According to campaigners and some MPs, the UK needs a petrol and diesel watchdog to monitor filling-station prices and to stop motorists getting ‘taken for a ride by greedy oil companies’.
An online petition for an independent body called ‘PumpWatch’ comes from the motoring campaign organisation FairFuelUK and has the support of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Fair Fuel for Motorists and Hauliers (APPG). However, do taxpayers want another quango to oversee fuel prices like the scrutiny faced by utility providers and would such a committee truly save drivers money at the pumps?
VAT bonanza
Studies of data by the groups suggest that wholesale unleaded and diesel costs dropped by 14 and 13 per cent for petrol and diesel respectively, with average pump prices only falling by seven and three per cent, and pump prices 4-5p more expensive than required.
FairFuelUK says, in the first nine months of last year, the retail profit of petrol averaged at 8p per litre and 8.6p per litre for diesel, increasing to 13.27p per litre on petrol and 11p per litre for diesel in the last quarter of 2018.
Read PetrolPrices.com fuel price review of 2018 here.
Fuel retailers haven’t passed these savings on to motorists, earning the fuel industry £600million more in profit and—as put by FairFuelUK—a ‘VAT bonanza’ to the Treasury of an extra £100 million in tax revenue.
Established by political lobbyist and secretary to the APPG, Howard Cox and managed by motoring broadcaster Quentin Willson, FairFuelUK says PumpWatch would inform drivers about wholesale oil prices and pressure retailers to pass on savings due to motorists when prices drop.
You’ve been quangoed
The APPG suggested petrol stations that charge ‘fair prices‘ would have the right to display a kitemark logo, but Brian Madderson, Chairman of Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), said while the idea might be ‘well-meaning’, it would be ‘pretty impracticable’, saying:
“Who is going to check prices at 8,500 forecourts? And if you have a kitemark, what’s going to be the acceptable margin?”
He described the PumpWatch proposal as ‘totally impracticable and nonsensical’, noting that it isn’t the first time both FairFuelUK and the APPG have called for such a supervisory body— and had it rejected by the government.
Mr Madderson added: “The proper body to look into unfair pricing of retail fuel would be the Competition and Markets Authority. It has no plans to launch a new inquiry as its previous inquiry found no evidence to support anti-competitive pricing allegations.”
He added: “No Government body or quango should be in a position to enforce control of fuel margins across such disparate businesses as this would undermine free market principles.
“If a motorist does not like the price at any particular filling station, he or she has plenty of other price options—thanks to the free market which should continue without interference,” and pointed out that low-volume petrol stations in rural areas needed a much higher profit margin than those forecourts selling high volumes of fuel.
“If people don’t like high prices, they can go to a cheaper forecourt,” he added.
Meanwhile, supporters of PumpWatch say motorists need to feel reassured they aren’t paying too much for petrol and diesel and say the proposed watchdog would mean fuel retailers charge people in rural areas the fairest prices.
FairFuelUK’s Howard Cox said: “When oil prices rise and fall, millions of drivers have no idea what, subsequently, they will pay at the pumps each time they fill up their vehicles. It is never the same price, even when the cost of oil is stable. There is no consistency, logic or clarity to the way the pump prices are calculated. It remains a closely guarded secret in the fuel supply chain.
“If gas, electricity, water and telecoms get price protection bodies, why shouldn’t motorists have one too?
“We need ‘PumpWatch’ now, to ensure pricing fairness to both consumers and hardworking fuel retailers too.”
Creating a diversion?
Quangos, or to give them their full name — Quasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisations — are organisations funded by taxpayers, but not under direct control of central government.
While certain quangos are a good thing — because it’s better for people who aren’t politicians to carry out certain actions — many say they‘re often mere political schemes, which cost taxpayers billions of pounds each year to operate.
While motorists may, at first, see a watchdog for diesel and petrol prices as a positive move for the consumer, the fact is that fuel retailers take the smallest part of the mark-up because the price of fuel is already so expensive before reaching the forecourt, leaving little room for a large profit margin.
