Petrol and diesel prices - how much have you been paying?

[ChrisC]

People aren't cutting down on discretionary trips. They aren't even driving more economically.

I haven’t really taken note of whether people are driving more economically but I certainly haven’t noticed any less cars on the road. Only this afternoon I drove a few miles to a garden centre and the roads seemed to be even busier than usual.

 

[AM9]

Not sure about that. I drove a reasonable distance on dual carriageways for the first time in a while today. I stuck to the speed limit and was often in the outside lane overtaking people driving more slowly. Usually there'd be a beamer or Audi up my jacksy and shoving past at 85+. Not today.
Fastest car I saw was a Polestar doing well over 80.
Roads were quite busy.

There was an independent garage owner on the Today programme saying people were buying less and filling less often. Said a delivery usually lasts her 7 to 10 days but currently lasts her about 3 weeks.

So good news for the environment then.

 

[jon0844]

I'm hearing a lot less street racing at night on my local business park. Sure, it could be the police clamping down but I'm not sure.

There have been less 'takeovers' of local multi storey car parks too. Again, possibly down to police patrols and enforcement.

Or maybe there actually are some positives from the high fuel costs. That's certainly not to say that if people are driving less, they aren't still driving fast when they are choosing to drive!

 

[AM9]

I'm hearing a lot less street racing at night on my local business park. Sure, it could be the police clamping down but I'm not sure.

There have been less 'takeovers' of local multi storey car parks too. Again, possibly down to police patrols and enforcement.

Or maybe there actually are some positives from the high fuel costs. That's certainly not to say that if people are driving less, they aren't still driving fast when they are choosing to drive!

Just wait until there are EVs charging around the Galleria car park, acceleration will be the issue then.

 

[Howardh]

If workers can't afford to get to work, now is the perfect time to enhance the bus and train services so there is an alternative. Tax is a % of fuel, so the higher the base cost the more tax is taken (??) so a chance to divert money to public transport?

 

[jon0844]

Just wait until there are EVs charging around the Galleria car park, acceleration will be the issue then.

Yeah, but as I said - there's been a lot less of late.. business park, Galleria, WGC car parks and underpass, Tesco.. flying along my street in and out of the chicanes.

I am sure people are still racing and doing doughnuts somewhere, but maybe not travelling up the A1(M) to do so.

Perhaps this is just anecdotal evidence and doesn't mean anything, but it does seem odd now the weather is nicer and you'd expect more people out in their cars.

 

[RichJF]

I still can't get my head around family & coworkers bashing my little Fiat. Apparently I have no self respect for driving around in a rust bucket, yet they moan about the fuel cost of their leased SUVs & diesel 4x4s Sure my car is a bit old (2006) & has a few scratches, but it's cheap, costs under £50 to fill up & gets 400 miles a tank & is dirt cheap to run/insure.

Maybe high fuel costs & the cost of living will change people's opinion that you NEED a new car despite an older, reliable, ULEZ exempt runaraound being just as good? Am I alone in this?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Tax is a % of fuel, so the higher the base cost the more tax is taken (??) so a chance to divert money to public transport?

Good point. If fuel is priced at £1.80 per litre at the pump, reckon that makes 97p as the cost of the fuel (including the profit margin), 53p is the fuel duty, and 30p is VAT.

If the price goes up to £2.10 per litre, the fuel cost will now be 122p per litre, 53p will still be the duty, and 35p is now VAT.

So essentially, every 6p per litre increase in the price at the pump yields an extra 1p per litre in VAT.

 

[Howardh]

I still can't get my head around family & coworkers bashing my little Fiat. Apparently I have no self respect for driving around in a rust bucket, yet they moan about the fuel cost of their leased SUVs & diesel 4x4s Sure my car is a bit old (2006) & has a few scratches, but it's cheap, costs under £50 to fill up & gets 400 miles a tank & is dirt cheap to run/insure.

Maybe high fuel costs & the cost of living will change people's opinion that you NEED a new car despite an older, reliable, ULEZ exempt runaraound being just as good? Am I alone in this?

My car, Hyundai i10, 5 years old, 16,000 on the clock, over 50 miles/gallon and £20 annual road tax. Chugs along the motorway quite happily at 55/60mph, watching the 4x4's overtake at 80 which is probably costing them double the cost that I pay for fuel.

