All Analysis articles – Page 13
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: editor
No apologies for devoting half of this issue to the Forecourt Trader Awards! I think the nation’s hard-working forecourt retailers deserve a bit of recognition once in a while don’t you? Because the awards ceremony itself is not just a chance for a great night out - and being ...
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Analysis
Kevin Eastwood: executive director, BOSS
During the past 12 months forecourt retailers have been taking on more responsibility to help tackle forecourt crime and, in particular, drive-offs. Greater involvement is necessary because police forces need our help. There has been a steady rise in the number of incidents of forecourt crime, as evidenced by the ...
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Analysis
Chris Judge: analysis editor, Argus Media
The drone and cruise missile attacks on Saudi oil facilities on September 14 drove oil prices sharply higher, but the rapid restoration of Saudi exports helped limit the gains. The higher international prices are yet to filter through to the UK forecourt, but prices look destined to rise, particularly for ...
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Analysis
Speeding ahead
Sales of electric cars in the UK are currently minuscule compared with their internal combustion engine (ICE) cousins, but the country’s biggest-selling car maker is gearing up for a rapid change in this state of affairs. At the Frankfurt Motor Show last month, Ford announced that it expects the majority ...
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Analysis
James Lowman: chief executive, ACS
We recently launched our 2019 Forecourt Report, which looks at the latest developments in the sector and how fuel retailers have been responding to these changes. One ongoing development that has been a hot topic among customers and businesses has been electric vehicles. This year’s report has shown that while ...
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Analysis
A moving target?
In July 2017, when the government published its long-awaited clean air strategy and its Road to Zero transport policy, its confirmation that it would ban sales of conventional internal combustion engine cars and vans by 2040 met with very little opposition. Just the fact that it had set a firm ...
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Analysis
Tracy West: retail commentator
We all like trying something new and in the past few weeks I’ve tried quite a few new products. I started with two new Kit Kats: Green Tea Matcha (inspired by Japan) and Kit Kat made with Ruby Cocoa Beans. Sorry, but I have to say I won’t be buying ...
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Analysis
Brian Madderson: chairman, PRA
After nine years of fuel duty freezes, this regressive tax is still netting the Exchequer some £28bn every year. Once double taxation is factored in, with added VAT at 20% yielding an estimated further £7bn, the overall total of £35bn comfortably places fuel as the fifth largest tax receipt for ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: editor
The silence has been deafening! Has nobody noticed the fuel prices on Applegreen’s Welcome Break estate? I guess the national press are rather busy with all the current shenanigans at Westminster Towers they usually enjoy making big headlines around fuel pricing. Under the Fuelgood branding from its Irish operation Applegreen ...
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Analysis
Chris Judge: analysis editor, Argus Media
The fragility of the global economy in the light of the trade war between the US and China continues to weigh on oil markets, keeping benchmark Brent crude oil futures bobbing around the $60/bl mark. UK motorists felt none of the benefits of the lower bulk prices with prices at ...
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Analysis
Alexander Russell: consultant, Car Wash Association (CWA)
The Car Wash Association’s (CWA’s) lobbying work to expose criminal activity and widespread regulatory non-compliance on hand car washes faces new challenges following the change of government in July. New appointments have been made in all the key ministries relating to the CWA’s work. Regulatory activity needs to be kick-started ...
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Analysis
Stephen Marcos Jones: director general, UKPIA
In June the UK became the first major economy to pass legislation requiring net-zero emissions by 2050. With a flick of his pen, interim-Energy and Clean Growth Minister, Chris Skidmore, upgraded the legally-binding target in the Climate Change Acat from an 80% reduction of emissions to 100%. With 38% of ...
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Analysis
Tracy West: retail commentator
Who doesn’t love chocolate? Obviously that’s a rhetorical question, as for me anyone who doesn’t seems a little bit weird. In the past my favourite has always been Cadbury Dairy Milk (CDM) but since the Americans got their hands on it, I think it’s changed. Now the Americans do many ...
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Analysis
We should be ’celling’ the future
A future where battery- powered and hybrid vehicles are superseded by vehicles running on hydrogen fuel cells was predicted by Jon Hunt, manager, alternative fuels, at Toyota. Speaking at a conference organised by the Westminster Energy, Environment & Transport Forum, he explained why the company that produced the ...
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Analysis
Ray Blake: PRA technical director
I have just returned from a road trip across Europe in a 52-year old classic car. During the trip we filled the car with petrol 14 times in five different countries France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Italy. Immediately before heading off, I was notified that the guidance from the Petroleum ...
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Analysis
Chris Judge: analysis editor, Argus Media
International oil markets proved remarkably unconcerned about the escalation of the crisis in the vitally strategic Straits of Hormuz, the choke point in the Mideast Gulf for around a fifth of the world’s oil supply. Oil traders were more concerned about the slowdown in the global economy and increasing supply ...
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Analysis
Emission impossible
Government indecision over the introduction of E10 a blend of fuel with up to 10% ethanol content compared with the current limit of 5% in E5 is nothing new. It was just after the London Olympics in 2012 when the then Transport Minister Norman Baker wrote to industry ...
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Analysis
Tracy West: retail commentator
This may sound sad but one of the things I like to do when I am travelling abroad is look out for food and drink that I’ve not seen before. I had a whale of a time doing this on my recent trip to the US. We did a lot ...
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Analysis
Kevin Eastwood: executive director, BOSS
When the new Prime Minister takes office this month, one of my first tasks will be to bring to his attention the proactive approach that fuel retailers have taken to reduce pressure on police resources. For more than 25 years we’ve been working closely with fuel retailers, police, government departments ...
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Analysis
Chris Judge: analysis editor, Argus Media
Simmering tensions between Iran and the US over attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf came to the boil with the downing of a US drone on 20 June, helping to reverse losses for international oil markets at the end of May and in early June. Fuel prices at the ...