[GTO]

The scene is typical at any petrol-pump the minute a fuel price hike is announced.


Picture Credit : deshgujarat.com

Honestly, I find the habit plain ridiculous. How much do you save anyway? Considering that 70% of Indian cars are hatchbacks with 40 liter fuel tanks, we are looking at a maximum saving of Rs. 290 IF your tank is completely empty (unlikely coincidence). On the other hand, if we average out most cars on the road running a 1/2 tank of fuel, then the saving is Rs. 150. There are also bikers waiting in the line who, we can assume, fill up 5 liters of petrol on an average. The net saving : Rs. 37.50.

Now, what is the cost incurred?

- IDLING! A modern car uses up anywhere between 0.6 - 1.2 liters of petrol per hour of idling (most sedans use about a liter). Thus, if you spent 45 minutes waiting at the fuel pump in your Accent, you've spent about Rs. 50 in idling fuel costs. The lines at some petrol pumps ran two hours long! Even if you switch the engine off while waiting, I'm not too sure about the savings as frequent engine start / stop does lead to higher fuel consumption.

- TIME! Not only did you have to reschedule something else (or reach home later) in order to fill up, there is the hassle of spending ~60 minutes waiting & doing nothing. Maybe you also took a diversion to get to the petrol pump? What is the cost of an hour of your time? Only 100 bucks?

My brother says he saw a Pulsar rider endure the queue to fill up a 100 bucks of petrol! Sorry...to me, the extra hour I spend with my family (or at work) is worth a lot more than that. Do keep in mind that the recent Rs. 7.5 hike has been the steepest thus far, and that's what my calculations are based on. But we've seen such queues even after an announcement of a 2 rupee hike, haven't we?

[carfreak]

I voted for the second option. I do not feel there is a significant difference in waiting at a queue for a long time just to fill up the tank prior to price revisions

But i do not think i can generalize my views to the general public. The savings may be minimal but it is a saving whatever said!!also for some people even a saving of Rs.100 makes a difference-some of us can afford to forget such a small amount but not for some others who struggle hard to make ends meet!!

Of course when you fill buckets of petrol then the savings are much more!!

[urajkumar]

i completely agree! I was thinking the same too when i saw the queue! Its more the herd mentality where logic & common sense does not prevail leading to this behaviour!

However i must add, while i was smiling that day looking at the ridiculous situation, now with the petrol scarcity in chennai hitting me, i wish i too had filled up my tank that day! I wonder who is laughing now!

[SS-Traveller]

In a lighter vein, one can say that if these people did not buy out the fuel stocks of the pumps on the day before the price rise, the pumps stand to make a neat profit on their leftover stocks once the price hike comes into effect after midnight.

[yosbert]

I was tempted by the quantum of hike this time. However one look at the queue on my way back from work, and I could think of 100s of better ways to spend my 2-3 hours.

[PatchyBoy]

Fully agree. I actually find it very amusing that people make a beeline the moment they catch wind of the impending hike. During the current one, I got atleast 5 SMS's from friends asking me to go fill up.

Bad luck. I had just filled up 2 days earlier and would have been able to maybe fill another 8-10 litres, a whopping savings of Rs.75.

Thanks, but, No thanks.

Rajan

[mayankjha1806]

Point taken, agree it aint worth it, looking at the meager amount.

I am guilty of standing in the queue for about an hour (With engine switched off ). For me every petrol price rise has got this emotional thing, which forces me to fill petrol as much as i can (Even when i do not need it), and it stops me from being more calculative and take corrective action. Although in my case no family time is lost as we all go out together for a night drive and on the way get petrol filled.

[mukeshgoel]

Absolutely, it is not at all worth it.

Also, some people specially go to fill petrol pump in case of price hike. They don't consider the amount of fuel they spend in going, coming, idling (waiting), buying water, calling home that they will come late, etc. etc.

Indeed very ridiculous.

[Manuuj]

My thoughts exactly. The time and effort wasted is huge compared to the savings.

Diesel usually goes up by Rs 1.50- to 2 at a time. Now assuming the tank of my Fortuner is practically empty with the range calculator showing "0 kms" there is still about 7-8 litres of fuel in the Tank.

This means for about a saving between Rs. 70-140/- i will be queuing up burning fuel and my clutch all the while.

Also as you said most people usually have atleast a quarter to half tank of fuel in their cars. Think about the harassment someone who is actually on their last couple of litres faces waiting in a long line for fuel where the others in the que really do not need the fuel at that moment.

On a side note the first time i got diesel filled in my any car ( a MM540DP when i was in college back in 1994) it was priced around Rs.6.11/- In a space of 18 years it costs 7 times as much!

[anoop_lamba]

I never do this but this time by chance i needed to fill on the same eve as my fuel gauge was in red zone and the low fuel tell tale was glowing. Had no idea there had been a steep hike in the prices and was stuck in the long queue.
Was praying for not to completely run out of fuel while waiting itself.
Really wanted to ask people if all this is worth it.

[reignofchaos]

The funniest thing was that there was a line even at Shell here in bangalore on the eve of fuel price hike.

Shell was already charging 81 rupees per liter of fuel and they charged exactly the same the next day.

I wonder what these folks got by waiting in line for an hour at shell.

[Shreyas Aterkar]

@ GTO, I absolutely agree with you and this is precisely what I was discussing with my colleagues in the office. I would never waste my time to save a minimal amount due to the following:-

1. Minimal savings and you reduce the cost of idling and start/stop - you have already put it

2. Time sacrificed - In cities like Mumbai, you anyways don't get to spend quality time with you family and reducing it further by waiting in a long queue to save 200 bucks! No, I would never do that - you have mentioned this as well

3. In such long queues you would certainly meet people who would want to jump queues, you may end up having an agrument with them and ultimately spoiling your mood thereby impacting whatever time you have left with your family

4. Such long queues in cities like Mumbai cause huge traffic jams thereby wasting other commuters' time as well

So even if I had planned to fill up petrol in my car, on hearing such news, I would not go to the bunk that day.

[Sankar]

It's worth waiting in queue to fill up on the eve of a fuel price hike - if i have nothing in particular to do at that time at home or office. And i can earn some 200 bucks for the hour by just waiting and listening to some music on the radio

Btw: Our cars don't run on subsidy, we have two petrol hatches.

[libranof1987]

This is a classic example of people looking at short term benefit vs. long term loss.

People rush in to fuel up even for a ~Rs. 1/l hike. The forget that they'd be spending fuel worth much more in getting to the petrol pump from their house and waiting in the queue than what they'd save by fuelling up at the rate before hike.

Somehow, I don't see this trend changing. Try talking sense into such people and you'd get a "you don't value money" kinda response.

And what these cartoons do is - they force the petrol pump to shut down early (to avoid not making profits the next day); so if someone genuinely needs to fuel up, he has to keep travelling from one end of the city to another hoping he can fuel up somewhere.

I myself had to travel from FC rd all the way to Chandni Chowk in Pune on the eve of a Rs. 3/l hike some years ago. Sheer stupidity.

[drmohitg]

I have always been amused by such scenes.

1. For the 2 wheeler owners the saving would be almost negligible.
2. For any car owner, ranging from Nano to Mercedes, a saving of Rs 200 ( in case your tank is almost empty) is anyways too small to even consider.

But its to do with the typical herd mentality. And this becomes a huge nuisance for the genuine customers who need to get fuel. I have been on the receiving end of this once. I had to wait for close to 1 hour and also deal with rising tempers and people jumping the queues et al.