Lancaster Evening Post: Fuel profits - the final insult

Lorry drivers being clobbered with soaring prices at the petrol pumps have blasted the £7 billion profits of two massive oil firms as "the final insult".

Shell and BP have announced they raked in the huge profits in the first three months of this year on the back of soaring oil prices and motorists paying £5 a gallon on the forecourt.

On Tuesday, haulage firms and road users' groups have called on the firms and government to ease the pressure.

The cheapest fuel at petrol stations across Preston is £1.04 a litre for unleaded and £1.14 for diesel with further prices being predicted to rise to a national average of £1.12 in the coming months.

George Scannan, who has run GTS Haulage in Walton Summit near Bamber Bridge for 20 years, said the news was "the final insult" for hard-pressed haulage firms.

He said: "I bet they sit there and rub their hands together when the oil price goes up, they know they can whack us all with massive price increases.

"I doubt anyone on the board of BP or Shell has even heard of Lancashire, but maybe when there is no smaller haulage firms like us to buy their fuel they will sit up and notice."

Preston-based Xpress Cleaning Services managing director James Taylorson said it had seen the cost of fuelling is fleet of 75 vans almost double in the last five years.

He said: "It has got beyond a joke now and yet every year we see the profits of these oil firms getting bigger."

Royal Dutch Shell saw its profits for the first quarter of this year rise by a quarter to £4.52 billion while BP saw its leap to £3.8 billion for the same period.

Road Haulage Association spokesman Kate Gibbs said that the massive profits would "rub salt in the wounds" of hard-pressed truckers.

She said: "These profits are mind-boggling when you think of road hauliers who are struggling to deal with the Government's proposed 2p per litre fuel duty rise.

"A lot of companies will go out of business if the 2p rise goes through."

The Taxpayers' Alliance said that soaring VAT and taxes on fuel was making it harder for people to "make ends meet".

Spokesman Mark Wallace said: "Rises in the price of fuel and the cost of living are bad enough but the tax charged on top of it makes it even worse.

"It is time the government recognised the ordinary people are struggling to get by."

Panic buying during last weekend's strike at the Grangemouth oil refinery, near Falkirk, Scotland, saw pumps at petrol stations throughout Preston run dry, with Asda supermarket at Fulwood running out of fuel on Saturday afternoon.