BRITAIN’S white van army is having to spend an extra £700 a year each just to stay on the road.
Rocketing fuel prices have left tradespeople being forced to stump up more than a third more to fill a Ford Transit, according to Auto Trader.
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The cost of filling up a typical 70-litre tank of a diesel trades vehicle now averages £124 — up a huge 37 per cent on a year ago.
Based on an average 13,000 miles a year and 40 miles per gallon, that works out at an extra £709 a year.
Filling up a petrol transit van has jumped 28 per cent in the past 12 months. It’s also more expensive to buy a second-hand van now.
The average cost of a used Transit van has climbed by a fifth, or £2,950, since April 2021 to £19,328.
Ian Plummer, of Auto Trader, said: “These figures show starkly the strain that the nation’s army of tradesmen and women are under from rising fuel prices.
“Finding more than £700 extra a year for fuel simply to go to work is an onerous burden that most will have no choice but to pass on to their customers. That adds to the inflationary challenges faced by the wider economy.”
He warned price pressure for van drivers will linger while the Ukraine war continues as Russia supplies a fifth of all the diesel sold in the UK.
And while the Chancellor cut 5p a litre from fuel duty in the recent spring statement, it is only a temporary measure which is due to be reversed next March — and could add 8p a litre to petrol costs.
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