Bedfordshire haulage firm warns soaring diesel costs are putting businesses under pressure
D&G Noble in Wootton says it spent around £50,000 more on fuel last month than it would have done at the start of the year
A Bedfordshire haulage firm says soaring diesel prices are putting businesses in the industry under growing pressure.
D&G Noble in Wootton says it spent around £50,000 more on fuel last month than it would have done at the start of the year, as the company used around 84,000 litres of fuel in August.
The RAC said on September 23 that the average price of diesel had reached 197.31p per litre – just 1.78p below the record of 199.09p set in June 2022. It said some forecourts were already charging more than the previous record.
Luke Busbridge, Operations Manager at D&G Noble, says the company was paying around 60p less per litre in February.
Mr Busbridge says the increase in fuel costs is having a significant impact on the business.
“We'd much rather spend that money on increasing the fleet size, increasing the business. So there's definitely a lot of things we could do with that money rather than spend it on fuel.”
Mr Busbridge says the rising cost of diesel is also pushing up other expenses.
“Everything else rises with it. So, obviously, AdBlue rises with the fuel, tyres rise with the fuel, call-out charges rise with the fuel. Everything just seems to rise when the fuel rises.”
He says the company is having to work harder to find competitive fuel prices.
“Purchasing has become more difficult. We're contacting more suppliers, we're negotiating our fuel card prices, we're messaging our drivers.”
D&G Noble can pass some of the increased costs on to customers through fuel surcharges, but Mr Busbridge says this also has an impact further down the supply chain.
The company is heavily reliant on diesel because of the specialist vehicles it operates.
Mr Busbridge says the rising costs are making it harder for haulage businesses to plan for the future.
“The costs are definitely stunting our growth. We see transport companies going under every day.”