PetrolPrices now has a new website, helping new members understand what we do and how we do it. We’ve enhanced existing features and created new ones, including:
This is just one small step towards making the service smarter and more effective at saving you money on the road. It’ll probably be a bumpy ride, so put your seatbelt on and enjoy the trip.
Predicting petrol prices in an increasingly unpredictable world isn’t an easy thing to do! However, that doesn’t mean we cannot try.
As we head into 2017, it’s inevitable that we’ll wonder what the new year may have in store for motorists, so in this article, we’ve summarised some of the things we think may come to pass.
Clearly, our predictions can be little more than conjecture, especially as they become more long-term, so please take them in the light-hearted manner intended. It will be fun to look back on these in a year’s time and see just how educated our “educated guesses” turned out to be!
After seeing petrol prices shoot up in December, we think it’s likely there may be some stabilisation as we head into the New Year, particularly by the end of January – when the world will be watching the inauguration of President Donald Trump.
Once Trump takes the keys to the White House, there’s a strong possibility that there will be downward pressure on the oil price, which will hopefully lead to falling petrol prices. While time will tell exactly what kind of protectionist decisions Trump makes, a pro-fossil fuels and pro-fracking president is likely to want to boost national production, which could put pressure on OPEC and other nations to lift their production caps to compete.
While it’s impossible to predict how financial markets will react, there’s also a chance the Dollar will fall once Trump takes office. If it does, this could also contribute to cheaper consumer fuel in the UK.
The 20th March is the first day of spring in the UK, and the end of March is Theresa May’s target date for invoking Article 50 to begin Britain’s withdrawal from the EU. As such, it’s likely British eyes will turn away from the US and back to more local matters by the time the clocks change!
It’s almost impossible to predict what will happen to petrol prices around the invocation of Article 50, especially because we don’t know at the time of writing whether it will definitely be invoked in March at all. If it is, there’s a change it may result in another fall in Sterling, which is likely to push petrol prices up – to what degree is impossible to say. If it seems as if the UK may be heading for a “soft” Brexit, we could see the opposite happen, with Sterling strengthening and fuel prices falling instead.
Spring will also be time for another budget – the last before the spring budget becomes the “Spring Statement.” With all eyes likely to be firmly on Brexit, another fuel duty freeze seems most likely at this point.
One thing the budget is likely to address, however, is a way to finally deal with the nation’s lack of progress against emissions targets. The likelihood is that the spring budget won’t be a happy one for diesel drivers.
The Geneva Motor Show takes place in summer 2017, and we expect electric cars to be big news. While there are only 1.5 Million electric cars globally (at the time of writing) and 1 Billion fuel driven vehicles, electric car adoption is growing ten times faster. This could go as far as affecting fuel prices if oil producers begin to worry about a potentially shrinking market.
As we head to Autumn 2017 our predictions must, by their nature, be somewhat bolder but potentially less accurate!
Britain will have its first Autumn budget, and we predict it could prove to be one of the most important budgets in recent history. The Chancellor will need a stimulus package for the next year that will reduce the national debt burden. However, he will also have to invest in growth to offset inflationary pressure and increase productivity.
At this point, we’re into the realms of educated guesswork, but we cautiously predict that the Chancellor will make a huge bet that the value of the Pound will rally against the Dollar. Combined with Trump’s USA increasing oil production capacity, this should bring fuel prices down. However, after eight years of fuel duty freezes, we can’t help but wonder if there’s not a good chance the government will finally raise this duty by 2.05 pence to make it 60 pence per litre.
2017 is going to be another difficult year for fuel prices with many significant events taking place that could impact costs – upwards or downwards.
While it seems highly unlikely that we’ll see extremes of pricing near the 145 pence per litre levels of 2012, we do expect prices to reach between 120-130 pence per litre at certain points in 2017.
So now, over to you! What do you think of our predictions, and what are yours? Let us know in the comments section below!
IMAGE CREDITS: Pexels,
Geograph, Rich Tea, cc-by-sa2.0
Geograph, David Crocker, cc-by-sa2.0
The past year was nothing if not eventful in many respects! We’ve seen a vote to leave the EU (complete with no shortage of political drama in the aftermath), and the controversial presidential success of Donald Trump over on the other side of the pond.
Before we move into what seems likely to be an equally notable year, here’s a round-up of what happened in the world of petrol prices and motoring in 2016. Some of this now seems like an awfully long time ago!
January 2016 saw many of us enjoying petrol and diesel for less than one Pound per litre, helped along by low oil prices and one of several supermarket price wars we experienced throughout the year. However, as the month drew to a close, oil prices began to recover, causing us to speculate as to whether we’d seen the end of the price reductions.
