The UK’s biggest fuel retailers are overcharging for petrol and diesel, according to the RAC.
The motoring organisation said that prices were “far higher” than they should be after a decrease in wholesale costs.
In mid-October, the price of delivered wholesale unleaded hit 130p a litre while diesel rose to nearly 158p. Since then, prices have fallen significantly — petrol has dropped by 13p to 117p and diesel by 22p to 136p — but the biggest retailers haven’t been reducing their forecourt prices to the same extent.
The current average price of diesel at a supermarket is down 3p a litre from 187.54p at the end of October to 184.41p, while petrol has only gone down 4.4p from 165.36p to 160.96p.
“With many people struggling to put fuel in their cars it’s very sad to see the biggest fuel retailers taking advantage of their customers by charging far higher prices than they should be,” said RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams.
“This is unfortunately a perfect example of prices falling like a feather, the opposite of them rocketing up as soon as the wholesale price rises significantly.”
Williams highlighted a “remarkable lack of competition” among the four main supermarket fuel retailers.
“If one of the supermarkets were to lead a round of price cuts, the others would follow suit which, in turn, would bring the average price of fuel down for the benefit of drivers everywhere,” he added.
“As it stands, there are smaller, independent forecourts offering more competitive prices than supermarkets so drivers should shop around.”