 

[PeterY]

I still can't get my head around family & coworkers bashing my little Fiat. Apparently I have no self respect for driving around in a rust bucket, yet they moan about the fuel cost of their leased SUVs & diesel 4x4s Sure my car is a bit old (2006) & has a few scratches, but it's cheap, costs under £50 to fill up & gets 400 miles a tank & is dirt cheap to run/insure.

Maybe high fuel costs & the cost of living will change people's opinion that you NEED a new car despite an older, reliable, ULEZ exempt runaraound being just as good? Am I alone in this?

I drive an old (52 reg) Suzuki Alto. While it keeps passing the MOT I'll hang on to it. It gets me around but I nearly fell over this morning, nearly £24 to top it up . It doubled the value of my little car .I normally drive about 3,000 a year.

 

[Eyersey468]

I have a 15 reg Focus 1.5tdci with 104k on the clock which I bought last August and does everything I need. During my week in Northumberland it did around 870 miles using £160 in diesel, so I can't complain about the fuel consumption

 

[GS250]

If workers can't afford to get to work, now is the perfect time to enhance the bus and train services so there is an alternative. Tax is a % of fuel, so the higher the base cost the more tax is taken (??) so a chance to divert money to public transport?

Again...I can only agree.

However I don't think the wider public will accept being forced onto public transport where as the top 5% will continue to drive. That is effectively taking physical and social mobility traits back 75+ years.

 

[Kite159]

If workers can't afford to get to work, now is the perfect time to enhance the bus and train services so there is an alternative. Tax is a % of fuel, so the higher the base cost the more tax is taken (??) so a chance to divert money to public transport?

For me the cost of fuel will probably need to go to something like £3 a litre before using public transport (train followed by a bus followed by a mile walk into the depths of an army camp). Taking a lot longer than the average commute of 15 minutes (along roads I wouldn't dream of riding my bike due to being mostly 60mph)

 

[trebor79]

However I don't think the wider public will accept being forced onto public transport where as the top 5% will continue to drive. That is effectively taking physical and social mobility traits back 75+ years.

Would that be a bad thing?
I'd happily use the bus if it ran at a useful frequency rather than the once a day "service" we get.

 

[Eyersey468]

Would that be a bad thing?
I'd happily use the bus if it ran at a useful frequency rather than the once a day "service" we get.

I work in the bus industry and sadly rural buses are often a chicken and egg situation, places that are off a main corridor don't get a good service as demand is so low, but because the service is so sparse it puts people off using what buses there are, which means there isn't much demand etc etc

 

[Howardh]

I work in the bus industry and sadly rural buses are often a chicken and egg situation, places that are off a main corridor don't get a good service as demand is so low, but because the service is so sparse it puts people off using what buses there are, which means there isn't much demand etc etc

We get that even in large towns, my area/ward of Bolton must have 30k living in it, and after six I won't say the buses disappear but you have to know the timetable so you don't have a long wait, and that may involve a long walk to the stops as "local" buses are infrequent and they do disappear after six.

Didn't Geoff Marshall do a piece r/e a kind-of ring and ride bus somewhere? Maybe with modern technology that could be extended, where buses running aroute could be divered to collect those clicking an app or something, if they are more than 1/4 mile from a stop?

But the extra income from tax should be paid directly to councils to run those very bus services which are part of the vicious circle; too few passengers - fewer services - even fewer passengers etc. That cycle has to stop.

 

[trebor79]

I work in the bus industry and sadly rural buses are often a chicken and egg situation, places that are off a main corridor don't get a good service as demand is so low, but because the service is so sparse it puts people off using what buses there are, which means there isn't much demand etc etc

Totally. I think we also need some degree of regulation. I used to live in Newark, Stagecoach ran most of the local bus service. Another company started a new route into town fromt he development where I lived. Stagecoach then started running the same route, at a lower cost to force the other operator out. Once that had been achieved, Stagecoach discontinued it. They just ruined the service because they could.

We get that even in large towns, my area/ward of Bolton must have 30k living in it, and after six I won't say the buses disappear but you have to know the timetable so you don't have a long wait, and that may involve a long walk to the stops as "local" buses are infrequent and they do disappear after six.

