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France to allow loss-making petrol sales to bust fuel inflation (www.thelocal.fr)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to c/europe@feddit.de
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The French government has announced plans to allow retailers to sell fuel at a loss - even though French law currently prohibits doing so - with hopes that the measure will bring down prices at the pump for consumers.

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[-] Flughoernchen@feddit.de 29 points 1 year ago

Hm I'm not convinced that's a good idea or even one that works. It probably only drives those who can't afford sell-at-loss prices into insolvency before prices rise again. Imo the high gas prices aren't even the main problem, it's the lack of affordable and reliable alternatives.

[-] geissi@feddit.de 17 points 1 year ago

It probably only drives those who can’t afford sell-at-loss prices into insolvency

That's exactly why it's generally not allowed.
I also don't really see what should motivate petrol companies to keep prices low after pricing out smaller competitors.

[-] anachronist@midwest.social 5 points 1 year ago

France is run by neoliberal dipshits now. They probably have decided that they want the small places out of business to "improve efficiency." Also short-termist deregulation policies that leave everyone off worse in the long run is kinda their bag.

[-] droans@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

That's the reason it's banned in the first place.

Large companies would come into a market and sell their products for huge losses until the local competition went bankrupt. After the competition is gone, prices would go much higher than they were before.

[-] jonne@infosec.pub 8 points 1 year ago

This is probably just going to cause small individual retailers to go under while being taken over by larger groups. This is a bad move that isn't even going to move prices in a meaningful way.

[-] max@feddit.nl 12 points 1 year ago

Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, prices are expected to hit €2.40 per liter next year…

[-] Lotec4@feddit.de 12 points 1 year ago

And? You have good public transport and good bike infrastructure. Make it 5€

[-] max@feddit.nl 9 points 1 year ago

Public transport is also increasing in price quite significantly. So expensive, in fact, that it would be cheaper for my girlfriend to go to uni by car (about an hour’s drive) once her free student travel runs out, than it would be to take a discount (!!!) subscription for the route from home to uni by train. Public transport here is good, but it’s suffering from enshittification due to underfunding and sky high prices. It’s a shame. And unfortunately, a 45km one-way bike trip isn’t feasible most days. Not time-wise anyway.

[-] lescher@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago

Maybe an electric motorcycle could be an option? They can be charged straight of the wall and can be had starting from around 5000€

[-] max@feddit.nl 4 points 1 year ago

That's definitely an interesting option, but it's a step down in convenience compared to cars/trains, with the protective gear and stuff. :/

[-] scrapeus@feddit.de 4 points 1 year ago

I think it's more Problematic to live almost 50km away from your workspace. I don't expect any form of transportation to cheaply transport me 100km every day tbh.

But also to be fair. The train should always be cheaper than a car. Also at above 2€ per L with a reasonable consumption of 6-8L you are around 16€+ just for fuel. Aren't trains with discount Tarifs around 8-12€ per trip?

[-] Don_alForno@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

I think it’s more Problematic to live almost 50km away from your workspace.

Not even talking about personal freedom, but as soon as you're not living alone anymore, you may just not have that choice.

[-] max@feddit.nl 1 points 1 year ago

Fair enough. But yeah, it's crazy that taking the train is more expensive than going alone by car. It'd make sense if it was compared to carpooling, but nope...

[-] federalreverse@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

While I don't know the transport pricing structure in NL, that kind of calculation is generally only ever true if you own a car anyway and ignore that cost.

[-] max@feddit.nl 3 points 1 year ago

The cost of owning + maintenance + extra fuel was taken into account I'm afraid

[-] federalreverse@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago

In Germany, owning a cheap car runs you around 3000€/a, with a relatively low mileage. I imagine that's similar in NL. You're saying you'd definitely run above that with whatever commuter ticket is available to you?

[-] max@feddit.nl 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Our car is a little above “a cheap car”, perhaps. But taking into account 4 days on site, you get about 20k km per year (assuming 52 weeks). With maintenance and other costs, including putting money aside for when this car is to be replaced, we reserve about €300 a month. That is including fuel for those 20k km per year. Getting a “traject vrij” (free travel on a certain route) subscription from the railways is, I kid you not, €400 a month. Even more expensive than when I looked last time. 🥲 Edit: forgot to mention you’ll need the bus as well, which is around €2 per ride. Around €70 euros per month extra. Cheaper than getting a discount subscription (€18 per month + €55 in fares) or a total subscription for the bus (€97 per month)

[-] federalreverse@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

Ok. That sucks. :/

[-] AlexS@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

With maintenance and other costs, including putting money aside for when this car is to be replaced, we reserve about €300 a month. That is including fuel for those 20k km per year.

Never ever is it that cheap!

20k km means €2200 for benzin alone. (5,5 liters/100 km and 2€/liter)

Insurance is €900

Road tax €500

Maintenance and tyres €1200

Savement for replacement €1500

This is €6300 yearly or €500 per month.

[-] max@feddit.nl 2 points 1 year ago

Seems like my memories about my calculations were a little off. It’s €350 per month for 15k km. Upping it to 20k km would make it around €400, which, insanely enough, is still cheaper than public transport. 😐

[-] agarorn@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

Uff. Where did you read that?

[-] max@feddit.nl 3 points 1 year ago

https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/economie/artikel/5403394/benzine-prijs-diesel-brandstof-stijging-accijns-kabinet

Basically, it will increase about 20 cents per liter. Coupled with the fact that the advisory price is currently around €2.30 (lowest I’ve seen recently was €2.10), yeah…

this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
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