Paris (AFP)

Since the beginning of October, fuel prices have exploded in the wake of an increase in world prices: the price of diesel has broken its all-time high, at 1.5583 euros per liter, while unleaded 95 is close to its 2012 highs. , at 1.6287 euro.

"Already in normal times, I have a large gasoline budget. At the moment, I can not even refuel my truck", tells AFP Loïc Bonhomme, electrician.

Faced with this expense which weighs on the purchasing power of many French people, distributors have stepped up to the plate.

Starting with the E.Leclerc centers, which announced Monday that all their off-highway service stations would sell fuel at cost until the end of the month.

Casino, which already offered a similar offer from time to time, increased with a system of vouchers supposed to increase the full to one euro per liter, while Carrefour launched a discount of five euros for each full of at least 25 liters.

A leading product

Like Charlotte, who stopped by a Casino supermarket in Nemours (Seine-et-Marne): "I saw that it was at cost price at the Casino level so I am coming to refuel", she explains.

Distributors also have an interest in encouraging consumers to take their cars, analyzes Yves Marin, distribution expert at the Bartle firm, "because hypermarkets are 15 minutes away on average".

Their fuel margins are therefore reduced: they are on average 0.3 and 1.5 cents per liter, against 1 to 2 cents for conventional service stations, according to the National Council of Automotive Professions ( CNPA).

Hypermarkets can afford low prices because they are also much less dependent on the sale of fuel than on the rest of their operations.

On the other hand, in the service stations except large distribution, where it represents 40 to 70% of the activity, "it would be impossible to make the cost price", supports Francis Pousse, president of the branch owners-operators of service stations. of the CNPA.

In motorway stations, prices are also higher due to significant operating costs: fees to the motorway operator, staff present 24 hours a day every day ... They also have less interest in lower their prices because on the motorway, competition is less important: the motorist generally prefers not to leave his path to refuel.

By acceding to the request of the Minister of the Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili, who had called last week the distributors to "make a gesture" on the price of fuels, the large distribution also reverses the situation and returns the fault to the government.

"To limit the surge in prices, I see only one way: that the taxes be reduced", indicated in particular Michel-Edouard Leclerc, president of the strategic committee of the E.Leclerc centers, recalling that they represent approximately 60 % of the price of a full tank.

The government said on Tuesday that it would announce "by the end of the week" a device to help the French cope with rising prices.

He could choose to act on taxes or offer a fuel check for the most modest households, on the model of the energy check.

© 2021 AFP