Michael is joined by Dr Lurion De Mello, Senior Lecturer, Department of Applied Finance at Macquarie University's Business School, who says fuel companies deserve greater scrutiny and are fixated on their profit margins.

 

Dr De Mello says "when crude oil prices go up the retailers jack up their prices overnight, but it always takes longer — up to a month — for prices to come back down when the crude oil price drops."

 

He said fuel retailers usually operated on profit margins of 15 to 20 per cent, but that the current margins were significantly higher.

 

He expected fuel prices to drop in the coming weeks as demand eased on the back of new Coronavirus social-distancing laws.

 

Dr De Mello said consumers frequently overlooked independent fuel retailers and this could be costing them.