Many drivers hit back at the news of the proposal saying fuel retailers aren’t alone in ‘chronic opportunistic profiteering’; so too are the government who take huge profits in the form of both fuel duty and VAT. Some drivers have even suggested a ‘fuel tax watchdog’ would be more useful to bring fuel duty down to a more reasonable level.
Another common public response to the call for a petrol and diesel regulator seems to be that consumers can already find the cheapest fuel in their area by using services provided by websites and apps like ours. If you haven’t already, download the app today, so you always know where to get the cheapest petrol and diesel in your area.
What’s your view of the proposed ‘PumpWatch’? Would a fuel price watchdog affect how much you pay for petrol or diesel? Let us know your opinions in the comments.
Well now, there’s a surprise, oil companies (who make the profits for their greedy shareholders) and the government (which levies the VAT) not happy at the thought of this happening. On the other hand, anyone working for the quango would probably be handsomely paid. If they were voluntary positions … aaaah dreamland!
It is the shareholding invested by organisations that fund must of the pension schemes in the UK. The greedy ones are the directors not the ordinary shareholder.
Stories like this are becoming boring. Fuel wholesalers and retailers will charge the motorist whatever they want to, and there’s not a damn thing that we as motorists can do about it. The Government isn’t going to intervene because the revenue raised from VAT increases by £millions a day for every penny that fuel increases by. The simple truth is, if you drive a vehicle in this Country, which the vast majority have to do, you’re going to be ripped off, by Government, by fuel companies, by parking companies, by airports, the list goes on and on
The point that was made in the article above is that in the country side fuel is dearer because of the lack of volume. So how is it that were I live in a town, one petrol station charges 10p per litre more than another one 200 metres away?? It is called rip of Briton!!!
So why don’t you go to the cheaper one?!
Because and cheapest net have secret understandings with competitors.
Go to the cheaper station
With the attitude that we cant do anything, then nothing will get done. You seem to forget that we vote for people who should be doing what we want. If they aren’t get rid That why people rebelled and voted for brexit. I’m not saying that was right. People are starting to realise and we have started to speak up. Apathy kills everything. What is needed are people with verve.
Absolutely agree, the general population have no impetus in them to make their voice known to the government, they’d rather annoy their neighbors than do something constructive with the rest of us, because its easier!
Buy electric
You can do something SELL YOUR CAR there are other means of transport remember them
Unfortunately you are 100% correct
Some kind of regulation is required as every fuel increase (or decrease) is usually 1p per litre. If fuel were still sold in gallons this would have meant that each increase would have been 4.5p per gallon, and this would have caused a public outcry! Fuel companies have really been able to cash in since decimalisation. Im not advocating a return to gallons, but perhaps each increase could be restricted to .2p per week or per month.
Terry, you are conflating 2 totally separate things. Decimalisation refers to when the UK changed from the old style money to its current format – everything being divisible by 10, 100, 1000 etc. This happened on 15th February 1971. Whereas the change from selling fuel in gallons to litres began in the mid-1980s and became official on 1st January 1995.
Who is going to check prices at 8,500 forecourts? Petrolprices.com of course. The system is already in place!
If we all stick together and boycott a particular station or company for a month they would be crying in their beer! Then we move to another supplier and do the same.
Doubt it they make next to nothing on fuel
Exactly, people power will win ultimately, but most British people can’t be bothered or they earn too much to not be concerned about it!
Well they only show prices for a few forecourts round me. Lots of them don’t show up when I do a search…and half of them are locked out unless I pay for a premium subscription. It would be a nice little earner for them wouldn’t it!
So the chairman of the PRA says “shop around” if you don’t like high prices. Sensible suggestion apart from the slight problem of virtually every station maintaining an artificial and totally unjustified 12p a litre differential between petrol and diesel until very recently.
Then boycott the station. If you and lots of others dont buy from them for a month or so the greedy idiots will soon lose and think about it!
You seem to well into ‘boycotting’ and “we” Leo, judging by your contributions here. It is down to individuals using their own brains and if used sensibly then the “offending” seller will need to look at what is going wrong for them. Simples. Shop around.
