Why you’re paying more for petrol than you should be – and here are some tips to save money
MILLIONS of families driving to expensive staycations this week face another hit to their pocket with the price of fuel.
Filling up the car this weekend — the busiest of the year — you will be paying the highest petrol and diesel prices for eight years.
New figures from the RAC reveal fuel prices have gone up for the ninth month in a row.
The average price of a litre of unleaded is now 135.13p — up from 131.76 in early July — the highest since 2013.
That means filling the 55-litre tank on an average-sized car with petrol costs £3.08 more than at the start of June and extra £11.47 than a year ago.
While diesel is at its highest price since 2014.
Filling an average 55-litre tank with diesel now costs £2.90 more than at the start of June and you will have to fork out £10.46 more than in July 2020.
Announcing the findings, RAC fuel expert Simon Williams warned hard-pressed families will have to take it on the chin.
He said: “Prices are only going one way at the moment — and that’s not the way drivers want to see them going.
“With a second summer staycation in full swing, it’s proving to be a particularly costly one for many families who are using their cars to holiday here in the UK.
“Right now it’s hard to see what it will take for prices to start falling again.”
But Howard Cox of campaign group Fair Fuel UK believes drivers are paying four pence a litre too much for petrol and even more for diesel — based on the wholesale price of fuel.
He says: “Petrol and diesel prices are notorious for going up like a rocket and coming down like a feather.
RIPPED OFF DRIVERS
“For decades the fuel supply chain, notably a few wholesalers, have ripped off drivers at will by holding back price falls amounting to billions.
“Based on wholesale fuel prices, our calculations show the average price for petrol should now be £1.31 a litre not £1.35.
“The current diesel wholesale price is 2p per litre less than petrol. Yet at the pumps it is one to two pence more than petrol.
“Diesel should now be cheaper than petrol. In fact, around 7p to 8p cheaper than current pump prices.
“It is way past time that the Treasury and the government checked this chronic opportunistic profiteering in the fuel supply chain.”
But with the country’s finances still reeling from the Covid pandemic — which saw the tax take from motorists drop around 30 per cent — the Government is unlikely to step in to fight for hard-pressed motorists.
Motorists already pay £50billion a year in tax on our cars, vans, motorbikes and trucks, which includes Vehicle Excise Duty, fuel duty, VAT on fuel, insurance tax, VAT on repairs, parts and benefit in kind on company cars.
For every litre of fuel bought at Britain’s 8,500 forecourts, 57.95p goes to the government in fuel duty, which has been frozen since 2011 thanks to The Sun’s Keep it Down campaign.
The Treasury also gets 20 per cent VAT on the total price of a litre, including the fuel duty.
So if the price goes up the Treasury gets more VAT.
Howard Cox adds: “Why is double taxation allowed? VAT on top of fuel duty is highway robbery.”
Now Fair Fuel UK wants the introduction of an independent pump price monitoring body, like consumer watchdogs Ofgem, Ofcom and Ofwat, to protect the UK’s 37m drivers when they fill up.
Conservative MP Robert Halfon says: “Just when drivers need all the help they can get, petrol prices are being kept artificially high.
“The fuel industry has a moral duty to pass these savings on to consumers.
“An independent body like PumpWatch would make that happen.”
In the meantime, Simon Williams of the RAC has little hope for the 29million motorists on the road this summer.
He says: “With so many people depending on their vehicles there’s really nothing drivers can do to escape the high prices.
YOU CAN SAVE MONEY
“Our best advice is for them to drive as economically as possible to try to make their money go further.”
But do not despair.
You can save by filling up at supermarkets which, according to the RAC, are 3p a litre cheaper at an average £1.32 for petrol and 16p cheaper than motorway service stations.
Or, wherever you are on holiday in UK, check out petrolprices.com which shows the cost of fuel within a five-mile radius so you can save money.
Shell is charging £1.42 at one forecourt near Norwich for petrol, but just four miles away another Shell garage is 6p less at £1.36.
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At Asda in Plymouth petrol is £1.31 but a Texaco garage a few miles away charges £1.37.
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In Chester, Asda are also at £1.31 while a BP garage nearby is 11p a litre more, at £1.42.
If it’s any consolation as you grimace at the total at the till, if Britain’s favourite paper had not won our campaign to freeze the fuel duty escalator for ten years you would now be paying £1.80 a litre.