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Service Victoria's Servo Saver fuel finder feature now has live fuel prices, but many motorists are confused and downloading the wrong app.
From this week, fuel retailers must now abide by new rules to report live fuel prices, and tomorrow's maximum price, to the Victorian Government's new fuel-finder ‘Servo Saver’ service.
These new rules start as motorists' concerns mount over rising fuel prices and supply issues, as conflict in the Middle East impacts global oil supply and production.
The Federal Government has repeatedly urged the public not to panic buy fuel, and made assurances that there is currently no impact on Australia’s fuel supply or fuel reserves.
The March 10 start date for these new fuel price reporting rules was announced before the current conflict in the Middle East began. Their start date this week is a coincidence.
Victorian Government websites and social media accounts have been purporting the Servo Saver features as live and accurate since at least October last year, despite this not being the case. While the feature has been available since last year, most service stations were not yet reporting live prices.
Servo Saver is the name of the fuel-finder feature built within the Service Victoria app. But Servo Saver does not have a standalone app, which has created some confusion for motorists in Victoria.
A completely unrelated app named Servo Saver is currently at number 12 on the Australian Apple App Store charts.
The unrelated and non-functioning Servo Saver app, which has not been updated in four years, has received recent reviews from Victorians who mistook it for the Victorian Government's fuel-finding Servo Saver feature.
The Service Victoria app is ranked 87 on the App Store charts, but many Victorians may already have the app installed due to its other functions, including digital IDs and COVID-era check-in functionality.
The government has not set any ‘cap’ on fuel prices, instead mentions of a ‘cap’ in government communications refer to fuel retailers self-reporting what their maximum fuel price will be the following day. There is no restriction as to what price cap retailers can set.
The new rules mean that each afternoon by 2:00 pm, service stations have to report what their maximum fuel prices for each fuel type will be the following day.
Motorists will then be able to use the Servo Saver section of the Service Victoria app to see what each service station's maximum fuel price will be the following day, with the information becoming available on the app at 4:00 pm each afternoon.
The new rules also prevent service stations from increasing their fuel prices again each day once prices have been dropped. Prices can only be lowered, never raised, over 24 hours until the next day’s cap applies at 6am.
Petrol stations that fail to register or report their prices now face fines of more than $3000 for each breach, or more than $24,000 if taken to court.
In a statement Victoria’s Premier Jacinta Allan said Servo Saver would help motorists save money.
“How often do you see a cheap price in the morning, only for it to jump by the afternoon?,” Allan said.
“We’re stopping families from getting ripped off at the servo and helping them save hundreds a year.”
Victoria is the last Australian state to implement some form of mandatory live fuel price reporting.
The Victorian Government has been contacted for comment.
Max is the News Publishing Coordinator for Drive. He enjoys creating engaging digital content, including videos, podcasts, interactive maps, and graphs. Prior to Drive, he studied at Monash University and gained experience working for various publications. He grew up playing Burnout 3: Takedown on the PS2 and was disappointed when real life car races didn’t have the same physics.
