Fuel price hike worries hauliers

The Road Haulage Association says UK hauliers face a ‘winter of discontent’ with the news that storms in the Gulf of Mexico have halted oil production in the region. As a result, crude oil had traded at a record high, nearly $82 a barrel, by the end of last week. In the UK, PetrolPrices.com quoted a national average of £0.971 a litre. (For our US readers, that’s about $7.42 a US gallon and compares to last weeks’ average of $2.963 a gallon from the US Energy Administration.) The RHA says the news will mean an inevitable fuel price rise and so wants the UK government to hold off its planned two pence a litre fuel duty hike, planned for October. “There can now be no argument that this increase is completely unjustifiable,” said Roger King, RHA boss.

More from Kate Gibbs on +44 (0)1 932 838 917 or kate.gibbs@rha.net