Petrol sales plummet to lowest level since 1990
By David Millward, Transport Editor 4:35PM GMT 21 Mar 2013
Petrol sales fell to their lowest level in 23 years last month as cash-strapped Britons cut back on their motoring.
Petrol sales plummet Photo: PA
UK drivers consumed 1.431 billion litres of petrol in February, a drop of 8.6 per cent compared with a year ago.
Demand was 2.3 per cent less than March 2012, the previous lowest figure when petrol prices reached an all-time high of 142.48 pence a litre, nearly five pence higher than last month’s average.
Then, however, demand was pushed up by panic towards the end of the m buying amid fears of a tanker drivers’ strike.
“As in the price surges of March and October last year, budgets quite simply snapped. No more money, no more fuel,” said Luke Bosdet of the AA.
“The petrol price surge in February was the third 8p to 10p-a-litre swing in 12 months. Although not as severe as March 2012, it came at the worst possible time – winter.
“Not only could drivers see pump prices ticking up by a 1p or more a week, but cold weather pushed up fuel consumption.”
The sales figures are the lowest since January 1990, when Customs and Excise first began recording forecourt sales. Then, with petrol costing 38.1 pence a litre, forecourt sales reached 2,644 billion litres.
For the driver of a small saloon, the cost of filing a tank has risen by just under £100 over the past 23 years.
Motorists could have been paying even more for their fuel had George Osborne not scrapped a planned duty increase in his budget earlier this week, which would have added 3p to a litre of petrol or diesel.
The Telegraph By Sedem Ama wrote:
Case study: The driver
By Sedem Ama
Joanne Taylor
Joanne Taylor drives about 20,000 miles a year so high fuel prices eat into her income significantly.
The marketing training manager from Oxford welcomed the Chancellor’s decision to scrap the planned 3p rise in fuel duty, but said it would still be very expensive to fill up her car.
She accepts that the Government has to get its revenue from somewhere, but points out that the high price of fuel affects rich and poor alike and represents an unavoidable cost for many people who rely on their vehicles to get to work.
“It’s obviously great news that at least the duty’s not going to go any higher, but it’s a shame that we already have to pay so much tax on our fuel – especially when quite a lot of other countries don’t. But it’s better than nothing,” she said.
Miss Taylor, 30, drives an eco-friendly BMW 1 series car to keep the cost of motoring as low as possible. None the less, she has been shocked by the level of fuel price increases over recent years.
She said: “I can remember unleaded being under £1. How can it go up so much and affect our day-to-day lives when the fuel companies make such a large profit?”
With so many expenses and potential fines and costs many move closer to work and many travel far less. Perhaps travel far less than ever before. Longer trips are postponed or totally forgotten. This shows in the Stats as we have seen the lowest killed on the roads in the last 60 years, as we travel less far, less often and so exposed to less danger.
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