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Motorway service stations could be forced to provide more clarity over pricing if one of the smaller recommendations within the long-awaited OFT report into road fuel pricing gets implemented.
While the OFT found no concrete evidence of unfair competition when it reported last week - blaming higher crude oil prices and tax and duty increases rather than price fixing between big wholesalers and retailers - it did officially log evidence confirming just how much more motorway service stations charge compared to other UK forecourts.
In August 2012 for example, prices were on average 7.5 pence per litre higher for petrol and 8.3ppl higher for diesel at motorway service stations than conventional forecourts.
While this information is hardly a revelation to most business operators, it could at least lead to new fuel pricing signage positioned before the service station itself so drivers can make more informed choices on where to fill up.
"The OFT is concerned drivers are not able to view prices until they have pulled into the service station," the report cautioned. "It has therefore asked the Department of Transport to consider introducing new road signs that would display service station petrol and diesel prices for motorway drivers."
The report, entitled 'UK petrol and diesel sector: an OFT Call for Information', also found that the presence of generally lower-cost supermarket filling stations in a location tended to bring down the average price for fuel in that locale and that pre-tax, the UK still has some of the cheapest road fuel in Europe, putting the Government rather than oil companies in the dock for the prices motorists actually pay at the pumps.
The OFT report has been slammed by the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) representing independent forecourts, though.It predicts higher prices, more filling station closures resulting in less network cover for drivers, especially in rural areas, and even a risk of transport disruption in the event of a crisis.
As PRA chairman, Brian Madderson fumed: "This was a prime opportunity, supported by considerable new information from our retailers, to tackle market manipulation of UK wholesale prices and retail prices by the big players.
This comes at a time when refineries have over-supply and demand has slumped due to Arctic weather, yet the wholesale cost of petrol has increased by over seven pence per litre since Christmas."
One issue the OFT and the PRA did see eye to eye on was the widely held notion of prices going up fast when wholesale prices rise, but falling slowly when wholesale prices stabilise again, as Madderson added: "We are encouraged the OFT has undertaken national sampling and found no evidence to substantiate the urban myth perpetuated by motoring organisations and the media that prices 'go up like a rocket and down like a feather'".
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