Minister fails to get tough on rip-off M-way pump prices

Driving groups have hit out at the Transport Secretary’s failure to tackle rip-off fuel prices at motorway service stations.

Chris Grayling had vowed to get tough after saying millions of motorists were being ‘exploited’.

But his call for an official probe into pump prices has been soundly rejected by competition watchdogs.

In a letter, the Competition and Markets Authority told him the fastest way to help drivers was a plan to display fuel price comparisons on the side of motorways – even though a pilot scheme has been dismissed by Government experts.

Mr Grayling responded that a ‘further rollout of these trials would not be worthwhile’. Instead, he said the CMA should examine how smartphone apps could be used to ‘increase [price] transparency’.

Countries like France, Austria and Italy already have official websites where drivers can check pump prices at stations along their route.

Last night a Whitehall source said an investigation is ‘not off the table’ but the three years needed to hold a review was ‘too long’. One motoring campaigner described it as a ‘bitter pill to swallow for those who were promised tough action’. Mr Grayling vowed to act earlier this year after it was revealed how motorway forecourts were charging an average of 18p more per litre for petrol – or £9.90 extra to fill up a 55-litre tank on a typical family car.

But the CMA claimed the ‘quickest and most effective’ way to drive down prices was to erect signs on the roadside comparing pump prices at different service stations.

Chief executive Andrea Coscelli said it is estimated to have lowered the average mark-ups at these stations by a fifth. However, the measure was dismissed as ineffective by Highways England following a trial on the M5 earlier this year.

Howard Cox, of Fair Fuel UK, said it was a ‘ bitter pill’, adding: ‘These greedy operators have now been given free rein to keep pump prices sky high.’ The AA said it is a ‘national scandal’ that motorway forecourts had got away with charging inflated prices for so long – but backed plans to use technology to increase price transparency.