Misery as fuel prices climb to new highs

Fuel prices have climbed to new highs with the price of diesel soaring to £6.50 a gallon, it has emerged today. According to figures released by the AA, petrol has also reached £6.24 a gallon.

That means on average, motorists are paying 142.9p a litre for diesel and 1.37.2p a litre for petrol at the pumps across the West Midlands. The most expensive price of petrol in Wolverhampton is 144.9p a litre, and 149.9p a litre for diesel. Hauliers today said fuel prices had to come down to save businesses.

Gary Owen, manager of Bilston-based Highfield Haulage, said: "It is going to put a lot of people out business. It has got to a stage where it is killing everyone, not just the haulier, but the private car driver as well.

"We're not able to pass the rises on to our customers. They rightly tell us that there isn't a bottomless pit and that the fact that fuel is rising is not their problem. They are completely right on that.

"For us as a business, fuel is now 50 per cent of our running costs when two years ago, it was 17 per cent. To me, that is absolutely disgraceful."