Servo staff cop abuse as petrol pump price pain mounts
As price shocks from the war in the Middle East spread across global markets, service stations report increased staff abuse.
Peter Jones, interim chief executive of the Motor Trade Association, which represents independent service stations, told AAP that customers who desperately needed petrol or were fed up with high prices were taking their anger out on workers behind the counter.
“We have received numerous reports of harassment of gas station attendants and staff,” he said.
“They’re not the ones making the price, it’s the people who are serving someone who just bought it.
“Emotions are relatively high in rural areas where fuel is unavailable, whether it is diesel or petrol… we asked people to be respectful,” he said.
Mr Jones said he had received reports of an increase in fuel siphoning, where petrol or diesel is stolen directly from a car’s tank.
“This is something I haven’t heard in a long time… it was a surprise to me,” he said.
Mr Jones warned that concerns about siphoning had so far been limited to Hobart, but uncertainty about when the war would end was driving up fuel demand across the country.
More than 500 million liters of gasoline and diesel have been released into the Australian territory from emergency stocks, Energy Minister Chris Bowen announced on Thursday.
“Ships continue to arrive in Australia with petrol and diesel… refineries are operating at full capacity to deliver petrol and diesel to Australians,” he told reporters in Brisbane.
The state and federal governments also appointed former Australian Energy Regulator boss Anthea Harris to oversee the fuel supply taskforce.
The consumer watchdog has taken the unusual step of announcing an investigation into Ampol, BP, Mobil and Viva Energy over allegations of price gouging in regional areas.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission investigations are generally not made public.
Commission chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said the investigation was still in its preliminary stages and her agency had not yet formed an opinion.
Mr Jones said the smaller independent service stations he represented were earning just a few cents per liter and were dealing with huge wholesale cost overruns.
“So what someone might think of as price gouging is nothing more than putting the price or cost increase on them,” he said.
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