FUEL PRICES

What is the truth about fuel prices?

This is a circulating email that I received some time ago.
THIS IS GOOD READING.  BUT READ THE REPLY ALSO.

       THIS IS NOT THE 'DON'T BUY' PETROL FOR ONE DAY, BUT IT WILL SHOW YOU HOW WE CAN GET PETROL BACK DOWN TO $1.00 PER Litre...

This was originally sent by Phillip Hollsworth, a retired Coca Cola executive.
If you are tired of the gas prices going up AND they will continue to rise this winter, take time to read this, PLEASE.

Phillip offered this good idea.

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the 'don't buy petrol on a certain day' campaign that was going around last April or May!

It is worth your consideration. Join the resistance!!!!

We are going to hit $ 2.50 a litre and it might go higher!! Want petrol prices to come down?

We need to take some intelligent, united action. The oil companies just laughed at last year’s action because they knew we would not continue to 'hurt' ourselves by refusing to buy petrol.  It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them.  BUT whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work.
Please read on and join with us!

By now, you're probably thinking petrol priced at about $1.99 is cheap.
It is currently $2.09 for regular unleaded.

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a liter of gas is CHEAP at $1.99, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace...not sellers.

With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action...

The only way we are going to see the price of petrol come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their petrol! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.

How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying petrol.

But we CAN have an impact on petrol prices if we all act together to force a price war.

Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY petrol from BP
the biggest price-up driver company.

If they are not selling any petrol, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.

But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of BP petrol buyers. It's SO simple!
Now, don't wimp out on me at this point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions and even BILLIONS of people!!

I am sending this note to 20 people..
If each of you sends it on to at least twenty more that's (20 x 20 = 400) ..
And those 400 send it to at least twenty more (400 x 20 = 8000 ... and so on,
by the time the message reaches the fifth group of people, we will have reached over SIXTY FOUR MILLION consumers!!!!!
20x20 = 400
400x20 = 8,000
8,000x20 = 160,000
160,000x20 = 3,200,000
3,200,000x20 = 64,000,000
64,000,000x20 = 12,800,000,000
That's 12.80 Billion people folks, who will have been contacted!!!!!

Unbelievable?? Do the math and see for yourself!
Again, all you have to do is send this to 20 people.   That's all!
I'll bet you didn't think we had that much potential, did you!
Acting together we can make a difference..
If this message makes sense to you, then please pass it on.
THEY will LOWER THEIR PRICES TO BELOW THE $1.50 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN.
THIS CAN REALLY WORK.
It’s simple – send the message along to others and choose to not buy petrol from BP.
TWENTY FIVE POINT SIX BILLION people:  Now THAT's people power.       LET'S
JUST DO IT ! ! ! More power to you friend.

MY REPLY

FUEL PRICES – THE REALITY

Hi,

   Thanks for the email. It was nice hearing from you.

   Unfortunately, the email you forwarded about fuel prices and how to get them down was circulated several weeks ago, as well as some years ago, and to date I haven't noticed any loss of trade for the companies targeted.

   A closer examination of the theory in the email will reveal that it is just a theory and a flawed one at that.

   The email assumes that 64 million people will all toe the line and forward to twenty others. It goes on to claim that if those 64 million recipients each send to twenty new recipients the message will reach another 12.8 billion people. Well, hello, isn’t the world population just 7 billion? Did someone slip up here?

   In reality less than half of recipients will forward it and of those it may be only forwarded to one or two new recipients. The next problem the theory has is that not everyone who gets the email will be a buyer of petrol. Likewise, not everyone who buys petrol receives emails. A further difficulty lies in the fact that BP and Mobil have more outlets than most others and in many areas the only choice is BP or Mobil.

   Here in New Zealand in the early 1970s petrol prices reached a record high of $1.50 a litre. There was a public outcry and this happened while the price was controlled by Government. Later the Government (about the mid 80s) removed the price controls and immediately there was another public outcry. People feared that fuel prices would go through the roof. It was like the end of the world. But for the next few years petrol prices remained much the same. The oil companies said their margin was too fine to allow price reductions and instead they competed for trade by upgrading their retail outlets and adding new product lines.

   I have no doubt that the major oil companies are in genuine and intense competition with each other and that is a primary reason that it has taken almost four decades for the price of petrol to rise about 30% while the consumer price index over the same period has risen at least 400%. Petrol is now the cheapest fluid of any kind that one can buy. Even bottled water costs more.

  I have never had any involvement with any oil company other than as a consumer of their products, with one exception. About twelve years ago while working for a charter coach operator I was the driver for a day for a group of senior executives (NZ and overseas) from a major oil company (I think it was Mobil). They toured Auckland visiting sites and planning strategies.  It was soon obvious that they were locked into a bitter battle with their rivals for our dollars and that margins were indeed extremely fine. It was also evident that they all engaged in industrial espionage to try and keep ahead of their rivals. For example, Mobil already knew that the BP Bombay at that time sold more litres a year than any other outlet in the country and for any company. And they knew exactly how many litres a year, for Bombay and every other outlet regardless of company.

   Several weeks after the Mobil charter trip, by sheer coincidence, BP hired the same coach operator for a similar trip. I was the driver again and naturally kept quiet the fact that I already knew many of Mobil's secrets and many BP secrets too. It was a very enlightening experience and I am convinced that there is very real competition between the companies and that they will grab any opportunity to steal a march on the opposition.

   In conclusion, I learned a long time ago that we human beings so often protest about all the wrong things while real threats are ignored.

   You will notice that before sending this reply I have deleted all the email addresses except yours. This stops scammers and spammers from picking up email addresses and sending things that may harm your computer or trick you into something you may regret. It's also a good idea to click Bcc at the top of the outgoing email page and to only insert the recipients email addresses in the Bcc panel if sending to multiple recipients. Their addresses will then simply appear as 'undisclosed recipients.'

   Incidentally, getting back to fuel, it was about 1948 (when I was eleven years old) that I first heard that the world was going to run out of oil within five years. Believe me, the world will never run out of oil. The future problem with oil will not be where will it come from, but what will the oil companies do with it when the consumer moves on to more efficient energy sources. That will happen just as surely as consumers a hundred years ago moved from carts to cars. But don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen. It could be decades away, even a century away. Meanwhile, oil is the best thing man has, as it lifts our standard of living and brings prosperity to countless millions of people who were once dirt poor.

   Now that today's lecture is completed, thanks again for your email, please keep in touch and go lightly on the gas pedal. Now, that really will hurt the oil companies.

   Please, send my email on to as many other people as you have in your address book so that this message will give lots of people an alternative view.

Kind regards,

Peter Blakeborough

Author & Publisher

Gypsy Books

People who really want to save money on fuel should park the car, stay at home, and read these great books.

Amazon or Smashwords