By Alex Haithwaite
FAMILIES ARE having to spend nearly £40 a month more to fill their petrol tanks then they did a year ago.
On average, a family with two petrol cars is now spending £240.22 on petrol each month, compared with £203.90 in February 2016.
AA spokesman Luke Bosdet said: “Someone with a fixed budget of £30 a week, spent on driving to and from work five days a week, might now find that amount only covers four days driving.
“This means raiding some other part of the family budget. It’s becoming quite a tight squeeze.”
The UK’s average petrol price rose to 120.11p a litre this week, up 0.63p from mid-January, according to the AA.
Drivers are being forced to pay more at the pump
Diesel is now 122.32p a litre, 0.34p more expensive than this time last month.
Edmund King, the AA’s president, said: “Drivers need to keep their ears and eyes open to locate lower pump prices. An example is when travelling along the A3, from Portsmouth towards London, supermarket petrol prices varied by as much as 8p a litre.
“People who drive vehicles similar to a standard Volkswagen Golf could be making a potential saving of up to £4 per tank by choosing correctly.”
Compared with a year ago, petrol drivers are paying 18.16p a litre more (101.95p).
Diesel drivers are paying 21.30p a litre (101.02p) meaning that they are worse off.
Filling a typical petrol tank costs £9.99 more, while a transit-size fuel tank costs £17.04 more to refuel.
Factfile on UK driving
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Overall 64% of all personal trips are made by car. Car trips account for more than half of all trips for all age groups except 17 to 20-year-olds.
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On average, men make a higher share of trips as car drivers than women, particularly at older age groups. Women and children (aged 0-16) are more likely to travel as car passengers.
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For both male and female full-time workers, average car driver distance travelled per person per year has fallen since 2002. Male full-time workers have seen a larger decline than females.
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Male retired workers, on average, drive almost three times further than female retired workers, though distance travelled by female retired workers has grown 39% since 2002.
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Half of households in the lowest income sector have access to a car, compared with nearly 90% of those in the highest income sector.
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Most trips people make are short, 19% were less than one mile in length, 66% were less than 5 miles and 95% were less than 25 miles.
Statistics come from a report by www.gov.uk – Road statistics use in Great Britain 2016.
The report can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/514912/road-use-statistics.pdf