Drivers pay up to 16p a litre more for petrol on the motorway - and a third will drive ten miles to get cheaper fuel
- 74% of motorists say fuel prices on motorways are 'very expensive'
- More than a quarter refuse to buy fuel at motorway stops
- One in five put 'just enough fuel to get by' at motorway stations
Drivers pay as much as 16p per litre more to fill up at motorway petrol stations - and three quarters say prices are 'very expensive', a new study reveals.
Nearly half of drivers only fill up at motorway petrol stations when they have no other choice and thousands risk running out of fuel because they refuse to cough up for the higher prices.
Almost a third of drivers would come off the motorway and add another 10 miles to their journey to find cheaper fuel, the study from the RAC found.
Prices are 10p per litre more expensive on average - and 16p more expensive than supermarket prices.
A driver filling up at Reading services' BP motorway station on the M4 yesterday would have paid 137.9p a litre for petrol and 138.9p for diesel. But just six miles away at Esso in Shinfield they would have paid 121.9p for petrol and 125.9p for diesel, according to the motoring organisation.
Higher prices: Motorway services stations charge drivers up to 10p more than elsewhere, RAC said
The RAC argued that if anything prices should be cheaper on motorways because it is easier to deliver fuel to motorway service stations than within cities.
Simon Williams, RAC fuel spokesman, said: 'We can see no reason why motorway fuel should be so much more expensive.
'In fact, arguably it is much easier from a delivery point of view than it is getting fuel to urban filling stations.'
More than a quarter of polled motorists refuse to buy fuel at motorway stops.
RAC warned that it deals with around 22,000 incidents of running out of fuel each year.
Simon Williams added: 'Our research actually shows that almost a third of drivers would come off the motorway and add another 10 miles to their journey to find cheaper fuel.
'There is also a real concern that some motorists may decide to risk getting home with what they have left in the tank, rather than fill up at an expensive service station, and potentially run out of fuel.
'That presents a real danger, both to that driver and other road users.'
Until the next exit: More than a quarter of polled motorists said they refuse to buy fuel at motorway stops
As many as 63 per cent of drivers want a cap on fuel prices to stop motorways service stations charging more than those elsewhere, the survey found.
More than a quarter would be happy with fuel being capped at just a few pence over the non-motorway price and only 10 per cent believed nothing needed to be done.
The majority of drivers said service stations should display the price of their fuel before drivers pulled off the motorway.
In May 2013, as part of a review into motorway fuel prices, Prime Minister David Cameron said motorway services could be forced to advertise their fuel prices in advance, but to date there has been no obvious progress in making these changes, nor has there been an update on tackling high motorway fuel prices, the RAC said.
Williams added: 'We feel it's only fair that the motorist is able to make a choice about how much they want to pay for fuel before coming off at the exit and having to accept whatever they are presented with.
'It's not like anybody has a choice about whether they put fuel in the car or not, but they should not have to experience this 21st century form of highway robbery.'
Motorists have seen the cost of filling up their cars dropping recently amid tumbling wholesale oil prices and could be in for even cheaper prices in the coming months.
Motoring organisation AA said the average price of petrol across the UK two days ago was 124.93p a litre, down more than 0.75p over the weekend, while diesel averaged 129.15p a litre.
However, the latest figures do not include the effect of Asda, Morrisons and Tesco lowering their petrol and diesel prices by up to 2p a litre from yesterday.
The RAC survey was of nearly 1,500 motorists.
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