Heaven seeks talks with Gov't

Brian Bonitto

Friday, January 06, 2012

TREVOR Heaven, president of the Jamaica Gasolene Retailers Association (JGRA) and prinicipal of Heaven's Texaco Service Station , said this year he's hoping to resolve some issues that were unresolved.

"I'm looking forward to an exciting year," Heaven told Auto. "I'm hoping interest rates remain low, and that the dollar and oil prices remain stable as that will have an impact on the economy on a whole."

Heaven said he is hoping that the newly elected government encourage discussions with a view to revamp the Weights and Measures Regulation in order to allow for "temperature adjustments" to be passed on to the retailers.

"If this is done, fuel prices could be reduced by about $5 per litre to the end consumer," Heaven said.

PETROJAM, the state-run oil refinery, compensates the oil marketing companies for the losses which occur due to the temperature change but this is not passed on to the retailers.

"If the marketing companies pass on the temperature adjustments they receive to the retailers, prices would immediately fall. At the current prices, the temperature adjustment is about $1.3m to $1.5m," he continued.

Petrol is loaded at roughly 90 degrees Fahrenheit. However, by the time it is transported to the retailers, the temperature is significantly reduced, resulting in shrinkage.

The Mandeville-based businessman is also hoping to have discussions with the supervision of the Ministry of Energy.

"This would be done so our safety standards are advanced. Our members should have to be climbing onto trucks with dip sticks to measure fuel?," he asked. "This should be done with some modern metering system."

Heaven had previously served as president of the JGRA from 2004 to 2006 and was re-elected to the post in September of 2011. One of his mandates on being returned to the post was to assist in converting service-station operations from free air to token-operated air scales.