Midlands drivers warned over uncertain fuel prices

Motorists are now paying around £1.31 a litre for petrol and £1.38 for diesel, with costs at similar levels to those seen in January last year.

That comes despite Chancellor George Osborne scrapping a proposed 3p rise in fuel duty, which had been due to come in this month before the plan was abandoned in the Autumn budget statement.

It means that the prices which haulage workers, taxi drivers and driving instructors said were 'crippling' them at the beginning of last year have remained.

Last year such prices represented a 10p rise per litre of diesel and 6p for a litre of petrol in 12 months.

Simon Krzysiak, manager at the Texaco garage in Stafford Road, Wolverhampton, said while drivers could be relieved to see prices at least stagnate for now, he could not be sure of their levels throughout the year.

At Texaco, Stafford Road, prices are 133.9p a litre of unleaded and 139.9p for diesel. At this time last year, they were 130.9p for unleaded and 140.9p for diesel.

Mr Krzysiak said: "Everybody is expecting fuel prices to come down.

"After these months of what I would call ridiculous prices, we are starting to see stability.

"We might now be thinking about dropping prices in 2013 but we are still subject to the same margins and a number of other factors like war and politics in other countries.

"We cannot predict those so we can not be certain. For us to buy fuel, we see prices fluctuate between 2-3p over the course of the week and our margins remain the same, so the prices changes at the station."

Becci Morris, who works at Wednesbury's Morrisons, Trouse Lane, added that current perceptions of prices at the pumps were mostly negative.

She added: "The perception in this country is people believe they are paying too much for fuel but prices are set with a number of other considerations in mind."

At Wednesbury's Morrisons, unleaded is at 130.9p and diesel is now 136.9p. That is compared to 128.9p for unleaded last year and 136.9p for diesel. Meanwhile at the Shell garage, next to the Waitrose, on Penn Road, Wolverhampton, prices are 130.9p for unleaded and 138.9p for diesel.

The news of further fluctuating prices comes after a recent AA survey showed drivers paid more to fill up in 2012 than the year before.

On average, UK drivers paid almost £1.50 more to fill a tank at every garage in 2012 than 2011, with diesel tanks up £1.75, the AA said. Figures released by the AA just last month showed prices for petrol averaged 136.40p a litre while diesel averaged 142.48p in 2012.

This compares with last year's petrol average of 133.65p a litre and diesel average of 138.94p. In 2009 the average price of petrol was 100.02p.

The mid-December average fuel price was 132.32p a litre, almost exactly the price charged at the beginning of the year and 2.76p cheaper than the mid-November average. Meanwhile diesel, which was selling at 140.56p a litre at the start of the year, averaged 140.38p in mid-December compared with 141.89p in mid-November.

To show just how much drivers are having to fork out, the average price of a litre of petrol throughout 2009 was 100.02p and diesel was 104.38p, although drivers complained at the time of fuel exceeding the £1-a-litre mark.

The AA highlighted a recent EU consumer survey in which only people in Italy gave petrol retailers a poorer score than those in the UK.

At the time the information was released, AA president Edmund King said: "The fact that petrol prices are back to where they were at the beginning of the year may bring some seasonal festive cheer, but over the last year petrol prices have been 2.75p more expensive than the previous year."