Long-distance road travellers to spend £2 million more on petrol next week

• Petrol jumps almost 5p a litre in fortnight

• Diesel up more than 7p a litre

A rapid 5p-a-litre increase in the price of petrol will add £2 million to the fuel spending of the 1.3 million holiday drivers covering at least 300 miles next week, the AA calculates.

According to Yonder polling for the AA, 20.7 million cars will take to the road next week for the second wave of the summer getaway. Of those, 1.3 million will be driving at least 300 miles.

Another flare-up of the US-Iran war and its impact on the cost of oil has already surged the average UK petrol price from a low of 150.7p a litre on 6 July to yesterday’s 155.5p.

Fuelling a 300-mile road trip for a car managing 45 miles to the gallon has now gone up from £45.66 to £47.12.

Combined, those 1.3 million holiday drivers will now spend at least £61.3 million on fuel as opposed to the at least £59.4 million earlier in July.

Polling of summer driving plans among 10,611 AA members between 18 and 24 June created a forecast of likely holiday traffic:

	Under 50 miles	51-100 miles	101-150 miles	151-200 miles	201-250 miles	251-300 miles	301+ miles
Friday 17 July to Thursday 23 July	10.2m	4.6m	2.2m	1.6m	1.0m	0.7m	1.3m
Friday 24 July to Thursday 30 July	9.8m	4.6m	2.2m	1.3m	0.8m	0.7m	1.3m
Friday 31 July to Thursday 6 August	9.6m	4.4m	2.0m	1.3m	0.8m	0.7m	1.3m
Friday 7 August to Thursday 13 August	9.3m	4.2m	1.9m	1.3m	0.8m	0.6m	1.2m
Friday 14 August to Thursday 20 August	9.2m	4.0m	2.0m	1.3m	0.8m	0.6m	1.2m

Motorhome owners face even worse news with average diesel pump prices going up faster than petrol. In early July, diesel fell to a low of 164.8p a litre but now stands at 172.0p on average. For those motorhomes with 90-litre fuel tanks, the cost of filling has gone up from £148.3 to £154.8 in a fortnight.

“This is a bitter blow for the second wave of summer holiday road travellers, and it doesn’t look as if it will get any better soon. Petrol peaked at 159.7p in late May and more than half of the early summer pump savings are already gone. Diesel reached 192.4p in mid April, and business is desperately hoping the average pump price won’t get that bad,” warns Luke Bosdet, the AA’s spokesman on pump prices.

“Worse still, councils at many coastal resorts are exploiting their visitors with ridiculously high parking costs for a day at the seaside. At one major resort, staying more than six hours can cost £28 (Beacon Road car park | BCP, Bath Road South car park | BCP).

“The tragedy in all this is not only the drain on families’ hard-earned holiday cash but the tourism industry seeing potential visitor spending siphoned off at the pump and by some councils parking charge hikes.”

Bosdet adds: “A couple of pieces of good news are that pump prices at some notoriously expensive motorway service areas still remain lower than the worst showing earlier this year, now a shade below 182p a litre for petrol as opposed to just below 185p at Easter.

“Also, there has also been a significant decline in AA rescues where vehicles have run out of fuel, despite a bumper start to the summer holiday getaway and previous weeks of hot weather encouraging road trips to the coast and the country. The incidence of vehicles running dry dropped 18.7% in the first three weeks of July compared to the same period last year.

“Fuel Finder may have had a hand in that. In previous summers, motorists would drive into motorway service areas, refuse to pay sky-high fuel prices and head off in search of somewhere cheaper – only to hit a traffic jam while low on fuel. Now, pump price transparency not only tells them what to expect at a service area but directs them straight to an alternative.”

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