Exiting the motorway to refuel at a local garage could save motorists up to £20
A study by fuel price information service and app, PetrolPrices.com has revealed that UK service stations are charging up to 37p per litre of fuel more than their nearest station, taking advantage of the captive market.
The research by PetrolPrices.com found that Leicester Forest East services is charging 37p per litre more than nearby station Sainsbury’s Fosse Park which is 2.1 miles away. Bridgewater services on the M5 in Somerset is charging up to 29p per litre more than Sainsburys Bridgewater, which is just 2.5 miles away. This equates to £16.38 and £12.18 more per tank respectively, when filling up the 42L tank of a Ford Fiesta which is the best-selling car in the UK. Bridgewater, Cherwell Valley, Exeter and Lancaster services featured in both lists of stations that charged much more than their nearest cheapest station for both diesel and unleaded.
The study found that a five-hour journey from Maidstone to Cornwall would cost £150 if the driver filled a 50-litre tank at Clacket Lane services on the M25 and then Exeter service station on the M5. However, drivers could save £20 by pulling off the motorway and refilling at the Shell pumps in Godstone, Surrey, and the Tesco Extra in Exeter Vale.
Says Kitty Bates, consumer spokesperson at fuel pricing information app, PetrolPrices.com “Our research shows that many motorway service stations are pricing their fuel well over the odds with some stations charging up to 37p per litre more than their nearest forecourt operator.
“Motorway Service Areas have long been much higher priced because operators know that motorists have to fill up there, and they have a captive audience, so they charge a similar rate year round, regardless of the fluctuations in the wholesale industry. Their argument is the costs are higher, which is something the government has been saying that it wants to investigate for quite a few years now. However, until this takes place, we would encourage drivers to find the best fuel deal local to them, or along their intended route, before they set off using a service such as PetrolPrices.com which will help them to avoid paying an excess on the motorway.”
Top 10 Most Expensive Motorway Service Station for Unleaded
| Motorway Service Area | M road | County | Closest cheapest Unleaded station | Motorway Service Area Unleaded price per litre | Cheapest Unleaded price per litre | Price difference pence per litre |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bridgwater services | M5 | Somerset | SAINSBURYS BRIDGWATER | 148.9 | 119.9 | 29 |
| Tamworth services | M42 | Staffordshire | CENTURION SERVICE STATION | 150.9 | 123.9 | 27 |
| Keele services | M6 | Staffordshire | MORRISONS STOKE | 148.9 | 124.7 | 24.2 |
| Lancaster (Forton) Services | M6 | Lancashire | ASDA FULWOOD AUTOMAT | 148.9 | 124.7 | 24.2 |
| Newport Pagnell services | M1 | Buckinghamshire | TESCO MILTON KEYNES KINGSTON EXTRA | 148.9 | 123.9 | 25 |
| Cherwell Valley services | M40 | Oxfordshire | TESCO BICESTER LAKEVIEW | 148.9 | 124.9 | 24 |
| Exeter services | M5 | Devon | TESCO EXETER VALE EXTRA | 148.9 | 124.9 | 24 |
| Hartshead Moor services | M62 | West Yorkshire | TESCO BRIGHOUSE BRADFORD ROAD | 148.9 | 124.9 | 24 |
| Heston services | M4 | Greater London | TESCO HAYES BULLS BRIDGE EXTRA | 148.9 | 124.9 | 24 |
| Medway services | M2 | Kent | SAINSBURYS HEMPSTEAD | 148.9 | 124.9 | 24 |
| Pont Abraham services | M4 | Carmarthenshire | TESCO PONTARDDULAIS | 150.9 | 126.9 | 24 |
| Stafford services | M6 | Staffordshire | FAIRWAY SERVICE STATION | 151.9 | 127.9 | 24 |
Top 10 Most Expensive Motorway Service Station for Diesel
| MSA name | M road | County | Closest cheapest diesel | Motorway Service Area Diesel price per litre | Diesel price per litre | Price difference pence per litre |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leicester Forest East services | M1 | Leicestershire | SAINSBURYS FOSSE PARK | 167.9 | 130.9 | 37 |
| Woodall services | M1 | South Yorkshire | BRIDGEHOUSE SERVICE STATION | 165.9 | 134.9 | 31 |
| Maidstone services | M20 | Kent | ASHFORD ROAD SERVICE STATION | 165.9 | 135.9 | 30 |
