Ther driver had to pay the road tax same as always, and would have to keep the receipt to prove the tax had been paid in case there was a question.

 

[QUOTE

Speaking of affording prescriptions.......
I don't see too many complaining about other industry's profits.[/QUOTE]

Amazing, a chart from an oil company publication puts them in a good light and shows their really not thieves after all. Whoda thunk! As for drug companies or banks: Please, anyone chime in who loves them too! That's a subject for another day and place. I don't heat my home or feed my truck with Tylenol.

Charts and graphs can be manipulated to show justification for any assertion. Anyone who subscribes to the implications of a chart like that either has personal financial interests in the energy sector or needs to hear from my Nigerian banker for a great oil sector opportunity.

Bottom line, a lot of people today have to make hard choices to support these obscene profits and nobody in this government that is in power gives a dam_. To me, running red is no more unethical than Deadeye Dick Cheney holding secret meetings with oil company executives to formulate this country's energy policy. You see where that's gotten us!

 

Oil is a limited resource governed by WORLD politics, & situations.
Commodities brokers on Wall Street , not XOM set the crude oil price based on how world events might effect the supply 5 or 6 months from now.
China as well as other developing countries are using more of the world's oil supply as they come out of the stone age.
The huge surplus on the world's oil supply market that used to exist is no more.

As has been said before, Why complain about the prices, it doesn't change anything.
Buy stock in Exxon, share the profits.

 

On the subject of profit margins. I run a business and it would not survive on the profit margin of an oil company.

Comodity prices change.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline

Current use
The United States uses 360 million US liquid gallons (1.36 billion litres) of gasoline each day. Western countries have among the highest usage rates per person, while developing nations like China typically have the highest usage per volume. Some countries, e.g. in Europe, impose heavy fuel taxes on fuels such as gasoline, leading to greater efficiency and economy in car design

This equals approx. 131,400,000,000 gal per year.
And breaks down to 525,600,000,000 gal per Quarter.
This is JUST the US.

Sounds a little different when you break that down to profit per unit sold.

 

I pumped 70 Gals. of offroad into a transfer tank last Wednesday. When I went in to get my reciept, there was a guy with PA tags (this was in Bear, Delaware) just pumping away, straight into the tank of his F250??

I thought, later as I was driving away, what's to stop him from simply saying "Oh, yes officer, this fuel was from August 05, this truck was involved in an accident" (or what ever excuse you can come up with for why you still have red in your tank)?

I know it's not right, but if you accidentially pumped in 20 gallons or so, there is no sense in catching a federal case with $5k in fines when a simple lie will do.

 

I'm sorry, there is just no other way to put it: That's just a flat dumb statement.

Every business type has their own margin requirements. A store that sells furniture and turns their money over twice a year needs a completely different margin than a supermarket that turns their inventory over weekly. If you sell furniture you would go broke in short order if sold at supermarket margins. Any supermarket that could make the profit margin of a furniture store could challenge Wal Mart in about a year!

World markets have an effect on the price of oil, no doubt about it. Think about who is making China so rich? What was our trade deficit with them last month? We all save money buying, I'll be nice, "inexpensive" Chinese goods, then they need oil and the price of our oil goes up. What did we really save?

I'll stop it there, I'm trying to keep this on topic and not too political.

 

The station down the road from us changed their only Diesel pump from on-road to off-road since it would get used quicker since the state trucks can run it. Well they never referenced on the pump or anything that it was off-road,well we ended up pump a full tank of diesel into the CTD. Go into the store to pay and asked if it was on-road diesel(we seen some red drip when pulled the nozzle out),guy was like nope its off road. Their was a state trooper in there and when we said we filled the truck with it they both said not to worry about it mostly everyone fills up with it. So every-once- in awhile we fill teh truck with 15-20gals of off-road and the rest with on-road,when it comes time to put the truck on the market to sell we are going to do a full system flushing and change the filters so who ever buys it does not get screwed.

Jeff