Diesel drivers paying more than they should

Diesel drivers are paying up to 3p a litre more than they should for their fuel, research for June’s AA Fuel Price Report found.

Not only is that taking up to £1.5 million a day extra from diesel drivers’ pockets, but the inflated cost of business transport is passed on to their customers and then non-motoring consumers. Pump prices for mid-June average 130.47p a litre for petrol and 135.7p for diesel, according to the AA. A month ago, the fuels averaged 129.92p for petrol and 136.26p for diesel. The latest pump prices have created a price-gap between petrol and diesel of 5.23p a litre, despite the gap at wholesale price level averaging just 0.8p over the past month, says the AA.

Compared to neighbouring countries, European Union statistics show the UK’s failure to pass on the near-parity of wholesale petrol and diesel prices to drivers at the pump.

That, says the AA, has left diesel drivers paying on average around 3p a litre more than they should be at the pump.

Calling it a “3p-a-litre diesel price rip-off”, AA president Edmund King said: “The pumped-up price of diesel is inexcusable. Neighbouring European countries have passed on the benefit of lower diesel wholesale costs to their drivers while the UK’s fuel industry has chosen to siphon off the savings.”