| Rownhams services | M27 | Hampshire | SHELL BASSETT | 166.9 | 138.9 | 28 |
| Cherwell Valley services | M40 | Oxfordshire | TESCO BICESTER LAKEVIEW | 155.9 | 129.9 | 26 |
| Lancaster (Forton) Services | M6 | Lancashire | ASDA FULWOOD AUTOMAT | 155.9 | 130.7 | 25.2 |
| Bridgwater services | M5 | Somerset | SAINSBURYS BRIDGWATER | 155.9 | 130.9 | 25 |
| Exeter services | M5 | Devon | TESCO EXETER VALE EXTRA | 155.9 | 130.9 | 25 |
| Oxford services | M40 | Oxfordshire | ASDA WHEATLEY AUTOMAT | 155.9 | 131.7 | 24.2 |
| Sedgemoor services | M5 | Somerset | ASDA HIGHBRIDGE AUTOMAT | 155.9 | 131.7 | 24.2 |
| Tebay Services | M6 | Cumbria | ASDA KENDAL AUTOMAT | 155.9 | 131.7 | 24.2 |
| Todhills Rest Area | M6 | Cumbria | ASDA CARLISLE AUTOMAT | 155.9 | 131.7 | 24.2 |
The research follows comments by Transport Secretary Chris Grayling in which he called for fuel retailers to allow motorists to check the price of filling up at their forecourt before they travel using a smartphone app after accusing them of ‘taking advantage of drivers’. The Transport Secretary wants motorists to be able to view prices so they can better plan motorway journeys and work out where to get the cheapest fuel – a service already provided by PetrolPrices.
PetrolPrices.com is the UK’s leading fuel price information service with one million active members saving up to £200 on average per year. Over the last thirteen years it has helped over four million people save money on their fuel by comparing prices from 8,440 petrol stations daily, sending over five million monthly price alert emails to its members.
For more information for members of the press, please see more on our Press Page: https://business.petrolprices.com/press/
Bit rich for Grayling to accuse anyone of taking advantage of motorists don’t you think when successive governments have had their hands deep in the pockets of motorists for as long as I can remember! No matter what happens nowadays the fall back position always seems to be to tax the motorist.
Hi you are right about Grayling …actualy i think he is useless! Like most of our so called Ministers they trade jobs like a shuffle Board every one seems to forget about the total c**k up last year in reference to the Railways so called New Time Table!!! … he didn’t have a clue how to rectify the problem… misery for millions of commuters …all he did was wonder around looking like private Godfery from Dads Army!!!… Hello Grayling is there anybody in There!!! Nod if you can here me!!!
Play the game. I got a big solar roof with the maximum tax free feed in tarrif, so i get paid crazy tax free money for what i produce. What i use is free too. And so i charge the Outlander for free. Recently using it every day, it cost me only 37 litres in 6 weeks. So for the roof investment made in 2010 plus the Outlander which cost no more than any other car i have an income, my electric bills are tiny, and i spend very little filling up.
I guess the tax man will be looking fo new ways to tax new transport but it will take them years and i expect they will leave my then old kit alone.
How can the costs be higher when they have access through the back of the services often only a couple of miles from other forecourts they deliver to?
They say they have to pay staff more for working off grid. Believe that if you like.
Motorway services are contractually obliged to provide a 365-day, 24-hour service, and for safety reasons a minimum of two staff. Of course, if they charged a reasonable economic price, they would get more customers prepared to fund it.
I have never bought fuel on a motorway. With a 425-mile range, and a list of usually cheap sites, I don’t need to. I’m off to Scotland next week. Applegreen in Trowbridge (home), Asda by Haydock (M6 J23), Morrisons by Stirling (M9) is nicely balanced.
Motorway services are for convenience and also to prevent motorists clogging up local roads trying to find fuel & food. By charging ridiculous prices they are encouraging motorists to do just that. With apps like Petrol Prices and ones for food retailers it takes the guesswork out of it. Soon towns near motorways will see an increase in traffic, and I will be one!
