Traffic queues are spilling on to streets outside Auckland’s cheapest service station at Westgate’s Costco, where 91-grade fuel costs $2.14 a litre.
At midnight the fuel will cost 29c a litre more when the tax discount ends.
Last night a motorist keen to beat the looming price hike packed six large containers in the back of his hatchback and proceeded to fill them up.
“Bro came prepared” posted a passing motorist on Facebook who spotted the man at the station.
This afternoon AA said nobody should be filling up plastic containers and stockpiling as it was illegal and a crazy thing to do.
“I can give advice on that one - just don’t do it,” said the association’s motoring affairs principal policy advisor Terry Collins.
“If he got hit from behind on his way home petrol and got hit from behind, it may well have caused an explosion.
“It seems crazy to do it.”
Collins said people should only ever put petrol into containers designed to hold fuel.
He said there was a risk the petrol would eat into the plastic container and cause a leak or spillage of the fuel.
Depending on what the motorist did with the fuel he also risked invalidating his insurance.
“If he takes it home and stores it in his garage he can’t store more than 50 litres of fuel anywhere without having an EPA (Environmental Protection Authority) certification around storage capacity of it.
“If you start bringing large quantities into your house you could void your house and contents insurance.”
Clogged streets
Today streets surrounding the country’s only Costco were clogged for the second day running.
The line today stretched around neighbouring roads and threatened to block the nearby Northwestern Motorway off-ramp.
Traffic became so bad Auckland Transport this afternoon diverted a number of bus routes away from the congestion and advised passengers there would be six stops missed.
‘Nice while it lasted’
At the other end of the Northwestern Motorway on Auckland’s city fringe cars were pulling into Caltex Newton Rd about every minute, where money-savvy motorists are trying to cash in on relatively cheap petrol - $2.38 for a litre of 91.
Every pump was being used, only free for a few seconds before the next car in line pulled up.
”I don’t mind waiting,” one motorist told The New Zealand Herald.
”I know I’m holding up traffic [on the road] but everyone seems to understand.
”Obviously, from tomorrow, petrol’s going to go up,” she said.
Another motorist called the subsidy “nice while it lasted” saying he’d also been checking where he could find the cheapest today.
One motorist, who called herself a “cash-strapped” student, said she wasn’t expecting a “huge jump” in petrol prices tomorrow, but still wasn’t looking forward to paying more.
”I’ll have to cut back on my costs somehow - probably less going out,” she said.
”It’s been tough enough as it is with the cheaper petrol. I’ve been trying to offset costs already, I got an e-scooter.”
Another said the price increase didn’t bother them too much but was surprised at how busy the petrol station was.
”I live locally and this is the closest [station]. Seems that people are just doing what they need to do to save money,” he said.
Plea for kindness
Yesterday Simon Bradwell of the Motor Trade Association urged motorists facing queues at gas stations to be kind to staff.
Collins said the upcoming price increases would not be as severe as a year ago when prices reached an all-time high, surpassing $3 per litre for 91.
“Few people will be happy about fuel prices going up, but international oil prices aren’t currently at the highs they were when the tax discount was introduced so the impact will be lower,” he said.
A government spokesperson said the temporary removal of fuel excise was designed to support New Zealanders through the global energy crisis last year, which saw petrol prices spike above $3 a litre.
“Petrol prices are now 70 cents per litre lower than they were in early March last year when fuel excise was removed.
“Other countries that also removed fuel excise at that time like Australia, Ireland, and Germany have already reinstated their fuel taxes as the global price of fuel has eased.”
The spokesperson said the petrol excise cut was always temporary, but was extended a number of times and has seen over $1.4 billion invested to support households through the global spike in petrol prices.
Collins said the tax relief was welcomed by the AA but it accepted it had to be added back at some stage - with motorists using the roads coughing up rather than all taxpayers.
