As I write this I feel a little like Mister Angry because I just despair of this industry. How many years do we have to work without profit before common sense takes a hold? The government’s recent announcement about a Revenue increase on fuel was widely reported and discussed and the public understood only too well the source. Anger was rightly placed at the government’s door as the tax on fuel can never, to my mind, be justified.
So what do we as an industry do? The supermarkets immediately announced that they would absorb the increase. WHY? The major oil companies followed suit. WHY? This leaves the rest of us once again giving fuel away to keep pace. As a sheer marketing strategy surely if you wanted to take a loss it would have been far more effective if you then dropped the price a week or two later. Why does this industry continually bail out a government that uses and abuses our industry so
ruthlessly? Why do we not put the blame where it truly lies and if the government chooses to raise the tax we all automatically implement it leaving the marketing strategy for later.
In the eyes of the general public this will never be a popular industry, but for heaven’s sake let’s only take the flack when it is our fault.
Mark Bradshaw
Garagewatch, 43 Broadway, Shifnal, Shropshire
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