The oil price was volatile throughout February, leading us (and others) to wonder whether petrol prices would rise or fall. As it turned out, no large rises occurred thanks to a global glut of crude. With the budget approaching, there was also considerable speculation as to whether fuel duty would be increased – thankfully something that didn’t happen.
In March, fuel duty was frozen, but sadly we did see petrol and diesel prices start to rise slowly. We also witnessed the usual traffic delays over the bank holiday weekend, and saw the launch of fuel price signs along the M5 motorway – part of a pilot scheme from Highways England.
In April there was plenty of discussion on the site about changes to road tax, which will still take effect in April 2017 – details here. We reported on the fact that plenty of drivers of relatively low-emission vehicles would end up paying more – something that unsurprisingly remains controversial to this day.
Meanwhile, petrol and diesel prices continued to edge up, and while a 99p litre was still a possibility, these deals became far harder to find.
May was a busy month for fuel and motoring news. Brexit referendum fever started to build, and we looked at how the price of fuel varied between Britain and mainland Europe. We also reported on the spread of average speed cameras across the UK and the possibility of driving licenses “going digital” after the DVLA released an app. As yet we’ve heard little more about this particular story!
June 2016 marked the launch of our free revamped PetrolPrices.com apps! Since then we’ve continued to work on them, fix bugs and add features. They’re now installed on in excess of 120,000 Android and iOS devices across the UK and hopefully saving our members a considerable amount of money.
Of course the biggest news of June was the “out” vote in the Brexit referendum. While petrol prices continued to climb steadily in run-up and aftermath, the shock price increases some parties predicted didn’t come to pass.
July saw opposing forces affecting petrol prices. While a post-referendum Sterling fall served to push prices up, the price of oil stumbled, leading the two factors to largely cancel each other out.
Also in July, we discussed some anecdotal evidence that suggested many drivers were managing to get away with abusing the electronic road tax system, and not being penalised for failing to keep things up to date.
August began with another supermarket petrol price war. Morrisons and Asda both introduced price caps and saved money for plenty of drivers.
Unfortunately, while motorists were able to save on fuel, we also reported on rising motor insurance costs – for the first but not the only time in 2016.
September 2016 started with chaos on the roads for Kent residents, after problems with traffic queues heading for Dover ferries and the Channel Tunnel were compounded by an accident destroying a bridge on the M20.
Following on from the story about increasing insurance premiums in August, we also conducted a survey that revealed that over 70% of motorists had had cars damaged whilst stationery, with very few perpetrators stopping to “own up.”
In October, we launched our exclusive “FuelBack” tools, which allow you to earn fuel cards when purchasing the kind of motoring products and services you need to buy anyway. A large number of our members have already earned fuel cards by taking advantage of these exclusive offers. (Please note you’ll only be able to gain access to “FuelBack” when you’re logged in to our site – membership is completely free if you’ve not joined already!)
Also in October, we saw autumn fuel prices go up – for the first time in six years.
November started with another story of car insurance increases, but this rapidly became small news when Donald Trump was elected as President of the United States on 8th November.
Plenty more happened in November too! Trump’s victory caused the Dollar to fall and Sterling to recover slightly, which allowed petrol prices to fall a little. A small-scale supermarket petrol price war also broke out, which included Morrisons offering unleaded for less than a Pound a litre, but only for people spending over £50 in store.
Fuel duty was also frozen in the Autumn Statement, and a report found that Britain’s roads were the most congested in Europe. All in all this made for a very busy month of motoring news!
Unfortunately, we didn’t end the year on the highest of notes, because petrol and diesel prices started to climb, as you’re no doubt aware. We also reported, as usual, on the likelihood of travel delays over the Christmas period. We imagine more than one of the members reading has already been caught in a hold up of some description!
So, there we have our round-up of 2016. We thank all our members for being with us throughout the year, and look forward to saving you all more money on fuel in the new year.
IMAGE CREDITS: Geograph, Flickr
We’re pleased to announce that we now have brand new petrol price apps available for both iOS and Android devices.
The apps have gone through months of development and testing and are completely free to download and use. They allow you find the cheapest fuel near to you at any time, and also to locate the best value petrol stations along your journey, so you can fill up tactically and drive further for your money.
You can read on to find out more, but if you want to jump straight in and grab the free app the links are here for your convenience:
Find the PetrolPrices.com iOS app here.
Find the PetrolPrices.com Android app here.
The simplest answer to that question is “save you money on fuel!” But let’s look at some specifics.
