Geelong bowser brawls break out

By Noel Murphy
A NEW petrol war has erupted in Geelong with Coles and Woolworths/Safeway offering up to 15 cents a litre discounts as prices climb to $1.50 a litre.
The bowser battle has erupted as parents across the region take leave from work to care for primary and secondary schoolchildren on spring holidays.
The 15 cpl discount is the highest offered to date in the supermarket battle for petro-bucks and all but doubles regular discounts of eight cents a litre.
Parents have lashed out at the price war, labelling it a cynical bid to rip off motorists and querying whether discounts were driving prices higher on supermarket shelves.
The RACV advised motorists to monitor petrol prices closely as the rise-fall cycle had changed dramatically in recent months.
The weekly cycle that saw prices low on Tuesdays and rising again on Thursday changed to cycles of eight, nine and 10 day last year, and then this year to 12 and 13, RACV chief engineer (vehicles) Michael Case said.
“But we’ve had some extreme cycles among that, including in May-June one of about six weeks, more recently it’s become a very erratic cycle,’’ he said.
“There is still a low point and a high point in each cycle, the difficulty is working out when it’s going to happen.
“Motorists need to be more opportunistic and our advice is to fill up while the price is dropping before you miss out. Combined with discount vouchers there can be significant savings filling a tank on an average family vehicle.’’
Mr Case said RACV research suggest price rises were not deliberately linked to school holidays, long weekends or other holiday periods.
The ACCC said it was assessing whether competition issues arose from the size of the shopper docket discounts and the frequency and duration of these offers made by Coles and Woolworths.
“The ACCC is working with fuel retailers, including independents, to gather information to assist with assessing supermarket shopper docket discounts,’’ spokesman Duncan Harrod said.