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Whats a pipeline card?
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Whats a pipeline card?
Have a look at www.pipelinecard.org/default.html
and all will be revealed !
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Just got this email from them:
Dear Members
Welcome to all our new sign-ups and 'Hello Again' to those of you who joined way back in November. So much for everything going quiet over Christmas - our Pipeline servers have been red-hot with new registrations. We now have over 90,000 registered members and we should definitely be in a position to start issuing cards by April or May.
Petrol prices are slowly heading North again - as we predicted - and are set to increase further, so we need to get Pipeline off the ground as soon as we can. Press interest has continued and we have now been featured in The Guardian as well as some more car magazines. I have also done two more BBC Radio interviews - see the updated media page - although I still haven't got around to talking to my local paper in Reading!
Once again, thank you to everybody who has done their bit to help us grow, Whether it's simple things like telling your mates, or more techie things like posting advertisements on websites and forums, it all helps to boost our bargaining power - which means cheaper fuel for everybody.
If you haven't done anything yet, it's not too late. We still need a lot more members. Just tell two people about www.PipelineCard.org today and we could triple our membership! Use the recommend page on the website if you like. (www.PipelineCard.org/recommend.html)
Please continue to write in with your queries, suggestions, and offers of help. There are only two of us to answer you - and both of us have other jobs - so please continue to bear with us if it takes a little while for us to respond. We always read every email and we regularly add new material to our FAQ as a direct result of your feedback.
You can cancel your Pipeline Card membership at any time by sending an email to unsubscribe@PipelineCard.org
Best Regards
Ben Scammell - Pipeline Card Founder
I like the comment "Just tell two people about www.PipelineCard.org today and we could triple our membership", which suggests that they only have me as a member!
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I had my email too today. As you say, it also does say to register your partner too, to increase membership.
I suppose that would also include all the members in your family that can drive.
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Its been a while now since everyone registered for the pipeline card, has anyone heard any news as to what the likelyhood of this ever succeeding is ?
I don't think it needs any news to see that it's a doomed idea.
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"I don't think it needs any news to see that it's a doomed idea."
Now there's a self-fulfilling prophecy if I ever saw one. I assume that your decision that it is "doomed" means that you'll not be registering. Why not give it a punt? After all, if you're right, and it is doomed, it'll cost you a minute of your time. If you're wrong, you might save some cash.
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"I don't think it needs any news to see that it's a doomed idea." Now there's a self-fulfilling prophecy if I ever saw one. I assume that your decision that it is "doomed" means that you'll not be registering.
Ok, if you think that this thing has a chance, do you want to explain exactly how it might work? I can't see how this card would encourage fuel retailers to cut prices for some customers but not for others.
Why not give it a punt?
Because the minute or two it might take could be more productively used in millions of other ways, such as sleeping or drinking a cup of tea. In fcat, just about anything would be more productive.
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I would assume that if a retailer decided to offer a discount to holders of this card, then Visa, mastercard et al might just have something to say about it.
In addition it talks of discounting an existing market, not the expansion of the market or creation of a new one.
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Pipeline seem to be attempting to negotiate a discount scheme with one retailer. If they can claim to be bring ing marginal business to that player, then there is a potential for a discount.
My concern is that retailers' profits on fuel sale are so small that the discount they are prepared to offer could be very little, and quite easy to achieve in person simply by being canny.
My local Jet is handing out 2p/litre discount vouchers if you spend £15.00 or more. The vouchers are valid for 14 days, and it won't last much longer, but in a two car household it make a difference. That garage is already the cheapest locally. That kind of scheme is not uncommon.
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My local Jet is handing out 2p/litre discount vouchers if you spend £15.00 or more. The vouchers are valid for 14 days, and it won't last much longer, but in a two car household it make a difference. That garage is already the cheapest locally. That kind of scheme is not uncommon.
And that sort of scheme makes sense for a retailer in attracting more custom, if the sums add up. What doesn't make sense to to me is offering an expectation of a permanent discount on a very low-margin product, and leaving the scheme under the control of a third-party who could switch supplier if they get a better offer elsewhere. And if there isn't the option for pipeline to switch supplier, then it's just another loyalty card scheme. If offering meaningful long-term discounts through loyalty cards was the way to go (rather than short-term promotions like the one you describe), the retailers would be doing it already.
That's why I don't see this scheme as having any potential.
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Because the minute or two it might take could be more productively used in millions of other ways, such as sleeping or drinking a cup of tea. In fcat, just about anything would be more productive.
Wow. And I thought I was cynical. You know what... on the day I registered I had to spend 40 seconds less scratching my backside to find the time to squeeze it in. And since then I've been inundated with a brace of emails from Ben Scammell letting me know that he's still working on it - those took another 40 seconds of nose-picking time to read. If he sends me another one I don't know what else I'm going to have to give up to read it - maybe I'll have to make one fewer of my trademark ill-thought-out posts on this forum. So, y'know, something good will have come of it.