Yes I agree. The staff cost is a bit of a lie. Lots of stations are automatic now, and you can pay at the pump. I think they charge through the nose because they can. If we canny motorists vote with our wheels, they will only get the money of foolish virgins.
This is hardly news, I worked at a motorway services back in the late 70’s and the fuel was shockingly more expensive than off the motorway back then! The complaints, when the summer tourists found they were getting their pockets picked were often quite funny. Had a few drive-off’s too that the police liked to chase down the M5!
Chester Services (off the M53) used to be (and is probably still) one of the most expensive in the area. Their excuse was that it costs more to ship the fuel in. They are literally right next door to the Shell oil refinery.
There used to be a Shell station a couple of hundred yards away which was one of the cheapest in the area, despite being the same distance from the refinery.
Nothing new here. From my very first memory of motorway services fuel has always been more expensive. They have a captive audience, knowing full well that unless you use a recognised exit from the motorway (not the service access, totally illegal) they can charge pretty much whatever they like.
It’s not actually illegal to use the service access roads.
They don’t like to tell you that though and may use barriers to prevent you from doing so and could prosecute you privately for trespass as they are not public rights of way..
*Ironic comment alert*
I cannot believe that a Conservative transport secretary could possibly criticise these businesses for “taking advantage of drivers”. They are capitalist organisations working in a free market economy. Their duty is to maximise profits for their shareholders, and they have found a legal way of doing this. As with any business, they are doubtless setting the price at whatever level the market will bare.
Why should their shareholders be expected to take lower dividends by subsidising consumers? Now obviously if consumers do start driving off motorway en masse that will change the dynamics of the market, and the companies will adjust accordingly to whatever the new (lower) maximum price the market will bare.
Chris Grayling should be praising their ingenuity and resourcefulness, as should anyone who says they support Conservative free market economics.
* Ironic comment alert*
Chris Grayling shows the government ethos that the only people who should be fleecing people are the government.
I suggest people should have a look at corporate finances of corporations such as Welcome Break, Roadchef, Moto and Compass. The board and directors remuneration packages and large acquisitions keep the operating profits down to figures like 7%.
This is part of the widespread ethos that leading people should make obscene amounts of money from people who appear willing to fund such enterprises. A look at the finances of virtually any business park or industrial estate shows that charging people what they can get away with is par for the course and that the old idea of only charging people what is ethical is now the preserve of the minority which is a consequence of the 1980s yuppie ideology.
Good article and some helpful comments amongst quite a few less helpful ones.
As I alluded to, there are large corporations who are buying out smaller services. An example of this years ago was the reasonably keen prices at the Todhills stations at the extreme top of the M6. This has changed under the new ownership.
Strangely, motorway services are not premium land. They also have good road access yet are the most expensive. What should be remembered is that it is the government which grants approval for services which is to just a few favoured corporations which inevitably make premium services charging premium prices.
There is more too this than some people contemplate. Similarly, clearly there is a market for fuel stations providing better prices but I doubt this will happen.
Ah, the magic Todhills. Up until about 2004, the M6 did not join the M74 (aka the A74(M)). They had to leave a stretch of non-motorway A74 because they couldn’t afford a new bridge, but they had to leave a road for non-motorway traffic. Slight downside was a 70mph dual-carriageway that was used by cyclists, mopeds, pedestrians and tractors.
Shell Todhills was a most excellent truck-stop — their coffee got me the last 150 miles home.
Last time I was at Todhills, I was driving home for Xmas and arrived there around 00:10 Xmas day. As I left, I spotted a Volvo 940 estate exactly like my own, with a breakdown guy under the bonnet. So I wandered over, and asked what his trouble was, and it was the Alternator.
Well, I had an unused alternator in the back. My own had died a couple of months earlier. I got one from a scrappie, and had my own rebuilt as new, and had just picked it up, still in the box, with receipt.
So I told the owner, in the spirit of Xmas, that he could have it at cost (£30 it cost me for the scrap one, plus £60 for the rebuild). The mechanic would fit it for free, because otherwise he would be spending the night taking the other Volvo to Glasgow and coming back. Also, the owner would be spending Boxing Day trying to get his car fixed in Glasgow. And a new one cost about £240, if you could get one. Ain’t I thinking I’m the Real Santa Claus.