Try living in a rural area, often you find that a tanker driving 15-20 miles into the country can cost an extra 5p per litre at the pump.
SHOPPING AROUND IS ALL RIGHT ,IF YOU HAVE FILLING STATIONS WITHIN A GIVEN DISTANCE.
TESCO HERE IS £1.26per litre, foe diesel yet tesco at Calne is 3p cheaper but the distance is 15miles from where i live.
As the person behind the counter, said tesco can charge what they lie as no other filling station in town.
If the following idea were to be implemented then we drivers could literally be “in the drivers seat” over the cost of fuel.
Select one of the major garage out lets. On a nominated day, say five days hence, ALL drivers should put a total embargo through out the country on purchasing fuel from those outlets. With absolutely no revenue coming in, it would not take long for the company concerned to make some form of reaction to reduce their pricing structure. With their prices being at a vast decrease, this could possibly result in many additional drivers, who may not have used their product in the past, swapping to them. Additionally, maybe then all the remaining suppliers may be forced to review their own position.
The only problem I can envisage is the initial company may swiftly turn on their legal departments to take action against the proposers.
All we need to do is boycott “shell” for a month no matter what the other prices are and then pick another the month after. Believe me if they sold very little they would take notice.
BP are the biggest rip off merchants, boycott them first.
The problem is that Major chains have varying prices purported to be based on geographical (within 3 or 5 miles) comparisons so all the Esso stations for example will have differing prices. We are being milked obviously but I find it strange why the Government fail to recognise this or find evidence. Regretfully we are a captive market, perhaps driving very slowly around Parliament for for few weeks might focus minds but I doubt it,
The fuel prices that really need to be controlled are those on motorways. In the North East, most motorway service stations have been charging 20ppl more than non motorway fuel garages.
You are correct in this as can be seen on the A1, the Granada services at Birtley/washington are a great example of this as approx 3 to 4 miles north of it is the team valley with a Sainsburys supermarket right next to the A1 where the difference in prices for fuel is astoundingly cheaper than Granada, so for anyone driving north it’s the first slip road after the angel of the north and the last before passing the angel for those travelling south after the long bend round the team valley trading estate.
If Corbyn’s lot get in I would take a punt on them introducing such a quango. Pumpwatch are it seems arrogantly taking the view that people are too thick to simply see prices shown at filling stations and choose which one to go to to.
This is the only thing that gets priced in tenths of a penny! This is deception! Most people only see “£118” not “£118.9” which is really “£119” no other system uses this. Why are they given leave to do this? How come we are allowed to get ripped off like this? You dont go into a supermarket and buy beans for “£0.89.9” pence!! We need this brought up and a petition to sort this out! Put me down first.
The signs Are highly visible Leo and people have brains so they can see that Or do you think they we are all stupid and don’t know how the stuff is advertised? Your next suggestion I guess is to outlaw this practice and thus drive the human race (in UK) further down the road of Nanny State intervention and thus deadening our brains and abilities to work things out for ourselves.
Do you have anything else to suggest other than to be negative about others comments and suggest words that they have not said just to make yourself sound important? You end up sounding supercilious and just mean spirited. Try reflection and then add value
So nothing cost 19s 11d back in the sixties?
Of course you could because 1d existed as currency back then, but Leo’s point is that 0.9p is not any form of legal tender, so if you bought one litre of petrol at £1.209, that is not the price you would pay.
What I want to know as how can two stations of the same comoany in the same town charge different prices one say is £1.25 the other charges £1.30 the same tanker delivered it. The stores charge the same for milk ir butter but why the diversity with fuel.
Could be there’s competition locally (within a mile) for milk and butter and not for fuel. There’s nothing to stop them charging different prices for milk and butter etc too!
It would help if the majority of the price at the pump wasn’t tax – fuel duty plus VAT including VAT on the duty!
