Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion What's in the price of gas?

I thought this picture posted by Kenny on -Great Old Pics- was pretty cool.

Knowing it may vary from state to state and country to country, what is the breakdown of the cost of a gallon now?

Approx. 17.8487 Times what is shown above!

times have changed..

I was up in Pa a few weeks ago and noticed the tax sticker, I think it was about $.55 a gallon.

I believe new York has highest taxes???

I wonder what's under the "U Drive It CARS" painted sign.

Today's version of the same sign....

Electric cars charged here! LOL

Everyone might be a little surprised by what your individual state tax is on gas?



Here is a chart I found on the net:

Information dated July,1,2011

http://www.commonsensejunction.com/notes/gas-tax-rate.html

Alaska here I come..

Enjoy the weather! LOL!

Seems as though NY isn't the highest taxed State...CT is. You would think HI would be(?).

So what was the RR and the agent, and are there such things now?

A mechanic we used one time before we moved, who ran a gas station, said he made very little profit on the gas, that his income was from the mechanical work.

The WaWa's and 7-11 gas stations in our area derive their income from getting people inside to buy twinkies, cig's and soda. Is that also how the Shell, Mobile and Sunoco stations make their $$$? They used to have a few things at the counter, but most of them seem to have converted into quick stop stores as well.

I'm guessing the pay at the pump with credit/debit cards have reduced the traffic inside.

Any agent or RR charges now?

Thanks for your responses!

Here in the great BROKE state of arizona we pay .74 cents a gallon in taxes alone. Stations here work on about .10 to .18 cents a gallon profit ,probably not enough to pay the light bill.But the merchandice inside the store they work on 70 to 80 percent profit.
Survey's show that the pay at pump have increased cash customers paying inside. people pay credit outside and walk inside and pay cash. Soon we will have a phone app. to pay at the pump.And they will probable TAX that to.

Hi Nicole,

It's been awhile and I'm happy to see that your interest in history continues and your sharp eye catches things.From what I know,that pic is 1938 and taken by Dorothea Lange (she was good!!)in Santa Fe.

If that is true,in 1938 I would bet that the gas was delivered by railroad,hence the RR,and was shipped through a broker,agent, of some sort.In 1938,a RR would have been the most dependable form of delivery,IMO,and an "agent" AKA wholesaler would have been the supplier also selling to other stations.

Today,many deliveries are made from terminals supplied by pipe lines to tank farms and distributed by tanker trucks.

I'm just going on NM history and location of supply sources.I f anyone else has other thoughts,I wold love to hear them.

I'm going to challenge those numbers a little bit.

No way are convenience stores operating on 80% profit margins. Smokes, lottery tickets, and beer are highly ompetitive and are the staples of any C-store, no way are they making that kind of profit. Now, coffee and other beverage sales...maybe.

Around here there aren't very many independent owners....around here gas stations fall in three categories.

1. Company operated. They own the product from the refinery to the nozzle. Actually most..from the oil field to the nozzle. Regardless of what they tell you in the media..there is absolutely no way you can determine their final profit at the pump...my guess....20 cents plus per gallon.

2. Mega jobbers. The jobbers have filled in the void left behind by the oil companies that leveraged us dealers out in the late eighties/early nineties. Usually you will have one or two major jobbers left in a market. They have battled it out amongst themselves to where only the strongest survived. If you're a mega jobber you're probably doing okay filling in the gaps that the oil companies either don't want or can't handle. Profit margin...who knows, I'm sure it's decent.

3. Independent station/c store owners. And..I never knew this until recently, the reason so many of them are of a certain ethnicity is because they get HUGE tax breaks to go into business. Once their tax holiday season is over they transfer ownership to another member of the family. This affords them the opportunity to increase their profit margin on gas and stay competitive with the big boys.

Nicole;
Your initial question still has not been answered.
Maybe someone can help.
But, such numbers are probably considered confidential information in todays world and can't be posted.

Dealers today may not actually see all the taxes applied. Taxes are applied when a transport loads the gas at the Oil Company loading rack today, and not at the "nozzle" or (point of sale).

R.R. could be two things depending on where this station is located.
It could be as mentioned a tax by a local Railroad that delivered, but more commonly is referened as The Texas Railroad Commission in Texas. It is the governing body over Petroleum in that state.

Chuck

Thanks Wendell, Ohio Oil and Chuck, and everyone else,

I think that covers just about all of what I was wondering about.

Anyway a cool picture and always nice to learn new things!

Nicole

Looks like we have it pretty good these days. The tax on the gas back then was about 75% of the total. A rough average of the various states is 17% of the total cost. Cant figure actual percentage not knowing the actual cost of the gas, but the taxes are much, much lower today as a percentage. So are income taxes believe it or not.
John

What's in the price of gas? She ask!
Political Greed. Over paid Politicians, State & City Management.
Gov. subsidies for Tobacco Farmers & Higher Taxes for Tobacco users.
Gov. needs to legalize Marijuana so they subsidize growing & then they can Tax it too, at least we could be high when buying another joint!

Whats not in the price of gas is whats going to bite. Just heard the tail end of news last week. They was saying 45 cents has been paid by the feds to refinerys and this deal was up,and if it wasn't renewed we could see that tacked on soon. Something to that effect, might not of been refinerys but somewhere from barrel to pump. Anybody else hear the whole spill.

The 45¢ subsidy was on a gallon of Ethanol. Translates to about 4¢ - 5¢ a gallon increase after the ethanol is blended with gas and reaches the consumer.
By the time the press started talking about it the tax had already been removed and with price fluctuations at the pump had already been absorbed and we never really saw it happen.

Back when I ran a Shell station (1960-64) our profit was 5 cents. Out of that we had to purchase Blue and Green stamps to hand out. The only money we really made was in the back room and most of those have now gone by the wayside. Has anyone gone to the movies lately, we go every week. Move is not too bad at $6.25 for seniors buy just try to by snacks with small popcorn now at $4.75 and soda the same. We love to take our grandkids but have their mom make up snacks before hand and we "sneak" them in.
We need the Republicans back in power but not sure that's going to change anything either