December saw fuel rates drop again, but experts say that the reduced pump prices do not go far enough.
In the UK, fuel prices dropped by 9p a litre saving drivers £5 a tank on average in December, but the RAC have said that this is not enough. The motoring experts warn that this doesn't represent the savings that retailers are making as wholesale prices remain low.
In Scotland, Unleaded prices dropped by 10.19p over the month, coming in at 158p on December 1 but costing 147.81p by December 31 of 2022.
As for diesel drivers, there has been a similar drop through the month, as the 171.21p logged on the last day of the month, that's 10.96p lower than the 182.17 on the first.
The RAC believes petrol should be being sold around the UK for 140p – 11p less than the current UK average. For diesel drivers the figure should be nearer to 160p a litre – 14p lower than the UK average at the end of 2022.
RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: "On the face of it, December looks like it was a good month for drivers with 9p coming off at the pumps on top of November’s 6p, but there’s no question that the drop should have been far bigger given how far wholesale prices have come down.
He added: "In Europe prices are also considerably cheaper as the average price of a litre of unleaded is 144p and diesel 152p. And just across the Channel in France unleaded is an average of 146p and diesel 154p."
The RAC has been urging Big Four supermarkets - that's Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury's - to drop their rates to better represent wholesale prices.
Simon stated: "For weeks we’ve been calling on the big four supermarkets to cut their prices more substantially to give drivers a fairer deal when they fill up, so even though they have reduced their prices collectively by more than 10p a litre in December, they are still nowhere near where they should be given the scale of the drop in wholesale prices.
"We hope the Business Secretary’s intervention just before Christmas puts more pressure on larger retailers to do the right thing."
Membership-only retailer Costco, which consistently charges some of the lowest prices in the UK, is currently charging a store-wide average of just 137.3p for unleaded and 158.4p for diesel.
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