As for the rest it’s simple supply and demand. Tesco for instance will ensure they don’t charge more than any other within a mile – it’s then a simple calculation that an extra penny or 2 doesn’t make it worth driving further to fill up but push it too much higher and people will drive an extra couple of miles. Similarly motorway service stations take advantage of a largely captive market (like airport food outlets) relying on laziness of drivers who either don’t fill up before hitting the motorway or aren’t willing to leave the motorway briefly to find somewhere cheaper. Similarly stations near to refineries are generally cheaper than those in the middle of nowhere as it costs less to replenish them.
Be careful what you wish for with price regulation. France experienced butter shortages in 2017 because prices paid by supermarkets to suppliers are fixed annually. As butter prices went up due to supply and demand issues the French producers simply chose to sell abroad (benefit of EU single market) leaving French supermarket shelves bare of butter.
Where I live (Maidenhead), prices have always been higher than the surrounding areas, because there is no supermarket petrol available (unless I go to High Wycombe or Slough). Making a journey of 5-10 miles to go to a different town rather defeats the object as we use more fuel just to get there, and this has always seemed to me to be extremely unfair. Even within Maidenhead the prices vary from high to outrageously high, and I am always amazed how many people still fill up at the highest price stations (I suppose some are company cars with company fuel paid for). People need to vote with their feet (or wheels) and boycott these fuel company cash cows. In my area the worst offender is Esso.
ESSO and BP are the two biggest culprits but Jet who where originaly set up to be lower priced option than the big retailers are every bit as bad
My local ESSO fuel court sells more diesel in a day than most do in a month as it’s the only fuel court in the area that HGVs and Lorries can use, it’s also highly used by company vans and car drivers, so going by the usual market economy of more sales resulting in lower prices then why is it that this one is the exact opposite and in more than 90% of the time the most expensive station in the area …. Note their petrol is usually cheaper than anywhere else in the area……
So the Competition and Markets Authority has no plans for a new inquiry, it should have one to look at the at the price of crude ( a futures market ), is for delivery in two months, so why when the price of crude goes up, the pump price goes up immediately but when it goes down we have to wait at least a month or two before the pump price comes back down most of the time by not as much as it went up? So the oil companies are making extra profit during this period. Also it should look into why there is postcode pricing,unlike ASDA who price NATIONALLY, who profits from this?
The price of crude at the moment is @51$ a barrel and Brent oil is @60$ a barrel. So why are we paying more per litre now against when crude went over the 100$ a barrel 3 – 4 years ago, what no price fixing?
The biggest gripe I have is with the excessive price hike at major motorway and trunk road filling stations. They take advantage of the fact that motorists don’t want the inconvenience of spending extra time leaving a major road to search in an adjacent town for a cheaper price. The biggest perpetrators of this scandal are BP and Shell. How can they justify 10p/litre extra and more in some cases, when supermarkets can offer competitive pricing ? If a Pricewatch system can address this
anomaly I’m all for it
I think we should have some kind of body reviewing. We kill the banks and fine them royally over and over again… why shouldn’t petrol retailers be subject to the same stringent oversight…. For example, my local Tesco (in a small village in South Lanarkshire) consistently charges more per ltr of fuel than its other stores… both locally (relatively) as well as across the UK. Why ? their wholesale buy price will be the same ? tIts because there is no competition within the village / surrounding area, the small guys shut down when they moved in…. so they are clearly profiteering and disadvantaging a rural community
I agree this might not be the way to go but experience shows that when left to the retailers one increases the price the others do like wise. What works is a National fuel price which works in Barbados. Doesn’t matter where you refuel it’s all the same price. This stops unnecessary pollution when drivers do unnecessary mileage shopping around. The worst thing that seems to be going unnoticed at the moment is the difference in price between diesel and petrol. The difference in cost to produce is minimal but can be as much as 10p a litre at the pump or more even with the lowest priced suppliers. It’s not the suppliers job to tax the motorist and I would prefer it to be tax. At least then it could be spent on the roads or Hospitals and not in the back pocket of some fat cat sailing his yaucht around the Carriabean.
this is absolutely outrageous.