Except there ain’t no sanity clause. The guy’s wife stuck her head out of the breakdown truck, and screeched: “Don’t buy it, Alex, it won’t be any good, he’s a con artist!” So we both shrugged our shoulders, and I headed off into the night, and he’s probably still in Todhills.
If I need to use a services, I put in the minimum amount. Anyone ‘filling up’ at service stations is simply encouraging the rip off.
Couldn’t agree more! I avoid motorway services like the plague when it comes to fuel. Often knocked for it by my wife…….until she sees the price difference! If I absolutely must get fuel on a motorway I will only put a fivers worth in, which is more than enough to get you somewhere cheaper.
For some reason Southport in the North West seems to be a cash cow for fuel.
£1.31 for diesel when in nearby Liverpool and Preston its only £1.23. Even a service station off the M6 is cheaper.
£1.31 a litre for diesel, that’s cheap. I’ve seen motorway services and service stations on busy dual carriageways charging £1.49!!
Only an idiot or the super rich would fill up at a motorway fuel station.
… And those who have their companies’ expense account cards. The extra cost of the fuel is less than that of the time they would take to get to a cheaper local supermarket filling station and return to the motorway. Unfortunately, those costs are built into their employers’ charges to their customers: ultimately, ourselves.
They always have done and always will because their forecourts continue to be used in large enough numbers by the desperate, the lazy and the inept.
I agree. we can all moan but it’ll never change as long as folks carry on paying the premium. I just vote with my wallet, and fill up near the motorway. At worst it might add 5 or 6 minutes to my journey, but like the article says, the savings are worth having
Neil, that is what I do, I’ve a book from years back called “off the motorway” its lists good pubs for food and fuel stations on your way or near said pub. They had all been visited by the authors too as there were interesting points about a nice dish the place served or the landlords interview. You can now just Google but it doesn’t seem the same. Must be getting old!
Legalised Thieves! Not just the forecourts but worst of all the Goverment Always bleeding the motorist dry Squeesing and squeesing untill the preverbal udders are dry and infected we have the worst roads in the so called Modern Society they reap in for their coffers Billions…Eye watering Billions… our roads dont have potholes we have Bomb Craters!!! And we cannot do Sweet Sod all About It!!! Ask the Treasury about Repairs and all you will get is a Cycloptic look… they are a pile of Glass Eyes!!!
We are free to choose where we fill up. If we are daft enough to use them we can pay for the privilege. I do feel sorry for small rural petrol stations that can’t buy at bulk savings costs, but they have their own loyal customers and passing trade.
In my county, they fill in the potholes after the winter is over, but I see the difference driving through Wilts and Dorset on the A303 to meet family in Hants, or more accurately on local roads as A Roads and Motorways are the province of the Highways Agency.
Wow ground breaking reporting there hey, tell us something we don’t already know!!!
What about that major government ripoff agency the DVLA, that fleeces every car owner on the sale and purchase of cars when you back date the road tax to the end of the previous month, there’s no excuse now its all computerised, you should be charged from the date you put the car on the road and also be refunded from the date of sale and not just whole months left as is done now!!!
It’s up to the driver, if you are running very low and deed to stop at the motorway station just put 2 or 3 gallons in and then pull of the motorway at the next exit to fill up.
I discovered this many years ago. I even found several years ago on my way from Birmingham to Minehead, that Morrison’s at Rubery (near J4 M5) had added 5p per litre over the usual price. Already aware that Lydiate Ash Services were more expensive. I had decided to fill up at Morrisons for the journey. I drove past immediately and went to Sainsburys at Northfield 2 miles further away, I would never do this for normal pottering around, but for a long journey 5 extra miles is no problem.
Living in a rural area, prices are a bit higher, but I get the best price I can, but if I have occasion to go to or through Taunton, or Bridgwater, I fill up cheaply there, and if I find I am running low, I will put £10 worth in my tank to carry me over the miles before I can fill up, but I usually get to a cheap station with 1/4 tank full. I plan my fuelling with that in mind.
