High fuel prices around the country have had Aussie business managers all hot and bothered recently. At the beginning of October the price of petrol around Australia’s cities was the highest it’s been in years, hovering around $1.60/litre. If your business is in the country it’s even worse of course.
Some motorists have gone so far as to sign up to a consumer boycott, or national fuel strike organised on Facebook by Queensland grandmother Sabrina Lamont. While that may give the participants a warm inner glow (“hey, that’ll show ‘em!”), unfortunately it’s not going to make one jot of difference to prices at the pump. On the one hand, when you’re dependent on fuel for your daily life threatening a boycott on a particular day is purely symbolic – you’ll be buying it the next day or the day before. On the other hand, fuel prices are largely a result of international factors, the Aussie dollar and government taxation. A one-day boycott’s not going to change any of that.
Global conflict
We can thank boycotts on Russia, the war between Saudi Arabia and Yemen and Donald Trump’s sanctions and sabre-rattling on Iran for the rising price of crude oil. They’re all threatening to leave the world short of oil and helping to push the price up by around 40% around the world.
Compounding that is the falling Aussie dollar. The days when Aussie tourists could head to the USA and laugh as we waved our hairy-chested muscular Aussie dollars under the nose of the Yanks are long gone. Every barrel of oil we buy from overseas is bought with a weaker Aussie dollar. And of course there’s tax. There’s always tax, isn’t there? Thirty-five per cent of the cost of fuel is due to the fuel excise tax.
Shop around
So if joining a consumer boycott is just an empty gesture what can you do to save money on fuel? Well you could start by shopping around, and it’s true that many of the independent fuel stations are selling at prices well below the majors. But there’s a couple of problems with that. Your drivers may have to travel some distance burning fuel as they get there to save a few dollars. Then when they get there, if the price is way down, they may find themselves sitting in a long, long queue of bargain-hunting motorists. Haven’t they got better things to do?
Watch fuel cycles
One good idea is to get into the habit of watching those fuel cycles and make it a point to always buy fuel at the bottom of the cycle. The ACCC has a handy online guide to fuel cycles in the capital cities.
Fleetcare Fuel Cards
Buying at the bottom of the fuel price cycle is a good start, but if there’s one management tool that’s guaranteed to always save your business money on fuel – it’s a Fleetcare Fuel Card. For starters your Fleetcare Fuel Card will get you discounted fuel from BP, Caltex and Shell stations, so it’s always easy to find cheaper fuel wherever your drivers are.
But that’s really just the start, because a Fleetcare fuel card helps you identify when your drivers are buying fuel so that you can ensure they’re always buying at the bottom of the cycle. So that’s discounted fuel bought at the bottom of the fuel price cycle – how’s that for a win-win situation!
The benefits don’t end there. Fleetcare Fuel Cards also encourage economical driving. You can combine the information on them with odometer readings to identify the most economical drivers and reward them, while encouraging the lead-foots in the team to lighten up a little. The same data will also help you track down inefficient vehicles so you can choose the most efficient one for the task.
It gets better. A fuel card combined with GPS and odometer readings will also help you identify the most fuel-efficient routes from A to B so that you use less fuel getting there.
When you add up the benefits you’ll come to realise that a Fleetcare Fuel Card is the perfect dollars and sense solution to high fuel prices your business needs.
More efficient vehicle
Yet another way to tame those high fuel prices is with a more efficient vehicle, and these days there’s plenty to choose from, such as the new Toyota Corolla Hybrid. The perfect way to get behind the wheel of that new car is with a Fleetcare Novated Lease.
For further information about the benefits of a Fleetcare Fuel Card or a Novated Lease, call Fleetcare on 134 333 and start cutting those high fuel costs today.