Proactive Investors - Prices for petrol and diesel have risen by 10p a litre this year so far, according to the RAC, adding £5.50 to the cost of filling up a family car.
Drivers are being “seriously overcharged for diesel” with retailers making “massive margins” added the monitoring organisation, which has again called on the UK’s competition authority to clamp down on what it says is clear overcharging.
The lowest prices for both fuels in 2024 were recorded on 16 January at 139.7p and 147.6p respectively and since then the cost has risen to 149.95p and 157.7p on average.
Regional differences are another issue with oil giants BP (LON:BP) and Shell (LON:SHEL) highlighted for the discrepancies in their pricing.
“Looking at the forecourts operated by the two big oil companies – BP and Shell – there is also a vast difference between their high and low prices at the end of April.
“For petrol, BP’s price spread was 24p while Shell’s was 28p. The difference between BP’s cheapest and most expensive diesel was a shocking 30p while for Shell it was 28p.”
The RAC wants a monitoring body to be part of the incoming Pumpwatch price transparency scheme to eliminate such differences, highlighting Northern Ireland as somewhere prices are consistently 5p cheaper across the board.
“Worryingly, the CMA’s warning shot about higher retailer margins at the end of March appears to have fallen on deaf ears, meaning drivers are once again being seriously overcharged for diesel.”
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