I don’t think it is cheap anywhere, but it’s no good whingeing about things we can’t change, just make the best of things. If I didn’t live in the shade of surrounding trees, I’d have a car port with solar panels on the roof and drive an elecric car. Maybe if electric cars had a solar panel on the roof and a converter to store power in the battery, they might be more efficient. I heard a few years ago about an ultra thin flexible panel so it may yet happen. Narrowboats have them. It might only run the radio, the lights and the heater, but it would help.
They may well have “slightly” higher costs in terms of wages but premises costs will be the same or similar to equivalent “High St” service stations . But….. surely by the economies of scale, by the sheer volume of sales they should be able to negate any extra costs !! Licensed bandits….nothing less ! Time it was stopped!
it’s totally wrong to treat the motorist who uses these facilities as mugs – avoid these rip off merchants completely – and with modern day gps mobs to be able to find a supermarket alternative just off a junction of a motorway, plan your journey well and you’ll never need to use them – and eventually if we all do that they’ll either lower the price or shut up shop cause they’re going out of business
Its not only motorway service areas that RIP you off. A petrol station in the town where I live charges around £1.47/ltr for diesel and £1.44 for unleaded!!!! There are supermarkets filling stations within 5 miles !!!
I stopped filling up at any motorway service stations around 30 years ago, purely because of the rip off prices. Even in those days before Sat Navs which tell you where the stations are, it was far cheaper to “wing it” at a junction and look for cheaper fuel.
Who cares about Grayling? Blame the stupid private motorist or expense account driver for the prices. With a little forethought these staggering prices could be avoided and at what cost? 10/15 minutes extra on a journey, does that really matter! Whilst off motorway or trunk road you can also stock up on much more realistically priced snacks and drink. I can’t remember the last time I bought fuel on a motorway service area, some time in the 1970s maybe.
So longer as there are people out there with no comprehension of the value of money these heighten will continue to prosper.
Every time a business user fills up at one of these places it automatically increased the price of his/her companies products make them more expensive for you and me to buy and less competitive on the world stage. I hope there are some company finance managers out there looking at this as I think they love to reign in costs and this one is ready to be curbed.
Not exactly true about the business user…….most of them that fill up at motorway service areas do so using “fuel” cards rather than paying by cheque/cash/credit/debit cards. Fuel card companies buy as part of a “bunkering” service and motorists using fuel cards are NOT paying the pump price. The “bunkering” system does what it says on the tin….. buys in bulk, stores in a bunker, and sells cheaper via a rebate on their invoice at the end of the month or, a cheaper price for paying up front each month.
Surely most motorway services rely on hgvs and company cars using them, companies pay the bill so it dont matter to the driver how much per litre it is. I know I’d never use one, I brim my tank before I go any distance run and I know I’ve got at least 500 miles before I even think of re fuelling.
Not quite true. See reply above to Ron Martin’s post
When I used to drive up to Perth from home I’d fill up the tank of my Transit at my local Asda and when I arrived at Perth my first stop would be at Asda to fill up for the return journey even though I still had just under half a tank. No way was I going to buy diesel at a motorway services – I’d have to be desperate to pay their prices.
I only used to stop at services just to give my dog a short walk for a toilet break…
We are near a motorway and its services. It is noticeable that lorry drivers in the know take a 1.5 mile detour to an Esso station to save about 20p a liter. If you need several hundred of them it is clearly worth the extra distance.
I’ve never understood people who fill up on motorway services. It’s worth looking for supermarkets near motorway junctions before you set off on a long journey.
Got stung at A50 Derby South West bound for petrol and M4 Reading East bound for diesel. The price is so high your mind is momentarily baffled by it!
Rather that compare the price of the fuel, why not list the Company/Business trading behind that site. If Tesco run a service station, the price may well be around 130.9ppl a litre instead of 150.9 say. On a 45000l delivery at 37ppl more that’s £16650 additional income and if a site does more that 1 tanker a day, im in the wrong market. I looked at your picture are the top of this article and automatically thought that “Shell” are ripping us off which may not be the case.
Well know fact.
Why anybody fills up at a motorway service station always amazes me
I only use the services for the toilets!
