The RAC is increasing the pressure on fuel retailers to slash pump prices on the back of a fall in the price of oil.

The RAC says the current disparity between average pump prices and their wholesale equivalents is “truly shocking”

Its data shows the price of oil has dipped below $80 for the first time since the start of the year, causing the wholesale cost of petrol to tumble to 105p a litre and diesel to 119p.

And now RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams says that if the biggest retailers – chiefly the ‘big four’ supermarkets – don’t take off at least 10p a litre soon, they will be providing further evidence of ‘rocket and feather’ pricing for the Competition and Markets Authority to take note of.

The UK’s competition watchdog said yesterday that it had emerging evidence from fuel retailers of such tactics – where prices shoot up rapidly following wholesale price increases but come down slowly when prices fall. While the CMA said there were no signs of such behaviour by retailers in the years before 2022, it’s found evidence of a change this year – in particular for diesel.

The RAC’s Simon Williams added that the current disparity between average pump prices at 158p for petrol and 182p for diesel and their wholesale equivalents was “truly shocking”.

“Even taking account of major retailers’ buying cycles, we can see no justification for them not cutting their prices significantly,” he stated.

“This failure to reflect falling wholesale costs over multiple weeks at the pumps is totally unreasonable. Whenever you have smaller, independent forecourts charging far less than the big four supermarkets, which buy far larger quantities of fuel on a far more frequent basis, it has to be a cause for major concern.”

Last month saw the RAC warn that supermarkets were charging “excessive” margins and were taking advantage of customers. It also reminded drivers there are smaller, independent forecourts offering more competitive prices than supermarkets – so it remains best to shop around.

Speaking today, Williams added that something “badly needs to change” to give drivers a fairer deal at the pumps – and that everyone will be looking to the CMA to instigate this.

“While our data shows there were clearly issues with ‘rocket-and-feather’ pricing before the pandemic, the situation is 10 times worse today. What’s more, it really isn’t the case that volatility brought about by the war in Ukraine is to blame for what’s happening now as wholesale prices are now so much lower than they were nine weeks ago.”