Didn't Geoff Marshall do a piece r/e a kind-of ring and ride bus somewhere? Maybe with modern technology that could be extended, where buses running aroute could be divered to collect those clicking an app or something, if they are more than 1/4 mile from a stop?

But the extra income from tax should be paid directly to councils to run those very bus services which are part of the vicious circle; too few passengers - fewer services - even fewer passengers etc. That cycle has to stop.

I think as a country we need to decide what the strategy is. It might be better overall to stop subsidising rural bus routes and divert that cash to improvements elsewhere. Equally, it might be worth investing in rural public transport to make it genuinely useful and used, and hopefully start to cover more of its costs over time.
It's a tricky one with lots of tradeoffs, but we don't even seem to have a strategy at the moment.

 

[dgl]

We have a little 2014 Micra here that my sister drives, 60mpg on longer drives (well that seems to be the maximum number it ever reads), so can't complain too much, still over £50 to fill the tank but the tank being full is a rarity!
We'll have it until it's no longer economical to fix, which given it's done over 130k and replacement of non wear items had set us back less than £500 so far it's proving is a good little car.

 

[johncrossley]

I work in the bus industry and sadly rural buses are often a chicken and egg situation, places that are off a main corridor don't get a good service as demand is so low, but because the service is so sparse it puts people off using what buses there are, which means there isn't much demand etc etc

There is too much fuss about rural services. The vast majority of people live in urban or suburban areas where public transport has great potential.

 

[GusB]

Didn't Geoff Marshall do a piece r/e a kind-of ring and ride bus somewhere? Maybe with modern technology that could be extended, where buses running aroute could be divered to collect those clicking an app or something, if they are more than 1/4 mile from a stop?

I think that was Go Coach, which operates a demand-responsive service somewhere. There was a video on YouTube about it, and there's a discussion thread here, although the idea seems to have more critics than proponents!

Demand Responsive Transport

Cheshire East are launching their on-demand rural service south-west of Nantwich on 4 October, called 'go-too'. Can be booked by app or phone and up to 14 days in advance, £3 per journey for adults and using two 16 seat minibuses. Runs between 7am and 9pm Monday to Saturday...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[johncrossley]

Has any country actually got a lot of people using demand responsive services?

 

[trebor79]

Has any country actually got a lot of people using demand responsive services?

When I went to New Zealand about 15 years ago there were a few such operations. Tended to be focussed around airport transfers.
Instead of one cab per person like here, you booked an airport transfer and told them what time your flight was. They'd pick you up at a prearranged time in a minibus towing a trailer for luggage. Worked quite well.
There was something similar in some of the rural areas that we used for getting around too.
New Zealand is very different to UK though. I could write happily have thrown away the return ticket!

 

[Kite159]

186.9 per litre for diesel in Andover Tesco this evening (filled up mum's Yeti after coming home from the dump).

 

[ainsworth74]

Nearly fell over the other day when the local independent's prices went up 10p in a week I have to say! Up in the mid/late 180s for both petrol and diesel now having been mid-170s only a week ago. Oh for the glory days when petrol was only 160p per litre...

Has any country actually got a lot of people using demand responsive services?

We have one around here. Seems to always be empty whenever I see it...

 

[Howardh]

Has any country actually got a lot of people using demand responsive services?

Probably not what you are looking for, but outside of summer an island called Formentera has a couple of bus routes and early/lates only ride if they are contacted the day before.

I suppose it's not far from the day we can hail private driverless electric cars!

Today I paid £1.80.9 at a Spar service station near Longridge, just off the M6.

 

[birchesgreen]

My local Shell has gone up 8 new pence in a week, blimey.

 

[jon0844]

I suppose it's not far from the day we can hail private driverless electric cars!

That's really not going to happen for a multitude of reasons!

 

[Howardh]

My local Shell has gone up 8 new pence in a week, blimey.

I'm trying to work that out in old pence, 1/8d?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I'm trying to work that out in old pence, 1/8d?

A half-farthing? That's not been legal tender in Britain for quite some time! (1870?)

 

[DelayRepay]

I've just filled up at Tesco. 5p more per litre than last time I filled up, just before the Jubilee bank holidays.

I had just over half a tank so wouldn't normally have bothered, but I expect the price to rise by at least another 5p/litre in the next week or so.

Oh for the days of lockdown when it was £1 per litre and a tank lasted about three months because we weren't allowed to go anywhere (I jest )