Thanks to Comparis, is the TCS gas price radar flying now?

Here the two found each other: Touring Club Schweiz (TCS) and Comparis team up to compare petrol and diesel prices. The online comparison service takes over the TCS “oil price radar” database via an interface. Touring Club has been offering this comparison tool for free on its app and website for over three months. Thanks to the agreement, Comparis will be able to integrate TCS data into its price comparison platform. Thanks to the collaboration, the two partners expect an even larger database, as stated in a statement.

At the initial stage, only users of the TCS platform can continue to record prices at gas stations throughout Switzerland. Comparis Group Board Member Paul Kummer (58) explains to Blick that in just a few weeks, Comparis users can contribute to reporting or confirming prices across Switzerland. Kummer doesn’t want to speculate on the petrol price comparison’s additional user potential: “However, we expect monthly visitor numbers in the seven-digit range soon.”

Both parties want to take advantage

TCS Managing Director Jürg Wittwer (52) is pleased that the petrol price radar will soon have a large user base: “Comparis is the best-known price comparison platform in Switzerland. Thanks to the cooperation, we can gain even more users for the petrol price radar.» Conversely, Comparis does not need to set up the entire database itself.

Both Wittwer and Kummer confirmed that Comparis is approaching TCS. “Comparis can thus close a gap in the proposal very quickly,” Kummer says. Comparis’s platform doesn’t have a gas price comparison tool, but you can find information on car finance, insurance, and car trading here. Wittwer therefore speaks of a win-win situation.

Almost full coverage

The oil price radar, launched in November, recorded more than 3.5 million hits in its first three months, according to TCS. In total, more than 23,000 participants signed up to the platform and made 340,000 unique hits. Users update more than 20,000 items of price data every day – up from 8,500 in December.

According to Wittwer, 98 percent of all gas stations are covered. More than 3600 gas stations now display at least one price. No price is currently displayed for less than 70 gas stations.

TCS initially wanted to show 3,300 gas stations in Switzerland, but added around 500 independent gas stations to its overview map.

Data quality is crucial

The price comparison tool is fed with information from users. With this, TCS wants to create more transparency in the face of inflation and ease the wallet of the Swiss population. With Comparis there will be much more price information in the future.

This is important. Because the gasoline price radar also faced criticism. Mineral oil companies were skeptical of its benefits. And although Parliament passed a bill in December to create a government platform for comparing fuel prices, many questions came from politicians about the data. Even the Federal Council did not initially see the need for such a platform.

Price watcher Stefan Meierhans (54) had already called for a petrol price comparison tool in March 2022. That is, a government price calculator based on the Austrian model, where only the lowest prices are given. “You don’t want to make it easy for Eni and Migrol to compare prices,” says Meierhans.

Therefore, politicians had reservations about proposals for TCS-based comparison of gasoline prices. In principle, TCS welcomes the initiative and teamwork with Comparis. However, “up-to-date and complete over time” is crucial to the long-term success of oil price radar.

The price comparison tool in Austria effectively lowered the average gasoline price over a longer period of time. Meierhans hopes this effect will also be in Switzerland, even if the tool is not comparable to that of TCS and Comparis.

Gas price radar confirms big differences

Fuel prices in Switzerland have dropped significantly again in the last three months and are well below the 2 franc limit. According to the gas price radar, a liter of unleaded 95 in Switzerland today costs 1.60 francs at a gas station in Thayngen SH, near the border, and 1.90 francs at a gas station in San Bernardino, Ticino.

The price of gasoline depends on the price of crude oil, the location of the gas station and calculations made by the gas station operator. Has Gasoline Price Radar helped lower the price of gasoline? “We didn’t have enough time to statistically identify a drop in price,” says TCS boss Wittwer. But according to Wittwer, thanks to the petrol price radar, consumers had the opportunity to save money every time they fill up.

Source :Blick