One of the key features of the PetrolPrices.com app is the price engine. As soon as you open the app and log in, the app will find your location and show you the cheapest fuel in your locality. You can specify your preferences for default fuel type and radius either within the app settings, or within the My Account section of this website.
You can also use the buttons at the bottom to change what you’re looking at “on the fly.” This is useful if you want to check the price of a different type of fuel, or temporarily expand your search radius. You can even find a particular fuel brand if you wish.
The price engine also has a search facility. Type a postcode into here, and the map will zoom to your chosen location and show you the best value fuel there as well. Work is underway to improve the accuracy of searching by village, town or city, but, for now, you’ll get the most accurate results with a postcode search.
Our apps also incorporate several other features to make your life easier and help you find cheap fuel without even having to visit our website. For example, you can do all of the following:
The apps are completely free and available from the iTunes / App Store (for Apple iOS) and the Google Play store (for Android). Here are the links:
Find the PetrolPrices.com iOS app here.
Find the PetrolPrices.com Android app here.
Our apps have gone through extensive testing, but development is ongoing. We are constantly looking to improve the apps and add features, and working on the continual process of ensuring the apps function on the ever-evolving plethora of new phones and mobile devices.
As such, if you have problems using the apps, we’d be delighted to try and help you resolve them via support@petrolprices.com – we can look at your query individually and work with the developers to make the app as useful as possible to you.
We hope our petrol price apps save you lots of money over the coming months, and we look forward to bringing you more refinement and additional features in the near future.
Helping you to find the cheapest fuel in your area has always been the point behind PetrolPrices, and we hope that over our ten years in operation you’ve saved some of your hard-earned cash. We’ve received a number of positive comments and testimonials over the years, which are always a pleasure to receive, but we want to do even more for you, the consumer.
As such, we don’t intend to stand still and rest on our laurels, so today we’re excited to reveal that PetrolPrices is changing; While our focus will remain on being your number one destination for locating the cheapest fuel, we are investing in significant site improvements to provide a comprehensive one-stop resource for smarter and more economical driving.
We intend to provide you with more useful information and statistics than ever before, something you’ll begin to notice over the coming months as we implement our changes.
As a business, PetrolPrices has always operated with our members interests firmly in mind. Now that we are undergoing a special transformation, we feel it’s important to remind you that this focus will not change. To reinforce that, we have created a set of values by which we will go forward and exist as a company, they are:
Thanks to our ten-year heritage helping you and your fellow British motorists find the cheapest fuel prices, we are perfectly placed to build on this by creating tools that will enable smarter driving for all of our members.
When we say smarter driving, what we mean is that as well as finding the cheapest fuel, we will help you in many more ways, such as locating the best places to eat on your journey, advising you where the best/nearest toilet facilities are, suggesting ways to drive your car in the most fuel efficient way and helping you get the best motoring rewards.
Work is currently underway on creating a new, free to download PetrolPrices mobile app. Not only will this contain much more price information and updates, it will also include some very exciting new tools and services that you will be able to use use to enable smarter driving. As some members have pointed out, our existing app is showing its age, so you can be assured any existing issues will be addressed.
In order to provide you with a smarter driving experience, we will need to collect a little information about you as a motorist. This can be as simple as your car number plate or the area in which you live. This will enable us to provide free smarter driving services to our members.
We are also keen to draw on the collective intelligence of our members and ask YOU, via surveys, how we should lead the company, and get your feedback on the new products and services we look forward to providing you with in the near future.
If you’re a subscriber, you’ll find a survey in your inbox quite soon, along with the opportunity to win a rather exciting prize as a thank you for your participation. The survey will be announced here too.
In the meantime, if you have anything you would like to say about PetrolPrices, please use the comment section below, or feel free to send us a message via FaceBook or Twitter.
We have also set up a special email address specifically for feedback, comments, queries and ideas, which is as follows:
We will try our very best to respond to your email queries within 48 hours, and give the most detailed response possible.
We’re really sorry that we don’t currently provide a phone number for our business. If we did, the amount of time it would take to respond to your calls would mean we would not be able to develop the new PetrolPrices and make it as smart as possible for you, so please bear with us. For the same reasons, please do not send post; Although our address is listed on the website, we are a very small business and don’t have the capacity for postal response at present.
We’re very excited about this next chapter in the life of PetrolPrices and look forward to you joining us on the journey. The site has always been here for you, the consumer, so please do share your feedback so we can adapt our future offering around exactly what would help you the most as a motorist.
Best Wishes,
Jason David Lloyd – Managing Director, PetrolPrices.COM Ltd