I have found that there are quite a lot of business men/women who use the service stations regularly to fill up as they don’t really care how much it is as the money is claimed back in expenses, so it’s no skin off their nose how much it is!
These huge price hikes at motorway service stations should be made illegal and a much fairer pricing system should be introduced with a maximum price cap imposed according to current crude prices and inflation.
With respect, this article presents a biased picture against the operators of motorways’ and trunk roads’ service areas because it concentrates on their fuel prices relative to local retailers without investigating and explaining the reasons for the differences. Unlike supermarket filling stations, the operators rent those sites from the Department for Transport (DFT) which, in turn, is required by law (the Public Contracts Regulations) to obtain the best-value returns from those leases. As a result, Service Area plots cost a lot more per square metre than supermarket sites.
Not only that, but their parking and filling station areas greatly exceed the areas of the retail premises on the sites and the operators are required to maintain their surfaces in a safe condition – for pedestrians and motorcyclists who are most vulnerable to potholes, and to keep them free from ice and snow. They also have to ensure the foul drainage keeps working for public health reasons and the surface water drainage doesn’t block and trigger flooding. The operators are contractually obliged by the DFT to stock fuel and staff the filling stations 24 hours/day, 7 days/week including public holidays. For staff safety under the Health & Safety at Work Act, they must have more than one employee on shift at any time. Given that most motorway services have separate sites for each carriageway and, often, separate filling stations for cars and lorries, even the “Graveyard Shift” needs 4-8 employees in the filling stations, whether or not there are any customers at the pumps. In comparison, many supermarket filling stations are automated, unmanned and shut down overnight, minimising their costs.
Fuels at motorway and trunk road service areas have always been more expensive than local retailers for these reasons. As a result they get fewer customers than supermarkets, so their overhead costs are much greater on each litre that they do sell. Staff in the retail and refreshment sections of service areas are additional, of course. All staff have to be paid and are entitled to paid holidays and sickness cover.
Ask yourself, Kitty Bates, would you take on a 10+ year lease for a service area under those conditions AND try to price-match local supermarkets? You’d be bankrupt within twelve months.
Even so, Mr. Cooper, I do believe that these companies are still raking it in by a high margin, otherwise they would i=either be lobbying MPs to change the situation or be closing down and moving out. Nobody runs these things for nothing, there has to be a goodly profit in there, otherwise these businesses would not exist. To me they are still legalised thieves!
Tim T, I do not dispute that. No business survives unless it makes consistent profits that keep its investors, bankers and shareholders happy. My point was that the operators of motorway and trunk road service areas CANNOT compete even with commercial filling stations’ fuel prices because of the costs of their contractual obligations to their DFT landlords which, as I pointed out, are founded in law. “Failing” Grayling cannot reverse that situation even if he forced the DFT to sell the service area sites – the staffing obligations and their inherent costs would remain. Supermarket filling stations are another complete step further down the pricing scale. In urban areas very few commercial filling stations remain because supermarket filling stations have priced them out of their businesses. In rural areas (more than about ten miles from supermarkets with filling stations), the few remaining filling stations often have to charge 10-15p/litre more than supermarkets would to survive.
It’s worth remembering that service area operators price ALL their products and services to sustain their businesses. Their food and drinks cost more than commercial equivalents, even where the catering franchisees are members of the same chains such as MacDonald’s and KFC.
If you and PetrolPrices.com are truly determined to iron out the wrinkles in this playing field, I expect the major supermarkets will happily jump on board your bandwagon and add 37p to the price of every litre of fuel that they sell. Over to you: I’m a cyclist.
Yeah, just don’t buy anything off um at all, 1.15 for a bag of walkers crisps? 1.40 for a chocolate bar? Yeah right, you need your head read to splash out there. I reckon if newspapers didn’t have a price on they would be 1.50 each.
Never fill up at MSA’s but then I don’t use Tesco either since we obtained evidence that all their IVECO delivery vans had injector problems against only 1 from ASDA. Make of that what you will, it was good enough for me and I don’t fill my LandCruiser up at Tesco anymore either as a result.
