Want to save money on fuel? - Pipeline Card!

LSainsbury · 25-01-2006, 18:41

One of my friends mailed me some details about Pipeline Card.

Sounds like a good idea! I'm in!

Edit - Could an admin make this a sticky please?

bopdude · 25-01-2006, 18:49

Looks like a good idea in principle, I couldn't see / find a link as to what supplier / forcourt retailer you have to use before signing up, could be a bit of a red herring if it's a small, not readily available source

LSainsbury · 25-01-2006, 18:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by bopdude

I couldn't see / find a link as to what supplier / forcourt retailer...

I think it's under wraps at the moment...hopefully the guy can pull it off...

bopdude · 25-01-2006, 19:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by lsainsbury

Quote:

Originally Posted by bopdude

I couldn't see / find a link as to what supplier / forcourt retailer...

I think it's under wraps at the moment...hopefully the guy can pull it off...

Under wraps, the link page says that 'they' have an agreement 'in principle'..... before I give any details to this scheme I think I'll wait until it's up and running

Hope it gets off the ground, but lets not forget the main route of the high fuel costs... government taxes, sorry to go OT a bit.

LSainsbury · 25-01-2006, 19:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by bopdude

Under wraps, the link page says that 'they' have an agreement 'in principle'..... before I give any details to this scheme I think I'll wait until it's up and running

Hope it gets off the ground, but lets not forget the main route of the high fuel costs... government taxes, sorry to go OT a bit.

They probably need subscribers to show the retailer that they have willing members to purchase their fuel from the one source...

All they are asking for is a email address and your postcode!

andygrif · 25-01-2006, 19:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by bopdude

Looks like a good idea in principle, I couldn't see / find a link as to what supplier / forcourt retailer you have to use before signing up, could be a bit of a red herring if it's a small, not readily available source

I signed up for this after reading about the papers late last year. Yes, it could easily be a scam to harvest tens of thousands of names, addresses and emails - but I would like to think that there are easier ways to do it, and quicker too.

It's working on the principle of corporate fuel cards like All Star. All Star is owned by a massive car leasing company, so when a company leases a fleet of cars they are also offered a discounted fuel card for all the drivers of that fleet.

Employees benefit as they don't have to spend their own money and claim it back. Companies are happy as they don't have process the expenses from each driver and they also get the discount per litre and the leasing company is happy as they don't pass anywhere near the whole saving on to the company - so they make money on every litre each of their cards pays for.

I know the latter bit was a source of irritation for one company I was working for, and they got a better deal on their 200 fuel cards by going direct to Shell.

Now, it's unclear whether Pipeline Card will be a discount card or charge card - but either way he's going to need to be able to present a sum of, as was listed today, 90,000 registered names to a fuel company, such as Shell in order to get the discount.

If he went to them three months ago and said he didn't have any registered names, they'd have laughed him out of town.

But with 90,000 drivers all offering to place ALL of their petrol consumption into ONE SINGLE fuel company - that's compelling to even the big companies like BP or Shell. So I would expect it to be a good deal when and if it does launch and I would expect it to be with a large named brand.

Saying that, oil companies are somewhat greedy, so it wouldn't surprise me if one of them came along, offered the guy running Pipeline Card a rather significant sum of money to vanish, leaving them the list of names and addresses. We'll see.

handyman · 25-01-2006, 20:13

I thought of a better idea than this to save money. ?I'll keep it under wraps as i'm not even sure its legal but it could half you fuel bill and allow you to use the same garage...

26-01-2006, 06:30

Seen that before Christmas on one of the football forums I frequent, look at the name of Ben Scammell.

punky · 26-01-2006, 07:15

A Ben Scammell is a racer with Caterham, that much is true at least. (See here)

The rest of it? Undecided. If a fuel company dropped their prices down 10p (biggest anticipated drop), they'd probably get more than the anticipated 10,000 membership dedicated users. Having said that, supermarkets are often 5p/litre under the majors and its not like they are solely used. Some of it seems on the level, some of it doesn't.

ikthius · 26-01-2006, 07:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by punky

A Ben Scammell is a racer with Caterham, that much is true at least. (See here)

The rest of it? Undecided. If a fuel company dropped their prices down 10p (biggest anticipated drop), they'd probably get more than the anticipated 10,000 membership dedicated users. Having said that, supermarkets are often 5p/litre under the majors and its not like they are solely used. Some of it seems on the level, some of it doesn't.

shell in Bearsden outside glasgow does this regularly, and advertises the fact, they make a tidy profit, granted they may only do this 1 or 2 times a week for 1 hour only, but the garage is choca block with Cheap Bearsden punters who are tight fisted B*******.

ik

andygrif · 26-01-2006, 09:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nidge

Seen that before Christmas on one of the football forums I frequent, look at the name of Ben Scammell.

Yes, I have to say that I had to smile when I read the FAQ's on his site and saw his name. If this is legit...it's a rather unfortunate, if not, then it's a rather large clue!

I weighed up the pros and cons of signing up. All I had to do was provide my name and address a list of which people can buy from the Council anyway and my Hotmail email address which I only use for spam lists anyway - so I'm not really likely to be losing out in anyway...and as I said, this guy seems to have ploughed in a lot of work and major media interviews - which seems rather excessive if it is a scam. You can be sure that the media will hound the guy if he's a scammer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by punky

The rest of it? Undecided. If a fuel company dropped their prices down 10p (biggest anticipated drop), they'd probably get more than the anticipated 10,000 membership dedicated users. Having said that, supermarkets are often 5p/litre under the majors and its not like they are solely used. Some of it seems on the level, some of it doesn't.

I think that's a good point, but do remember that companies like All Star already have these discounts in place with all the major fuel companies. What this guy is suggesting is basically a rival fuel card that everyone can have access to - which sounds like a good plan

Julian · 26-01-2006, 11:49

I can't see how they will be able to offer the price reductions claimed.

Unless, of course, they are comparing against motorway prices.

ULS Unleaded currently costs 25.6p ex-refinery, then add on the duty of 47.1p then the VAT and the price is already 85.4p.

Now I ain't seen too many garages charging 5-10p more than that.

Gareth · 26-01-2006, 12:05

This kinda reminds me of that site letsbuyit.com.... which kinda went belly up. Would be nice if it works, but I'm not gonna hold my breath.

andygrif · 26-01-2006, 12:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Julian

I can't see how they will be able to offer the price reductions claimed.

Unless, of course, they are comparing against motorway prices.

ULS Unleaded currently costs 25.6p ex-refinery, then add on the duty of 47.1p then the VAT and the price is already 85.4p.

Now I ain't seen too many garages charging 5-10p more than that.

I feel like I'm talking to myself here...the fuel companies ARE ALREADY doing it...it's just that us mere mortals don't have access to it yet.

And I'm not sure where your sums come from, because there is a Shell not far from me selling at 84.9 today.

Julian · 26-01-2006, 12:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by andygrif

I feel like I'm talking to myself here...the fuel companies ARE ALREADY doing it...it's just that us mere mortals don't have access to it yet.

Filling stations pay a commission when accepting cards such as Allstar much the same as they do for credit/debit cards. The commission payable is typically around 2%. That doesn't equate to the fantasy figures of 5p - 10p quoted.

Quote:

Originally Posted by andygrif

And I'm not sure where your sums come from, because there is a Shell not far from me selling at 84.9 today.

The PRA, their latest price survey document dated the 20th Jan.