Oil price rise adds £64,000 to firm's weekly fuel bill

Oil price rises caused by the Iran war have added £64,000 to a Welsh haulier's weekly fuel bill, with concerns that consumers will eventually face higher prices for food and clothing.

Huw Owen, who founded Wales' largest haulage company in 1972, said prices for diesel were up 30% and were still climbing.

The Road Haulage Association (RHA) warned increased costs would "inevitably" be passed on, and called for the UK government to maintain the 5p cut in fuel duty which is due to end in September.

A Treasury spokesperson said ministers would ensure drivers got "a fair deal" at the pump.

Owen's company said its suppliers had stopped the ability to order a week's worth of fuel in advance and it was now having to negotiate the cost of daily deliveries to its depots.

When oil prices shot up in the wake of the war in Iran, he said "we felt it as a company immediately", with the current price about 30% higher than pre-war fuel costs.

Owens Group operates a fleet of about 600 trucks and vans which travel the length of the United Kingdom, delivering goods on behalf of other businesses.

"With a fleet of that size, we burn a tanker [of fuel] a day. So before this, we were ordering fuel a week or a fortnight in advance.

"But once this [war] came, there was an immediate cut [to that facility] and the prices went up overnight."

While some of the company's contracts include fuel escalators, allowing the price paid by the customer to fluctuate depending on the cost of diesel, many do not allow the firm to recoup increased fuel costs.

Oil prices have gone above $100 a barrel after uncertainty about supplies following disruption to shipping around the key route for tankers along the Strait of Hormuz.

The war in Iran is "having a profound impact already" on the cost of fuelling lorries, vans and coaches, according to the Road Haulage Association (RHA).

"We've seen this impact filter through very, very quickly in the fuel supply," said Geraint Davies from the RHA.

Price increases were difficult to absorb, Davies said, adding that only "some operators are able to pass this on" at the moment.

He warned that persistent high fuel prices "will have an inevitable inflationary effect" on consumers, whose products rely on road haulage to move across the country for distribution to shops and for home deliveries.

UK government proposals to end the 5p cut to fuel duty in September would "add fuel to the fire of inflation", Davies said, and called for the decision to be reversed.

The UK government said it had "inherited a broken financial system" that had included plans to increase fuel duty.

A spokesperson for HM Treasury said the government had "extended the 5p fuel duty cut to September to save drivers £49 and our new fuel finder will ensure drivers get a fair deal at the pump."