On Wednesday, German petrol near gas station owner Bé Prins in Emmer-Compascuum is 40 cents cheaper than his. ,,To care? Not at all, 0.0!”, Prince laughs. “Just stand in line for three quarters of an hour there.”
In the last few days you have read in national media that a refueling across the border will soon pay off up to a round trip of about 200 kilometers. Whether that’s true, more on that later. First about the reason for the huge discount on German petrol.
Our eastern neighbors are somewhat compensated by their government for the increased energy prices with a temporary reduction in fuel tax. As a result, petrol can drop by 35 to 40 euro cents in price in the next three months, June, July and August, while diesel will be about 17 cents cheaper. The Federal Council, comparable to the Dutch Senate, agreed to this last Friday.
Prins’s Texaco pump in Emmer-Compascuum is located 3 kilometers from a German competitor as the crow flies. And yet Prince is not afraid that no longer a dog will come to refuel with him. “No, we gas station owners in the border region are used to this. The price difference with Germany has existed for 20 years. It had only recently been reduced in size. And this will only take three months.”
‘We look the cat out of the tree’
Edwin Rouppé from Bellingwolde also runs a Texaco station. He looks the cat out of the tree a bit, he says. But there is certainly no question of panic, even though the pump that he runs together with Bert Meijer is about a 10-minute drive from a German competitor in Rhede. ,,Our Gas Stations Interest Association, the BETA, is working on getting the politicians to level the prices between the two countries. You do nothing about it yourself.”
Of course, Prins also knows, after Wednesday there will probably still be a liter leaking to the other side. “The people who refuel across the border have been doing that for years, not much will change from June. We still have a manned pump, we are one of the few and our loyal customers appreciate that.”
Prince’s counterpart in Bellingwolde endorses the latter. “Moreover, they still exist, gas station operators in the border region”, Rouppé points out, “while the price difference has been going on for 20 or 30 years. Our employment has even increased. We even recently hired an extra employee.”
Rouppé immediately adds that their manned Texaco station is now at home in almost all markets. Anyone who has ever been to the Hoofdweg 33 in Bellingwolde will agree: building materials, wheelbarrow rental, flowers, foodstuffs and so on. The petrol farmer himself describes it as a ‘convenience store after the American example’.
‘Just stand in line for three quarters of an hour’
Prins and Rouppé will not lower prices on Wednesday to tempt leaking tank customers not to cross the border. “Just stand in line for three quarters of an hour. Because it might be that busy on the first days. Well, with the extra kilometers you drive, it can’t be done anymore, right?”
Is it really possible to refuel in Germany from, for example, Assen or Groningen? Suppose you fill up with 50 liters. That saves you a maximum of 20 euros. From the city of Groningen it is about 120 kilometers there and back. With a modern car that drives 1 in 15, that costs at least 8 liters or a small 14 euros in German petrol. The advantage has already evaporated to 6 euros, while time and depreciation are not included in this calculation example. From Assen it is only recommended if you would like to drive a bit to Germany.
ADAC warns that the first days are not cheap yet
It is of course different if you live near Germany. But, for border residents who want to refuel cheaply in Germany, the ADAC, the German ANWB, has another warning. It is better not to do this immediately after 1 June. Because the prices of petrol and diesel may not drop until a little later, because the gas stations still have stocks that were purchased at a higher price. Moreover, as the ADAC says, petrol has risen sharply in price in Germany last week. The price of a liter of Euro10 was still above 2 euros last week. Almost half of the German petrol price consists of taxes. For diesel this is almost 40 percent.
BETA: advantage in the Netherlands runs until the end of December
The Belangenvereniging Tankstations BETA hopes that the consequences of the German fuel price drop for their members in the border region will not be too bad. “When I hear the reactions of Rouppé and Prins, I think: Well, that’s the cathartic work of getting used to years of price fluctuations as an entrepreneur,” he says. Tim Schoenmakers. He is spokesperson for the BETA. Moreover, according to him, the unrest may now be less severe because the German discount is only valid for three months, and the excise duty reduction in the Netherlands will continue ‘albeit temporarily’ until the end of December. In addition, the BETA spokesperson believes that the past few months have been ‘quite okay’ for their border region members, because ‘they were able to cope with the sharply increased petrol prices of their German colleagues’. And in the view of Schoenmakers, the fear is now also less great because entrepreneurs with a gas station have, of course, been forced to adjust their trade in recent years. ,,I know the store in Bellingwolde, which is more than just a pump, the whole village comes there for all kinds of stuff. Pump owners can often do everything on the side because their business is in a good location on or along a main road.”