It may seem as if traffic on the roads is lower in pandemic Britain but somehow petrol prices have risen to an eight-year high.
Figures from roadside recovery group RAC said the average price of petrol went up by 3.4p a litre in July, while diesel rose by 2.7p a litre.
The RAC warned that with traffic volumes picking up and Britons opting to take their holidays in the UK, prices are “only going one way” and, as RAC fuel spokesperson Simon Williams pithily observed, “that’s not the way drivers want to see them going”.
Unless they are tree-hugging save the planet types, of course.
“With so many people depending on their vehicles, there's really nothing drivers can do to escape the high prices, and our best advice is for them to drive as economically as possible in order to try to make their money go further,” Williams advised.
"Unless major oil-producing nations decide a new strategy to increase output, we could very well see forecourt prices going even higher towards the end of the summer,” Williams cautioned.
Another 3p a litre on the price of petrol will see the cost of fuel top the previous highest level, seen in 2013.
Yes we were up in arms and barricading #refineries 20yrs ago when it was 80p and 15yrs ago when it was £1! https://t.co/biWGBaVNi2 #ahthegoodolddays when petrol prices were all we had to worry about. I took a pic a couple of wks ago to make the same point! #petrol #protest pic.twitter.com/kA89XmZUAk
— WillChambers (@WillC1976) August 4, 2021