Petrol has reached its highest price since November 2022, on the busiest bank holiday weekend the RAC has recorded. For any business that runs a van, that is a cost rise arriving in the middle of its busiest few days.
01What the numbers say
According to the AA, the average price of petrol hit 161.6p a litre on 28 August 2026. Diesel reached 183.4p. The AA says petrol has not cost this much since November 2022, in the months after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The rise has been fast. According to PetrolPrices, petrol averaged around 156p in late July and diesel around 174p. That is about 5p on petrol and 9p on diesel inside a month.
The timing is awkward. The RAC forecasts 20 million leisure car trips between Friday 28 August and Monday 31 August, the highest since its records began in 2015. Traffic slows every van on the road, and slower miles burn more fuel.
02Why the September duty story is wrong
Several fuel price sites have reported that the temporary 5p duty cut ends in September. It does not.
According to the published fuel duty rates on gov.uk, the cut runs until 31 December 2026. The rate then rises from 52.95p to 55.95p a litre on 1 January 2027. It returns to 57.95p on 1 March 2027, the level it sat at before March 2022.
That matters for planning. A van covering 20,000 miles a year burns roughly 2,600 litres, so the full 5p is about £130 a year. The price move already behind us is worth closer to £245 a year on the same van.
03What owners can do about it
The practical answers are the ordinary ones. Recheck your cost per mile at today's prices. Look again at the jobs with the longest journeys. Decide whether a more efficient vehicle is worth financing now, while the duty rate is still at its lower level.
We have set out the arithmetic, the duty timetable and the finance options in full in our guide, a fuel cost plan for van businesses.
