Motorway fuel rip-off nets £11 every full tank

MOTORWAY service stations generate up to five times more ‘profit’ than supermarkets from selling petrol and diesel, a report found.

Fuel at Moto, Welcome and Roadchef service stations is sold at an average profit of 20.6p per litre for unleaded and 21.2p per litre for diesel. This equates to a surplus of more than £11 for every driver who fills up a typical 55litre family car.

It compares to an average profit of just over 3p per litre on petrol on supermarket forecourts and 4.2p per litre on diesel, according to the analysis from campaign group FairFuelUK.

This equates to a profit of just £1.67 for a full tank of petrol and £2.31 for a tank of diesel. The figures are based on the average pump price minus the wholesale price – the amount retailers pay. This is currently 113.8p for petrol and 115.4p for diesel.

Drivers at motorway service stations are paying an average of just under 135p per litre for petrol and around 136.5p for diesel. This compares to an average of 116.8p for petrol and 119.5p at supermarkets.

Transport secretary Chris Grayling has asked the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate motorway fuel prices.