Cloggsy
25-01-06, 11:04 AM
Just a thought, but has everyone signed up for the Pipeline card :?:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com[/url])]Pipelinecard is a new consumer bulk buying petrol consortium which promises to save drivers 5p/10p a litre. Set up by an enterprising former fuel price campaigner, it’s based on the corporate fuel card concept, where big companies negotiate discounts with petrol station chains for their fleets.
With this scheme all you can currently do is sign up to display your interest. Once up and running it should deliver a free fuel discount card. It claims to already have a deal in place with one oil company, providing 100,000 consumers signed up. Currently at least 25,000 have signed up. (I know as they came via the note I previously put in my weekly email tip).
Of course, scepticism is important. Yet it’s free to join the list, only your name and email address is required (it has a strict privacy policy) and the card will be free too. Will it work? Possibly. Is it worth trying? Definitely. There’s no cost, no contract and no lock in – nothing to lose. If enough sign up so the scheme gets off the ground, then it's time to re-evaluate and see if it’s worth it, if not we can all just chuck the cards in the bin.
Is 5p/10p a litre realistic?
10p seems over-optimistic, but 5p is believable, especially if, as I guess, it’s off the ‘national average’ price of fuel rather than an automatic discount off every pump price. Fuel companies typically get 23p per 90p litre, reducing the cost by 5p reduces their take by about 4.3p (as some of the cost goes on reduced VAT).
Yet the petrol market is mature, so the only way to build market share is take it off your competitors and this scheme’s perfect for that. The additional cost of servicing new customers is negligible, they don’t need to build new petrol stations, so even with lower margins, the increase in volume coupled with a higher foot-fall in profitable forecourt shops maybe worth it.
See here (http://www.pipelinecard.org/)
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com[/url])]Pipelinecard is a new consumer bulk buying petrol consortium which promises to save drivers 5p/10p a litre. Set up by an enterprising former fuel price campaigner, it’s based on the corporate fuel card concept, where big companies negotiate discounts with petrol station chains for their fleets.
With this scheme all you can currently do is sign up to display your interest. Once up and running it should deliver a free fuel discount card. It claims to already have a deal in place with one oil company, providing 100,000 consumers signed up. Currently at least 25,000 have signed up. (I know as they came via the note I previously put in my weekly email tip).
Of course, scepticism is important. Yet it’s free to join the list, only your name and email address is required (it has a strict privacy policy) and the card will be free too. Will it work? Possibly. Is it worth trying? Definitely. There’s no cost, no contract and no lock in – nothing to lose. If enough sign up so the scheme gets off the ground, then it's time to re-evaluate and see if it’s worth it, if not we can all just chuck the cards in the bin.
Is 5p/10p a litre realistic?
10p seems over-optimistic, but 5p is believable, especially if, as I guess, it’s off the ‘national average’ price of fuel rather than an automatic discount off every pump price. Fuel companies typically get 23p per 90p litre, reducing the cost by 5p reduces their take by about 4.3p (as some of the cost goes on reduced VAT).
Yet the petrol market is mature, so the only way to build market share is take it off your competitors and this scheme’s perfect for that. The additional cost of servicing new customers is negligible, they don’t need to build new petrol stations, so even with lower margins, the increase in volume coupled with a higher foot-fall in profitable forecourt shops maybe worth it.
See here (http://www.pipelinecard.org/)