The cost of marine diesel for your boat is outrageous these days. I am all for businesses making an honest buck and I am all for an open market. We don't need price controls to really mess things up but lets get real now.

The price of diesel in San Diego Bay is $3.40 to $3.50 per gallon. I can get it on the street for less money. Marine Diesel does not have the same tax structure as highway gas. I can take the boat to Mexico and pay $2.00 or so a gallon. I just filled up my propane tank for about the same price as it was a few years ago. I remember getting diesel for $1.00 per gallon just 7 years ago or so.

The business case says charge more sell less and make the same money with less work involved. That's fine and dandy but isn't about time for someone to step up to the plate and say I am going back to the volume pricing model and sell more gas at lower prices just so some folks can have a good time on the water. If my wife didn't have a problem with heeling over I would have bought a sailboat and then no problem. But I love her and she does have a problem so we bought an old trawler. I am a working stiff like most other folks and with the price of fuel today it really hurts. I say let's get the diesel back to $2.50 or less.

Just my two cents.

BH

Update 2008-04-02

I spoke with some fuel dock managers and the real problem is they have fixed costs for lease fees, port fees, hazmat fees, and employee salaries etc. Even if they sold nothing they would still have these costs. In order to cover overhead they had to raise prices. The higher the prices the less diesel boaters purchase and the more per gallon they have to charge just to cover costs. Hence the escalator ride up. I certainly would not want to be in the fuel dock business right now.