“we” have a group of people “trying” to protect the interests of the motorists (FairFuelUK ) by going after the oil companies. when the oil companies make a profit of 8-15p per litre.
instead of going after the government for the 60-70% tax rate on a NON-LUXURY good
go after the government to make petrol be taxed the same way as other goods first (20% vat only) first. because we all know those 60-70p per litre we are paying in tax ARE NOT GOING INTO THE ROADS
The only way to act is to boycott overly expensive garages.
The only way to action is boycott expensive garages / service stations
With 75% tax on fuel it’s the government that is greedy, not anyone else in the fuel game. if the oil company or retailer put their price up government earns even more than they do!
What a load of wallies – create another Quango with cushy jobs and protected pensions – NO NO. And a kitemark, what rubbish.
What’s wrong with a bit of common sense – just open your eyes, look around at prices – that tells you if you are being taken to the cleaners (a la motorways etc). Make individuals take responsibility, certainly when it’s as simple and visually obvious as this. No more nanny state please.
Can we have a similar ‘scheme’ for bottled water, beer, crisps, chocolate, breakfast cereals …….? If you don’t believe in a free market, say so, and join a/the Communist Party. If fuel retailing is so lucrative, why not form local cooperatives and buy or build a fuel outlet? You can then ‘party away’ the profits!
How is it petrol stations can have .9 of a pence in their pricing it not leagal tender as .9 does not exist if you buy 1 litre you don’t get .1 pence change
Find a cheaper station, that’s a joke, the eight around my area vary their prices by 0.02p per litre the only one which is different charges 10p a litre more, so I have a really great range of prices to choose from, I don’t think so!
Brian Madderson we live in the technology age where this is possible maybe you need replacing and need leaving behind and bring in someone more forward thinking .
This needs to be regulated ASAP
Where i live there is a filling station that is about 5p more than other places in the area it’s greed that motivates this place.
What gets my goat is the fact that VAT is being added AFTER fuel duty. This is effectively a tax applied to a tax, and governments have been doing this despite it being against EU rules, because VAT is only supposed to be applied to goods and services, both of which are something completely different to tax/duty. Not even the self-serving motoring organisations have objected to this practice.
They should do away with the point 9 of a penny per litre. In 1970s petrol firms successfully got government to do away with half-penny prices as it was below the tolerance allowed. It is virtually impossible to measure 0.1pence of fuel.
If filling with 40 litres of fuel, the difference between fully penny and point nine of a penny is 4 pence out of some £50.
With more modern technology, it is more easier to set pumps to bottom end of tolerance so you don’t get a full litrethat you pay for.
More ripping off motorists. When dealing with millions of motorists and litres of fuel, it adds up for companies.
We had a new retailer open up recently in our area its a massive esso station they started at 118. 9 a litre and as a result ever other petrol station including the supermarkets responded accordingly lowering their prices yes there may be a coincidence or fuel prices dropped anyway but a station less than a minute away dropped from one of the most expensive in the area to match the price of the new station so competition does affect prices for how long I don’t know but again I think the Government needs to reduce the duty it takes on fuel but it would probably have a knock on else where but again you can’t avoid the greater costs of living in the UK in general it needs to come down and if you start saying regulate petrol prices next people will be asking for a body to set the amount of rent a landlord can charge which is a lot of people’s biggest cost although motoring is a very close second
All the best everyone
most people don’t think where to buy fuel “” O “” it’s low and stop at the next station on route, not planning there fill-up at all. many of us pass 3 or 4 station to fill-up I have 3 stations in my town that are way over priced I never buy fuel at them I gt fuel about 7 miles away at the best price for good fuel it has 12 to 16 pumps it all way business. so I say think before you leave home and plan you refuel, don’t top-up a fiver to do the school run put 30 in for all week…..
Probably not a good idea to regulate the price, where would it stop regulating food prices and clothes prices?
However to say it is not possible to regulate fuel prices is nonsense, It has been done in South Africa for years. The selling price there is regulated by the government, with minor variations allowed for remoter towns and villages.
