UK Petrol Sales down by 1.7bn litres

You don't have to be a genius to figure out that the current high fuel prices are forcing many motorists to re-think their driving - both amount of and how they drive.

But the scale of the cutbacks is still an impressive.

According to the AA, compared with the first six months of last year, this year revealed motorists have cut their petrol consumption by 15%.

That's 1.7bn litres less or put another way, 40,000 delivery rounds by fully laden tankers less.

That's affected the Treasury by £1bn in lost fuel duty. (source BBC)

There's lots you can do to cut down on your fuel use - try driving at 60 rather than 70mph, brake gently and accelerate gently - read the road ahead and plan in good time.

Removing access weight, roof boxes and racks, will all improve economy.

Try and combine separate small journeys into one longer outing.

Regular servicing, oil levels and tyre pressures can all add significant savings to your fuel bill.

Well done Motorists (albeit, many of us have had little choice but to reduce our fuel bills / consumption).

photo credit: futureatlas

Driving this Easter? It'll cost you £2 more per 100 miles...

Ironically, driving to work this morning, I heard the news that the AA had worked out that this Easter, motorists would be paying an extra £2 for every hundred miles they travelled.

With the average unleaded price now 135.79p a litre for petrol and 141.99p for diesel, petrol has gone up by 14.92p a litre compared with last Easter. Diesel has risen by 20.09p.

So on an average 50 litre tank refill is costing £7.46 more for petrol and £10.05 more for diesel.

The AA is now warning that the increased fuel costs will affect tourism and leisure industries as families think twice about making long journeys.

The record prices are in spite of oil being cheaper than in 2008.

With the Bank holidays already infamous for long traffic delays and huge amounts of holiday traffic, perhaps we really will be better off spending this holiday at home?

Whatever you do, have a safe and happy Easter.

Note: Our regular Blogger is taking a well deserved few days off so our next post will be on Tuesday May 3rd.

In the meantime, all our instant quoting websites are ready and waiting to give you an instant online quote and our customer advisors will be on hand to answer your queries after you've got your online quotation throughout the Easter and Royal Wedding holiday period.

photo credit: jeff turner

fuel prices rising a penny a day

If it wasn't such a tragic tale of human conflict, Monty Python would have probably summed the Middle East problems up as 'trouble at 't mill' (and no, I don't want a spanish inquisition into it!).

Truth is, it is a tragic humanitarian story unfolding - our thought and prayers are with them all.

I mention it because the 'conflict' is being blamed for the everyday rising prices in petrol and diesel at the pumps. Radio news this morning reckoned the average price was £1.40 a litre - that's heading for £6 a gallon territory.

Our own local fuel station in Buxton, Derbyshire, has been pretty competitive in recent months with prices for petrol at £1.24.9 a litre and diesel at £129.9 a litre respectively, but I noticed that from last Thursday, the price has increased by a 1p each day. I would say prices at £133.9 for diesel are still competitive but on a full tank, we're still talking a couple of pounds more.

Which leads me to my final point today - I very recently purchased a (uses) turbo diesel Skoda Ocatavia, as my daily commute to the offices is a round trip of just over 80 miles.

I thought the added mpg of the diesel would benefit my pocket as well as the environment and on the former, I've been pleasantly surprised, averaging over 51 mpg.

Are diesels more or less environmentally friendly? That's harder to judge perhaps, but for a big family car to squeeze so much out of a tankful has got to be good for overall fuel consumption (as a nation of car lovers).

So I guess my question is..... why aren't more people driving diesel fuelled cars?

photo credit: matthias