Quote:
Originally Posted by Late braker
Excuse my ignorance but is the LPG issue of impending doom because the taxi fleets are hybrids now?
|
From my perspective its something that has been coming for a long time. As a vehicle fuel source it fell out of favour long ago. Whereas once people used it to power big engined cars like Falcons and Commodores, these people moved to diesel vehicles. And with the end of local cars taxi's have moved to Camrys and hybrid vehicles. Same with tradies and their gas powered utes.
Government grants meant LPG conversion costs soared and haven't come back down as did the price of gas, so the incentive and cost benefits to move to LPG disappeared. Plus the intrusion of a gas system was always an annoyance.
Plus its become expensive for retailers to maintain gas pumps at their servos. Like every other tank they need regular inspections and alot of places were scrapping their LPG pumps when the next inspection was due. Not enough customers to wear the cost.
I remember looking at a really nice BF gas wagon maybe 4 years ago. It was going cheap because it needed a tank inspection. So I rang the 2 inspection joints in a 80km radius and was told to forget it because the only 2 places at the time in Hervey Bay and Maryborough were both discontinuing gas supply within the next 12 to 18 months when their tank inspections were due. And true to his word they did.
Both Hervey Bay and Maryborough got a gas outlet again in the last 2 years when they levelled existing servos and completely rebuilt them. Must have been cheap to install new tanks and everything as part of the rebuild. 18 servos in Hervey Bay and only 1 has LPG. 14 in Maryborough and 1 LPG. I cant remember the last time I saw an LPG tag on a numberplate.