Quick - petrol for 146p!

 

 

Despite the various fuel comparison apps which are available, people are still paying too much to fill their tanks up. The riding and driving public are trapped as, no fuel no go, and it is not always possible to shop around for the cheapest fuel as you are not necessarily near a cheaper petrol station when it’s time to fill up.

The government now makes fuel retailers make their fuel prices publicly available daily, and those prices are constantly under scrutiny, but nevertheless fuel retailers are still hiking up the prices as they see fit.
The Competition and Markets Authority spotted that in 2022 major fuel retailers had over charged the public to the tune of £900m.
The RAC says that the average price of petrol is 150p per litre and diesel 157p but they believe that, to be fair on motorcyclists and drivers, it should be more like 145p.

Currently there is a voluntary scheme in operation with the top 14 retailers providing prices for their sites on a daily basis. However the Government are trying to deal with this problem by proposing an official Pump Watch fuel price transparency scheme and a price monitoring body. The RAC are supportive of these ideas but say the price monitoring body would have to have teeth in order to hold retailers to account and enforce fair pricing and should encourage competition. 

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: 
“We feel the current margins being charged by larger retailers in particular are extremely unfair on drivers struggling to get by in the cost-of-living crisis. The big four supermarket retailers, which dominate fuel sales, are once again flatly refusing to cut their prices in the wake of much lower wholesale costs. If they were being fair on drivers, they should already have shaved at least 5p off their current petrol average of 147p and 8p off diesel which averages 154p at a supermarket forecourt.
“Our data shows the supermarkets are taking about 11p a litre on petrol and 16p on diesel compared to 3p and 8p in 2019.
“We realise that supermarkets, along with all businesses, have been affected by inflation, but these increases seem blatantly unfair. And, of course, without them cutting their prices, there is little incentive for other retailers to follow suit.
“Having tracked fuel prices against consumer inflation, it’s easy to see the link between the two. We therefore have a strange situation where unreasonably big fuel margins are making inflation higher than it should be.
“It’s very concerning to see fuel margins at such high levels, particularly as this is happening under the close eye of the CMA and while retailers are voluntarily sharing their forecourt prices with the intention of increasing competition.
“If the work of Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the CMA has had any effect to date on improving fuel price transparency, we ought to see prices at the pumps reduce significantly in the next week due to a sustained drop in the cost of oil. Sadly, we fear retailers are likely to need a little more encouragement before this happens.
“The RAC believes the situation will only be improved in the long term if the CMA as the price monitoring body is able to take meaningful action against retailers whose margins are deemed not to be mirroring significant reductions in the cost of wholesale fuel.”

 

To try and further the cause, the RAC has written to Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho to point out that retailer fuel margins are far higher than they should be and drivers and riders are losing out when fuelling up.

Have you noticed the price of fuel being outrageously high? Do you think this latest plan by the Government will go any way towards solving the problem of overcharging for fuel or will it just trickle away? Let us know your thoughts on Facebook or email us at [email protected]