Supermarket giant Asda has become the ‘first’ fuel retailer to publish local petrol and diesel prices online amidst growing pressure from the government and watchdogs.
The group revealed that the price of each of its 320 filling stations across the UK will be made available on the store locator section of its website.
The latest fuel prices will be displayed each morning at 10:30am with the previous day’s closing price. And further development will see a new system follow that will be able to show real-time prices within ‘the coming months’.
It means drivers will now be able to go online to find the cheapest locations to fill up near where they live or en route to a destination.
Leading the way: ASDA will become the first fuel retailer to publish the petrol and diesel prices at each of its filling on the store locator section of its website. This will help drivers choose where to fill up with the cheapest fuel
A spokesperson for Asda said: ‘Asda is proud to be the price leader in the fuel and by sharing our prices online customers will be able to find the best value at the pumps before they get in the car.’
Reacting to the news, Simon Williams, RAC fuel spokesman, said: ‘While it’s good to see the supermarkets start to publish their pump prices, we don’t believe displaying them on websites will suddenly make retailers start charging fairer prices, particularly as free mobile apps such as ‘myRAC’ can actually compare prices among all fuel retailers – large and small – wherever they are in the country.’
The latest fuel prices will be displayed online each morning at 10:30am with the previous day’s closing price. And further development will see a new system follow that will be able to show real-time prices within ‘the coming months’
Back in May, the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) long-running investigation into the fuel retail segment concluded that retailers, particularly supermarkets, had hiked prices more than needed to boost profit margins.
This was especially the case with diesel throughout 2022 and into 2023, which had been kept artificially high in comparison to much lower wholesale pricing.
It said: ‘Recent high fuel prices paid by drivers cannot be solely blamed on factors outside the control of the retailers, such as the war in Ukraine, which has caused an increase in wholesale prices.’
Instead, the watchdog found evidence that suggests that ‘some weakening of competition’ had pushed up prices at the pump.
Regulators are also probing Asda’s £2.3billion deal for a petrol station operator amid fears it could push up fuel prices.
RAC Fuel Watch data also found the big four supermarkets, which dominate fuel retailing, were slow to pass on reductions in wholesale costs this year, particularly for diesel – a point RAC made clear in its submission to the CMA investigation.
Williams continued: ‘Real competition is the key, and this is something we are sadly lacking at the moment, other than in Northern Ireland where fuel is more than 4p a litre cheaper than the rest of the UK,
‘We don’t believe we’re likely to see real change until we have an official price monitoring body, as recommended by the CMA, that has the power to fine companies that don’t properly reflect significant downward wholesale market movements on their forecourts.’