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AngryJonny (was E34kid)
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NoWheels: "Ok, if you think that this thing has a chance, do you want to explain exactly how it might work? I can't see how this card would encourage fuel retailers to cut prices for some customers but not for others."
I have a leisure card with Southampton City Council. Local shops give me 10% off sports equipment. Same basic premise. So, to paraphrase, if we'd been talking about that card before its creation, you might have said: "I can't see how this card would encourage sports shops to cut prices for some customers but not for others." It does seem to encoursge them.
NoWheels: "Because the minute or two it might take could be more productively used in millions of other ways, such as sleeping or drinking a cup of tea. In fcat, just about anything would be more productive."
I can tell you that it would have taken you less time to register at pipeline than it must have taken to write your post. Unless you typed it in less than about 60 seconds. What have you got to lose, bar a post on here? Rather than respnding to this, why not just register?
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I have a leisure card with Southampton City Council. Local shops give me 10% off sports equipment. Same basic premise. So, to paraphrase, if we'd been talking about that card before its creation, you might have said: "I can't see how this card would encourage sports shops to cut prices for some customers but not for others." It does seem to encoursge them.
Sports goods are discretionary spending but petrol is a very different market. It's a highly competitive market, with very tight margins and tiny-markups, and much lower price/demand elasticity. I'd be suprised if any petrol retailer was in a position to consider a discount of more than about 2% (possibly much less) without going straight into deficit -- the BBC reports that the delivery+retail take is only 6.3p (see tinyurl.com/7v9h6 ).
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According to my friend who worked in a filling station for 6 years, the retail take is as near to zero as dammit for the sake of this argument. Anything they did make (fractions of a penny per litre) was used up maintaining the pumps and the forecourt. Their income came from the other goods they sold in the shop. They're not lobbying individual fuel retailers here - they're going directly to the oil companies.
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AngryJonny (was E34kid)
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They're not lobbying individual fuel retailers here - they're going directly to the oil companies.
So what's the business case for an oil company to give a discount to these cardholders?
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I wonder if the people saying this is a waste of time will get one of the cards if it turns out not to have been a waste of time?
NoWheels?
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I wonder if the people saying this is a waste of time will get one of the cards if it turns out not to have been a waste of time? NoWheels?
I think that's too big an "if" to be worth worrying about, but no -- for much the same reason as I don't have any other loyalty card. Too much data harvesting, for a miniscle retun.
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I already have a fuel loyalty card for my local Morrisons - after collecting a few thousand points I get £5 off my shopping. I still go to Shell whenever I can!
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Update:
www.PipelineCard.org signed up it's 100,000th member over the weekend. Well done everybody!
It will still be April or May before we can send cards out, but these figures will help to give us the negotiating power that we need to get a good discount for everyone.
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Did anybody else see them discussing the pipeline card on the national news last night. Hopefully this will help in getting more people to join and making the case stronger.
Fingers crossed.
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UPdate in today's email:
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Dear Pipeline Card Member,
This has been a very exciting couple of week for Pipeline. I did my first ever TV interview - and it went out on ITN news at 6.30 and 10.30. They also showed details of a scheme that is already up and running in Holland offering discounts of around 6 cents a litre. Check out our media page for a link to the story if you missed it and, if you've got broadband, you can watch the actual film footage.
Membership numbers have now increased to over 180,000 and the number of websites and forums linking to Pipeline is over 3000! This is incredible - and it's all down to our members.
Many of you have written in and asked why it is taking such a long time to get the cards issued. I share your impatience; we all want to get this off the ground but nothing like this has ever been done in the UK and it takes time to sort everything out. We are working hard to get the best deal we can for our members but, as we have said all along, it will be April or even May before we are ready to launch. We would like to be able to give you more details about where the Pipeline Card can be used and how it will work but until that has all been agreed and contracted you will just have to bear with us. It will be worth it!
Lots of you have asked if we could produce some banners and buttons so you can link to Pipeline Card from your websites. We have now set up a page on the site and you can download them from www.PipelineCard.org/linkto.html. We have also included a downloadable poster for those places the internet can't reach! Thanks again to everybody who has written in offering support. It all helps us to reach more people and improve our purchasing power. Keep spreading the word - we still want more people to register. The more we have at this stage, the better.
Finally, on the subject of purchasing, we have had dozens of approaches from companies offering special deals on various goods and services. Most of these have been wholly unrelated to Pipeline and its aims so we have politely declined to feature them on the site. More recently though, we have identified some organisations that seem to offer us genuine savings on motoring-related services. As you know, our strict Privacy Policy prohibits us from passing on your personal data to these organisations but we may consider featuring some of them on the website at some stage if they are good enough.
That's it for now. Don't forget that you can recommend Pipeline by using www.PipelineCard.org/recommend.html And you can unsubscribe as a member at any time by sending a blank email to unsubscribe@PipelineCard.org.
