Fuel dockets explained: Coles vs Woolworths

Fuel dockets are the most familiar fuel-saving habit in Australia and one of the least examined. Almost every driver has one crumpled in the console. Very few have worked out what it's actually worth, or noticed that using it sometimes costs more than ignoring it.

Here's how each scheme works in 2026, what the 4c is worth in dollars, and when the docket is the wrong move.

How the Coles docket works

Spend $30 or more in one transaction at a Coles Group supermarket or on coles.com.au and scan your Flybuys card. The docket is redeemable at Shell Coles Express and Shell Reddy Express sites — the network Viva Energy bought from Coles and has been rebranding to Reddy Express, now more than 650 sites nationally.

The Coles offer has a twist the Woolworths one doesn't: at the bowser you choose between 4 cents off per litre and 8 Flybuys points per litre. You can also take a current in-store product offer instead, with no fuel purchase required. Your cents-or-points preference is set in the Flybuys app under "My fuel offers" and applies to every docket on the account until you change it.

Once you activate the digital docket, Coles stops printing dockets on the bottom of your supermarket receipt. The offer lives in the app instead.

How the Woolworths docket works

Same threshold: spend $30 or more in one transaction at Woolworths or Woolworths Metro and scan your Everyday Rewards card. You get 4 cents off per litre, redeemable within 28 days.

Where it differs is the network. Woolworths sold its service stations to EG Group, so the discount is honoured at participating EG Ampol sites — the former Caltex Woolworths forecourts — and at participating Ampol Foodary locations, roughly 550 of them. There's no cents-versus-points choice; you take the 4c.

Why it's stuck at 4 cents

This is the part most drivers don't know. The 4c figure isn't a marketing decision — it's a regulatory ceiling.

Through 2013 the two chains escalated into a discount war, with offers reaching 40c/L funded out of supermarket profits rather than the fuel business. The ACCC took the view that this was distorting the retail fuel market and squeezing independent servos that had no supermarket to subsidise them. In December 2013 it accepted court-enforceable undertakings from both Coles and Woolworths to stop cross-subsidising fuel discounts and to cap supermarket-linked offers at 4 cents a litre.

Those undertakings have since been varied — once when Coles Express was sold to Viva Energy, and once when Woolworths' petrol sites went to EG Group — but the 4c cap survived both. It's why the number has not moved in over a decade and won't move without the ACCC's agreement.

What 4 cents is actually worth

Run the numbers on a typical fill and the docket shrinks fast.

• 40-litre fill: $1.60
• 50-litre fill: $2.00
• 70-litre ute or SUV: $2.80

Now compare that to the spread between stations. In any Australian capital it is routine for two servos ten minutes apart to differ by more than 30c/L on the same day. On that 50-litre fill, the gap between the cheapest and the dearest board near you is worth $15 — more than seven dockets.

That's the whole argument in one line: the docket is a tiebreaker, not a strategy. It's free money if you're already filling at a Reddy Express or an EG Ampol that happens to be competitive. It is not a reason to drive to one.

When the docket costs you money

Because a docket only works at one network, using it means choosing your servo by brand instead of by price. That's exactly backwards.

If the Reddy Express near you is posting 189.9 and an independent two suburbs over is posting 179.9, your 4c docket takes the branded site to 185.9 — still six cents a litre worse. You've saved $2 and paid $3 for the privilege. This isn't a rare edge case: major-brand metropolitan sites frequently sit several cents above the local independents, and the docket is precisely the mechanism designed to keep you from noticing.

The sequence that works is boring and effective. Find the cheapest station near you first. If it takes your docket, use it. If it doesn't, fill there anyway and let the docket expire — the cheaper board almost always wins.

Cents or points, if you're at Coles

The 8-points-per-litre option looks like the bigger number, so it's worth converting it. Flybuys redeems at 2,000 points for $10, which values a point at half a cent. Eight points a litre is therefore worth about 4 cents a litre — the same as taking the cents.

So it's a wash at the baseline rate. Take the cents if you want a certain saving at the pump today. Take the points only if you reliably push them above half a cent each — transferring to Velocity for a well-priced redemption is the usual way people do that, and it only works if you actually follow through.

Stacking, and its limits

You can't combine a Coles docket with a Woolworths one; they're tied to different forecourts. What you can do is stack a docket with the things that aren't capped:

• Fill near the bottom of the cycle rather than the top — worth 20–40c/L in the capitals when cycles are running. See how the cycle behaves in your city.
• Use the right fuel grade. If your car takes E10 it's usually the cheapest thing on the board — E10 vs 91 vs 95 vs 98 covers whether yours does.
• Skip the captive sites. Motorway, airport and remote-town servos price for people who have no alternative.

Each of those is worth several times a docket, and none of them require a $30 grocery shop first.

Frequently asked questions

How do I get a fuel docket at Coles or Woolworths?

Spend $30 or more in a single transaction and scan your loyalty card. At Coles that means scanning Flybuys, and the docket appears in the Flybuys app once you have activated the digital fuel docket. At Woolworths you scan your Everyday Rewards card and the discount is attached to your account.

Why are fuel dockets only 4 cents a litre?

Because the ACCC caps them there. In December 2013 the ACCC accepted court-enforceable undertakings from Coles and Woolworths limiting fuel discounts linked to supermarket purchases to a maximum of 4 cents a litre, after both chains had been running offers worth up to 40 cents a litre. The cap still applies today.

Should I take 4 cents off or 8 Flybuys points per litre?

At the standard Flybuys redemption rate of 2,000 points for $10, one point is worth half a cent, so 8 points a litre is worth about the same 4 cents. Take the cents if you want the saving now, and the points only if you reliably redeem them for something worth more than half a cent each.

Do fuel dockets expire?

Yes. The Woolworths Everyday Rewards fuel discount must be redeemed within 28 days of the qualifying shop. Coles dockets also carry an expiry, and both are limited to a set volume of fuel per redemption, so check the current terms on your docket or in the app.

Is a fuel docket better than driving to a cheaper servo?

Almost never. A 4c/L docket saves about $2 on a 50-litre fill. The gap between the cheapest and dearest servo in the same city is routinely 20 to 30 cents a litre, which is $10 to $15 on the same fill. Find the cheapest station first, then use a docket if it happens to be accepted there.