We already learned in a previous blog post that the Pedal® “Fuel Usage” feature helps you keep track of who much petrol you’re consuming on every journey. This feature provides valuable intelligence to drivers who may wonder which part of their regular driving routine is costing them more money, and therefore how they might make a change and bring those costs down.

There is another feature on Pedal® however, that can also help greatly in this respect, and that’s the Low Price Fuel Finder. With each day you use this feature, you can bring financial savings to your household that really start to add up in the long term.

Pedal Low Price Fuel Finder

How Does the Low Price Fuel Finder Work?

Within your Pedal dashboard, you’ll find many “Pods,” one of which is the “Fuel Prices” pod. This is where the Low Price Fuel Finder feature displays its findings. The feature is constantly tracking local fuel prices and then displaying them for you in ascending price order. On top of that, each location is displayed on a map so you can quickly see where the closest ones are, enter the details into your navigation system and then get on your way.

You might find that at this moment, the cheapest local petrol is to be had at the nearby Asda supermarket as opposed to a service station you had been using previously. Asda will only cost you 120.7 pence per litre, whereas the service station is 122.9 pence. You might scoff and think it’s just a couple of pence, but in petrol terms that makes a big difference over a month or two of filling up, especially if you drive a bigger car with a large petrol tank.

It’s just that easy. Login to your dashboard and get the latest information to keep yourself fully abridged of where the cheapest petrol is being sold. There’s no trick or gimmick there, and it’s not worked out according by some algorithm where the petrol locations have paid Pedal® to be on top! It’s a simple information tracker that benefits you.

In its current state, Pedal is only tracking petrol, diesel, and premium fuel prices, but we plan to offer tracking of electric vehicle charging in the near future. EV drivers should look out for that one.

Why is the Low Price Fuel Finder an Important Feature?

It’s a simple fact that drivers in the UK are being extorted when it comes to fuel costs. The average Brit is paying an astonishing £1.22 a litre for petrol. It’s about £1.27 for diesel. In a previous article where we talked about the Fuel Usage feature, we pointed out that these prices are much higher than those paid by drivers in other countries. In Russia they are paying £0.47 a litre, and in China £0.72 a litre. It’s not just developing countries, however, where the prices are lower. Our American cousins pay just £0.54 a litre, Canadians £0.77, and Australians just £0.72.

Even when you consider that places like Hong Kong (£1.73/litre) are even more expensive, you can’t help but feel a little frustrated as a driver in the UK. Furthermore, even when armed with a good smartphone, it would require checking all the various locations yourself to determine the current cheapest rate. At best, you would have to download a completely separate app in order to gain the most current intel on fuel prices in your local area.

This is where Pedal® has the advantage. Not only does it do all the leg-work for you, updating the price and location list regularly, but it’s merely 1 of 20 features in total all of which are designed to enhance your driving life. The Low Price Fuel Finder’s location feature is also a key to its utility. It’s one thing to know that somewhere in the local area has cheaper petrol or diesel, but if it’s too far out of the way, then it becomes a false economy. You end up spending just as much as you would do to buy slightly dearer but much closer fuel.

Regional Fuel Differences in the UK

Since it is based most heavily on the price of oil, it may surprise some to notice that fuel prices across the country vary greatly. As with all things related to cost and price, it’s London and the South of England in general where the biggest price is paid. Londoners pay on average 123.1p/litre, while the South East and Essex/East Anglia pay 122.9 and 122.3p/lire respectively. The cheapest average fuel cost is to be found in Northern Ireland where residents are paying just 116.4p/litre.

Why Does Fuel Price Vary by Region?

Competition

The first and arguably biggest factor that drives fuel price difference across the country is competition between sellers. Back in 2018, the BBC did a feature on this same problem and found that between Taunton in Somerset and Towcester in Northamptonshire, the concentration of competition helps to explain quite a lot, an especially when among that competition you have national supermarket chains.

In Taunton, there were found to be 10 different petrol stations within a 5-mile radius, including locations with 3 different supermarket chains. The prices at the time were between 118p and 127p per litre. When they looked in an equal 5-mile radius in Towcester, however, they found only 4 petrol stations, and none of them were supermarket chains. The prices were between 135p and 140p per litre.

Overheads

Another big factor behind fuel costs is the expense of running the particular location in question. When you run a petrol station in a high-volume area, with queues of cars lining up day-in, day-out, it’s natural that you could afford to sell your petrol at a lower rate. Many have the exact opposite situation, however, operating in low-volume and high-cost areas. Wealthy suburbs have got the wealth, but not the numbers to help a petrol station thrive. When the overheads threaten to become greater than your income, you have to put prices up.

Motorway Location

The ubiquitous motorway service station you might think based on the above two factors must be among the cheapest. In fact, this is not the case. Motorway service stations are among the higher-price locations for fuel. The main reason is that the operators know that people on the motorway would be willing to pay a higher price because they don’t really have a lot of choice. If you are low on fuel, and you have the choice between risking a journey to the next non-motorway location or getting off the road within 2 miles to fill up, you’d likely do the latter.

Interestingly, this is exactly a situation where the Pedal® Fuel Usage feature would help, as it could give you a more accurate understanding of how far you could get on your current petrol load.

Beat the Odds with the Pedal Low Price Fuel Finder

With fuel prices varying so much from region to region and based on a number of key factors, a tool like the Pedal® Low Price Fuel Finder instantly proves its immense worth. Having a live feed of where the lowest prices are, and their map locations gives you an advantage every single day of the week and ensures you never have to pay over the odds for fuel unless you make a choice to for whatever reason.

It’s this kind of empowerment and control that Pedal is proud to put back into the hands of drivers across the country. Sign up for Pedal today, login to your dashboard and see if you’ve been getting the best deal on fuel locally. You can also get key information on your car from the 19 other features that Pedal® offers. You can save money, retain your car’s value, keep an eye on your car’s health and much more. It’s all here in Pedal