Whilst I am pleased that someone has taken the time to carry out this survey, is anybody really surprised about this outcome? In all of the years that I have found myself on wretched Motorways (which I hate anyway) I have only once found myself using a fuel pump at a Motorway Services Area. Even then I just put in a fiver’s worth of petrol and went off of the Motorway at the junction to find petrol cheaper elsewhere. I would rather take the time to find cheaper petrol elsewhere than give any money to these legalised thieves in Motorway Services Areas.
Simple, plan your journey fuel up and don’t use the motorway services
Stating the obvious. Motorway service stations have charged more since they opened. No one in their right mind uses them unless they have an agency card
Another complete rip off, we have to rely on these oil companies to allow us to get about on our virtual dog leads and then pull us in for there daily rationing of ripping the poor motorist off. It ain’t just the the oil companies the government also do their bit to help drain our wallets of hard earned money too. When will we ever get a proper common sense government, I can’t see it ever from a conservative government and certainly not from Johnson or Hunt, what a waste of time and money!
Too many drivers (people) have more money than sense so they will always be ripped off Fools and their money are easily parted (an old saying) but still true today
Motorway services are easier for the tankers to get to, easier access, unlike some town ones in busy back streets, also bulk buying power over small independents, ironically whenever I come past fleet services on the M3, its always busy, so not everyone is bothered about fuel prices, which is surprising.
If I’m ever in such desperate need for fuel on a motorway I would put in £10 worth….roughly 8 litres which takes me another 88 miles on average. Certainly enough to get me to a much cheaper station off the motorway.
The French used to list cheap filling stations near the motorway/peage junctions. Might be a useful app, using gps info., and Sat nav..
The French used to publish a list of less expensive fuel stations and supermarkets near to motorway/peage junctions. Would make a useful app, using GPS and sat nav.
Grayling, how does he cling on. The government and local authorities are the biggest grabbers of motorists cash. They are so deep in the trough they can’t see it. Never use motorway garages, it’s organised legalised extortion allegedly.
Grayling has made a balls of every department he has been in charge of. They then ship him off to the next one. He’s a completely useless f**kwit.
Chris Grayling has a pseudonym by the name of DICK TURPIN!!!!!!
Say no more
Tamworth services is the closest petrol station in the area to the Kingsbury depot. Morrisons (2 miles up the A5) and Sainsburys and Asda (3 miles up the A5) are all far cheaper. The location isn’t in the middle of nowhere either – it’s on the outskirts of the Tamworth conurbation, a five minute walk from a bus route into Tamworth town centre.
Many years ago, the petrol station at the services was run by Esso, who operated a price promise – they guaranteed to keep prices as low as the lowest local competition. That got quietly dropped and prices rocketed.
I use justoffjunction.co.uk to find alternative petrol stations when I’m planning a trip involving long motorway distances (especially by motorbike, with a range of 150-200 miles). It doesn’t offer the same petrol price checking as petrolprices.com but you know that a supermarket petrol station is going to be loads cheaper than motorway services.
‘Keep Britain’s towns free from motorists’, but make the poor b@st@rds use the motorways and pay exorbitant fuel prices. Bl@@dy hypocrites!!!
To be honest, any motorist stupid enough to buy fuel at a Motorway Services deserves all they get. Most vehicles these days have a tank capacity of 600 miles or more, so it’s not rocket science to fill up before the start of a long journey.
And with Google maps it is really easy to find the cheaper fuel. You simply type in « petrol station » and it comes up with locations and names and opening times. Go for the supermarkets. Click onThe one you want and it takes you there. It is the same throughout Europe too. I must have saved a fortune.
And sandwiches and drinks are cheaper and usually better too.
Why doesn’t PetrolPrices.com publish a list of all motorway petrol stations with the postcode of a reasonably-priced filling station and the distance to it, at both the junction before and the junction after the motorway service area. This would eliminate any concerns about leaving the motorway and not being able to find the cheaper fuel.
Once custom on the motorway starts to fall away motorway prices will drop and we won’t need to rely on Mr Grayling – which is probably a very good thing.
I assume that the Maidstone to Cornwall journey is calculated as a return trip as there’s no way an average car would require £150 of fuel solely for the outbound journey!
That is why you fill your car to the limit if travelling long distance at a cheaper petrol station, don’t say I never told ya