Cheaper Gas

We all get excited when we see falling prices at the gas station. At their core many citizens think oil pricing is just one big conspiracy. They see stories in the news of crude oil process dropping and grow skeptical when the retail price doesn’t immediately follow the trend.

Unfortunately, gasoline is a commodity subject to supply and demand. High demand usually results in lower supplies and higher prices This is particularly the case during summer when driving tends to increase.

Gas prices are also subject to other factors such as shipping (tanker, pipeline and semi-truck) costs, distance from refineries or terminals, dealer competition and pricing strategies of the big name gas marketers. The price of crude oil affects only about 50% of the retail price. Refining contributes about 15% of the cost. State and local taxes vary widely but on average contribute about 25% of the price at the pump. The rest is marketing, distribution, and pure profit. Source

So where do find the cheapest gas? Online, of course! There are two types of sources for timely gas pricing. One collects real data from volunteer consumers like you, and the other aggregates data from credit card transactions from many tens of thousands of gas stations across the country where fleets purchase gasoline for business use. And, boy, do we have a lot of gas stations. I count more than 40 along the Highway 13 corridor between Murphysboro and Marion

Motor Trend gas data