The independently-owned sites set their own prices; by law, we cannot tell them what to charge. They can be more expensive than company-owned sites, because they are small businesses and tend to be smaller sites with lower throughput, so to cover running costs they need to include a higher margin. However, to be competitive, they cannot be too far out of sync with other local competitors. Otherwise you will choose to go elsewhere.
Petrol prices vs diesel prices
Demand for diesel is growing in the UK and Europe, as well as globally. This demand has had a major impact upon the wholesale price, with diesel being higher than petrol, particularly during winter months.
The EU as a whole has a diesel deficit of close to 35 million tonnes per year that is met largely by imports from Russia. In the last year, the differential in wholesale prices of diesel and petrol has widened to over $100 per tonne or more at times, equivalent to over 10p per litre. This differential between diesel and unleaded petrol is reflected in pump prices at filling stations.
UKPIA Briefing Paper - petrol vs diesel prices 2010 (PDF, 92.66 KB) - opens in new window
Regional
Prices can vary from region to region. If this happens, this is due to a range of factors such as distance from the refinery / distribution terminal to the petrol station and the number of customers in the region. Greater distance means higher transport costs, while fewer customers means higher margins to cover costs. Despite this, at sites where we set the price, we are on average the cheapest of the oil majors. You can see our performance on Forecourt Trader - opens in new window.
Rural pricing
Fuel is often more expensive in rural areas. These sites tend to be smaller petrol stations with a lower population density, throughput and further away from distribution terminals. All these factors increase costs and thus the pump price.