Best wishes
Ben Scammell - Pipeline Card Founder
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What a waste of time. For once in a blue moon i fully agree with NW.
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If it's such a waste of time, how come it works in the Netherlands?
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Latest email:
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Dear Pipeline Card Member,
Top Gear's Richard Hammond has joined the list of Pipeline supporters by signing up and giving us a full page write-up in his Mirror column (now listed on the media page) Thanks Richard!
The emails are still coming in thick and fast, asking if we can use Pipeline's purchasing power to get better deals on other products like heating oil, gas or even car insurance. For those who wrote in about oil, we are making progress and will write to you individually in a few days. It's looking good!
Gas is a deserving case, with all the recent price rises, but very tricky - and we don't really want to spend too much time on things that have nothing to do with petrol or motoring. Still, have a look at this new page on our website (www.pipelinecard.org/gande.html ) and see what you think.
We have also had some thoughts about ways of saving money on car insurance and breakdown insurance. But don't expect a page full of ads and special offers. That's not what we do. Check out www.pipelinecard.org/insurance.html and www.pipelinecard.org/breakdown.html and you will see what I mean.
The other big question that many of you are asking is "how are the negotiations with our retail partner going and when am I going to get my card?" The short answer is, it's all moving ahead, but not as quickly as we would like. Wheels move slowly in large organisations and our membership has clearly grown faster than they were expecting. We are keeping the pressure on and we are still hoping to have some good news for you in May or June.
Please keep the emails and feedback coming - and keep telling people about Pipeline. Our strength is directly related to our numbers so we still need to build up that strength while we negotiate on your behalf.
Following some of that feedback, we have simplified the Home Page for people who already know what Pipeline is and simply want to get on and register. Our 'mission statement' is only a click away behind the 'What is Pipeline' button but you don't have to read through it to sign up.
That's it for now. Don't forget that you can recommend Pipeline by clicking here www.pipelinecard.org/recommend.html and you can resign as a member at any time by sending a blank email to unsubscribe@PipelineCard.org.
Ben Scammell - Pipeline Card Founder
p.s. We are getting quotes for the much requested Pipeline Card car stickers - watch this space!
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This is beginning to look more and more like a "marketing machine" harvesting email addresses.
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OH dont be so cynical
email address's are hardly hard to come by...give the guy a chance
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www.storme.co.uk
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Given that you can get a CD with 1 million email addresses for $5, I doubt this would be worth television interviews, getting Richard Hammond involved, etc, etc, if you just wanted a bundle of email addresses.
The cynicism shown in this place depresses me sometimes.
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Sure I'm a cynic. If it becomes such a good deal and you save so much money then the more people who get the card will remove any advantage of having the card - taken to extreme, everyone gets a card, why give a discount?
Yes you can buy a CD with millions of email addresses, but you'd pay a lot more for a few thousand addresses of real email addresses of a targetted market of possibly gullible motorists.
That's how HJ can (hopefully) get more money from his advertisers as they are a known group of people they wish to target.
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That's how HJ can (hopefully) get more money from his advertisers as they are a known group of people they wish to target.
What's the problem if you are right? Are you afraid of being suckered by a spam mail?
Pipeline has already said that it might be necessary to restrict membership; alternatively, if the price of a discount is that that you give somebody access to your fuel buying patterns and the opportunity to try and flog you car insurance, is that a problem?
Same argument applies to the (unrestricted access) Tesco Clubcard - but you still get the discounts (well I don't actually as I can't be bothered, but you get the idea).
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Interesting thread this. Thanks to it i have registered with Pipeline. One of two things will happen:
It goes nowhere - mare loses 1 minute of life
It goes somewhere - mare saves money on petrol.
In it to win it and all that..
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martin...
your saying that if ,,for example....100000000 people are all going to buy petrol from ONE petrol company...that they would STOP the promotion????
in my opinion this would force other companies to lower there prices.
eg.if everyone suddenly stopped buying from shell today...
no-one whatsoever to buy from shell
dont you think that they would lower their prices????
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www.storme.co.uk
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martin... your saying that if ,,for example....100000000 people are all going to buy petrol from ONE petrol company...that they would STOP the promotion????
There is not a petrol company large enough to supply this much fuel. They would simply sell the same amount of fuel quicker (until it ran out).
in my opinion this would force other companies to lower there prices. eg.if everyone suddenly stopped buying from shell today... no-one whatsoever to buy from shell dont you think that they would lower their prices????
No, the supply of petrol is not flexible enough to cope with everyone going to one supplier. Similarly the demand for petrol is not flexible enough for people to ignore a garage that has fuel when no others have any fuel to sell.
If everyone stopped buying from Shell today then all the other garages would not be able to cope with the extra custom and would run out in a matter of days. Shell would then be able to increase their prices as people would have no choice but to buy petrol from them.
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