How can places like Grimsby charge more for the fuel when there are refineries with in about 15 miles of there and in Birmingham where I live is about 5-10 ppl cheaper????
The watchdog need powers to regulate prices from Suppliers in accordance with oil prices.
I support the idea of Pumpwatch or something similar. The trouble with arguing that the market will ensure forecourt prices remain competitive is that it overlooks the tendency of retailers in a given area (eg mine, in Dorset) to operate “cartels” that keep prices high. In my view, Petrol Prices should consider that rather than simply accepting the arguments of the industry at face value.
Most garages have big signs telling us their prices before we even get onto their forecourts, which is a far easier way to compare prices than for most of our shopping. Why can’t the government stop interfering where it’s not needed and do what is necessary?
I have listened repeatedly to the official justification for fuel duty attracting VAT but I have trouble with the idea of double taxation. Are we British the only victims of the pernicious practice? Are the citizens of other countries similarly bled by their governments?
The Highways Agency had experimental electronic roadside signs on the M5 southbound outside Bristol. These showed the four prices available at the services on the road. Surprise, surprise – every services had its prices the same as all the others. So much for competition keeping prices low. The signs had disappeared by Christmas 2018.
If garages were made to show price per gallon, motorists would quickly notice the bigger difference. I have seen as much as a £1 difference per gallon in gallon prices.
Thing is if you live a long way from several cheap petrol stations and the nearest is just up the road, its hardly worth shopping around if you have to travel for 20 miles up the road to choose one to use.
By reading all the comments here, it just seems to me, that this government, will get away with exploiting this country for years to come, big company’s will get away with it, because none of us are willing to stand together and fight these rising cost, because people with money don’t give a s, and others are able to claim it back, so those of us who need are car to get to work, that don’t earn a lot, will pay the price, petrol is far to high, it has gone up and up, yet a barrel of oil has gone down, boycotting is workable, but unable to do unless we all do it.
The Government will never do anything real about prices charged because of the revenue they get from these petrol companies. The fact that no two forecourts charge the same, makes the idea of a roving watchdog basically pointless as prices change sometimes on a daily basis, which of course they should not as what is being sold was bought at a different price to what is being charged wholesale on that day, so any overnight increases are in the main, are morally illegal.
There is only one sure way to bring prices down and this has been suggested many times but never acted upon, the public themselves could force prices down, by simply not filling or topping up at any of the big boys forecourts nation wide, the losses to them would be felt very quickly by them due to the millions being lost in revenue on a daily basis, we are talking BIG figures here, fill up at the supermarkets instead for a while one thing is for sure they will fold long before the public does, this is one sure way of getting them to get real with their prices.
What is the use of shopping around when the garages match their prices against each other? They even display notices to that effect!
In France, on the motorways, signs are displayed which give the brands and prices for the next couple of service areas. Here, you don’t see them till you drive up to the pump!
OVER THE PAST FEW MONTHS THE PRICE OF CRUDE OIL HAS WENT FROM 75 DOLLARS A BARREL TO 61 DOLLAR S BUT THE PRICE OF A LITRE HAS STAYED AT £1.37 AND THIS NEVER SEEMS TO COME DOWN WE HAVE ALL BEEN TAKEN FOR MUGS AGAIN
It frankly makes no sense to me that vital commodities like oil, gas, petrol and food are not price regulated. These resources are so vital for modern human society that it is unacceptable for their prices to be regulated merely by the free market. What is also unacceptable is the huge profit margins oil companies and refineries are making in the high oil price environment we have now. We live in an energy crisis and fuel is at record prices but refineries have on average 5 xed their profit margins on petrol and diesel…
Why are we in Milton Keynes, paying more for petrol/ diesel, than anywhere else, I mean 3- 12 pence per litre more, 99% of garage’s, different names, charge the same amount, ( sounds like a scam)
Mk petrol £146.9 per litre Bedford £142.9 litre, I went to Lincolnshire Sunday, on a dual carriageway I paid £132.5 a litre.
Which sounds about the right price…!!!