROONEY Petrol Spy Australia MotorMouth |
Petrol Price Reporting Scheme
Visit Website [new window]