Fuel retailers fail to lower prices in Essex despite huge fall in wholesale costs
RAC says that drivers of diesel vehicles are suffering the most.
Fuel retailers failed to fully reflect huge falls in wholesale costs, according to new analysis.
The RAC said wholesale diesel costs dropped by 32p per litre in the eight weeks to December 11, but average pump prices only fell by 20p.
Wholesale petrol costs plummeted by 23p per litre over a similar period, but it took another month for average pump prices to tumble by 18p.
Kyle Harris is the Operations Manager of Metro Cars, a taxi firm from Essex, and he says that fuel costs should be proportional to retailers’ expenses.
Kyle said: “Fuel retailers are making hundreds of millions of pounds a year at the pumps, and I just don’t see why they can’t reflect their expenses’ decrease in the price of the fuel.
“They were very quick to increase the prices to the consumer when their costs went up, but now that their costs have subsequently gone down, they’re holding their prices high, and that just doesn’t seem fair.”
The RAC said retailers make more money out of drivers from every litre of fuel they sell by "keeping pump prices artificially high”.
RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: "This is a galling situation for drivers who are struggling more than ever given the impacts of the wider cost-of-living crisis."
Kyle says that high fuel prices hugely impact their drivers, affecting their business ‘catastrophically’.
He said: “Being a taxi driver, fuel is very very expensive - you can’t imagine the amount of petrol that taxi drivers get through - and those savings make a great difference.”
He added that fuel costs also affects their customers, as the taxi firm has no other choice but to increase fare prices in light of the high fuel costs.
Kyle said: “If fuel prices went down, we could charge the public less, because it wouldn’t cost us as much per mile to transport the customer, so therefore, it helps the economy.”
Metro Cars had not increased their fares for five years, but they were forced to increase them four times in the past one year and a half.
Simon added that these high prices can impact the economy, and that the Government should take a look at that.
He said: "We urge the Government to focus on ensuring retailers quickly pass on savings to drivers every time there is significant downward movement in the wholesale price of fuel - not just to ensure drivers aren't treated unfairly, but also because there is a clear correlation between high fuel prices and higher levels of inflation."