New figures from the NRMA show Canberra fuel prices lower than in other parts of Australia - and that's prompted their advice to fill up before heading east for the rugby at the weekend.
On the motoring organisation's latest analysis, the average price for regular unleaded in the ACT is 149.1 cents compared with 164 cents per litre in Sydney, 151.4 cents in Melbourne, 168.9 cents in Brisbane, 154.7 cents in Perth, 149.1 cents in Darwin and 155.3 cents in Hobart.
It prompted an NRMA spokeswoman to say, "If you're going to Sydney, fill up in Canberra."
She said that there was a wide range of prices in Sydney but you would have to drive from servo to servo to find the best deal.
Petrol prices in Australia have surged to an eleven year high price because of global factors.
An NRMA spokesman said oil prices were volatile and Australia was "hugely exposed" to big swings.
"We knew the attacks in Saudi Arabia, along with the ongoing trade war between the United States and China and a weaker Australian dollar would all work against our members here at home and we are now confronted with 11-year-high prices just as families are going away," the spokesman said.
The NRMA said that Canberra's prices were relatively stable compared with those in Sydney. This was because there was more competition there, the spokesman said. With more independents, prices would fall more in a glut and rise more in a scarce period - like now. At the moment, Canberra benefits but at other times, it looks expensive.
The NRMA wants the ACT Government to adopt the recommendations of the recent inquiry into fuel prices, particularly the one about introducing an official price monitoring system like they have in New South Wales.
Compelling service stations to post petrol prices on-line in "real time" on a government-regulated fuel monitoring website would be the "much-needed wake-up call" the industry needed, the motorist advocacy group said.
The NRMA likes the NSW FuelCheck website.
"We believe the same system will work in the ACT.
"Currently there is an eleven per cent gap between the cheapest and the most expensive station. We want drivers to be able to make an informed choice when filling up," NRMA director and former Labor senator, Kate Lundy, said.
