The Consumer Council has been monitoring the auto-fuel prices in Hong Kong since its establishment. Apart from issuing a number of market study and analysis reports over the years, the Council has also been publicising the auto-fuel retail prices and discount offers from local oil companies through the Council’s website and its mobile apps. In a bid to offer greater convenience and provide more information to car owners and drivers, the Council officially launched a brand new "Oil Price Watch" website and mobile app after a year of preparation and the collection of the opinions from various stakeholders, including drivers, the oil industry and the government authority. From now on, with only a single device, consumers can handily access auto-fuel price information and allow them to make a smarter choice.
The “Oil Price Watch” combined the existing “Oil Price Calculator” and “Diesel Price Calculator” apps with functions upgraded and enhanced. New functions include:
- “Lowest Auto-fuel Price”: Either visiting through a smartphone or a computer, the homepage would simultaneously display and compare the pump prices and net prices after walk-in discounts of different oil companies at a glance. Moreover, consumers may also browse the inner pages for credit cards and membership cards to learn about the relevant privilege;
- “Weekly Discount and Promotion”: Consumers can click this button for discount offers of each oil company for up to a maximum of the next 7 days, enabling consumers to plan on refilling gas tanks according to their itineraries and needs;
- “Designated Station Discount” and “Voucher Discount”: Oil companies provide a variety of discount offers, such as discounts at designated petrol stations or on specific dates as well as flash offers and voucher discounts. Consumers would find it difficult to make direct price comparison. The “Oil Price Calculator” function in the “Oil Price Watch” has newly added the calculating functions of “Designated Station Discount” and “Voucher Discount” to help consumers to save more by making a more comprehensive price comparison;
- “Push Notifications” and “Email Notifications”: Through the “Email Notifications” of the “Oil Price Watch” website or the “Push Notifications” of its mobile app, consumers can handily grasp information on the changes in oil prices.
- “Petrol Filling Station Search”: This new function can work with GPS to show consumers the locations, auto-fuel products and facilities information of the nearby petrol filling stations;
- “Personalised Search Engine”: This function enables quicker search for petrol stations by inputting selected districts, oil companies, key words, etc.
In the Launching Ceremony of the “Oil Price Watch” website and mobile app, the Council Chairman, Mr. Paul Lam Ting-kwok, SC remarked, “The Council would like to express its gratitude for the support and funding from the Environment Bureau which makes the successful launch of the “Oil Price Watch”. The Council hopes the “Oil Price Watch” can provide a handy and informative platform for consumers to make well informed choices every time in refilling their gas tanks. With more consumers using "Oil Price Watch" website or downloading the mobile App, more consumers would be benefited from saving oil expenses. Furthermore, they can exercise their collective power and join hands with the Council to monitor the oil price trend together. The Council will continue to gather users’ opinions to improve the "Oil Price Watch" in the future.”
“Oil Price Watch” is available in English, traditional and simplified Chinese. Users can visit its website or download its mobile App via App Store or Google Play and use in both iOS and Android platform. Users can download the “Oil Price Watch” from the following link: https://oil-price.consumer.org.hk/