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Diesel hits 167.1p a litre - AFRs due a lookPetrol 152.3p, diesel 167.1p, plus 13 more calls for UK fleet desks · 15 stories · 28 Jul 2026 | |||||||||||||
THRIVE is independent fleet intelligence, direct to your inbox. Each Tuesday we read the UK fleet market at the source and send you the developments that actually change a fleet decision - every claim linked to where it came from. A short read. | |||||||||||||
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Why it matters: Advisory Fuel Rates are reviewed quarterly against exactly this kind of pump data, and a sustained run of weekly increases is what finance teams watch for. Petrol averaged 152.3p a litre this week, up 1.8p, while diesel climbed 2.6p to 167.1p, according to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero's weekly road fuel prices data, published on 21 July 2026 for the week commencing 20 July. If diesel keeps climbing at this pace, the current AFR band risks under-reimbursing drivers on mileage claims, or leaving fleets exposed to under-recovery if rates lag the market. Either way, the gap between what is published and what drivers are actually paying at the pump is where disputes start. Context matters here. The duty rate on both ultra low sulphur petrol and diesel has sat at 52.95 pence per litre since March 2022, with VAT unchanged at 20 per cent throughout the same period, per DESNZ's underlying weekly series. So this week's rises are not a Treasury change, there is no fuel duty freeze debate to point to as a mitigating factor, and the likeliest explanation is wholesale and retail pricing rather than tax. The published data does not break out margin versus wholesale cost, though, so treat that as informed inference rather than proven fact. A 2.6p rise on diesel sounds trivial until it is multiplied across a van fleet doing serious annual mileage. For an operator running fifty vehicles averaging 12,000 miles a year at nine miles per litre, that is 600,000 miles and around 66,667 litres a year, so the increment alone adds roughly £1,730 to the annual fuel bill before any wider trend continues. Diesel now sits nearly 15p above petrol per litre, a gap that widened this week after narrowing every week since mid-April, and one that light commercial operators in particular cannot easily engineer around given available EV van range and payload trade-offs. This is also a live watch item precisely because it is a weekly series, not a one-off spike. DESNZ has published the series on GOV.UK since 24 September 2013, with data going back to June 2003, and updates it weekly, so short-term noise is normal, but a weekly rise of this size warrants attention rather than a shrug. The department takes queries on the series directly, a useful route if your finance team wants clarification on methodology before adjusting internal budgets. The decision implication is straightforward: check current AFR bands against this week's 152.3p and 167.1p figures now, not at the next scheduled quarterly review. If the gap between advisory rate and actual pump price has already opened up, flag it before drivers start doing the maths themselves. (Source: GOV.UK · DESNZ Weekly Road Fuel Prices) | |||||||||||||
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New stations, faster journeys and better connections as works begin to restore Portishead line for the first time in 60 years | |||||||||||||
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Work has begun on reviving the Portishead line after more than 60 years without passenger trains, with £63 million of government money behind it and passenger services due back in 2028. The fleet angle: 5.5 miles of freight railway gets upgraded alongside the passenger works, and a 25-minute Bristol Temple Meads link reconnects over 50,000 people to the network. Worth flagging in any 2028 route-planning review, particularly if you're serving sites around Pill or Bedminster. (Department for Transport) | |||||||||||||
Cupra Tavascan faces a crowded electric SUV field | |||||||||||||
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Cupra's Tavascan, profiled by salary sacrifice provider Fleet Evolution, competes in a busy electric SUV segment, and that matters more than the badge. One more entrant makes the electric SUV shortlist longer, but it doesn't shorten the due diligence: residuals, charging speed and lease pricing all need the usual scrutiny rather than showroom enthusiasm. Worth a look if the electric SUV segment is on your replacement cycle radar, but treat it as one more option to benchmark, not a default pick. (Fleet Evolution) | |||||||||||||
Used MG4 salary sacrifice saves £81 monthly over new | |||||||||||||
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The cheap-EV crown this year isn't about new versus used MG - it's about how much cheaper used gets when the BiK rate doesn't care either way. A used MG4 on salary sacrifice runs £259 a month net against £340 for the new equivalent, an £81 saving that dwarfs the £37 gap on a used-versus-new Tesla Model 3. Both used and new EVs sit on the same 4% BiK rate for 2026/27, so the difference comes from the car's price rather than its tax treatment, while petrol and diesel drivers are still facing rates up to 37%. For fleets chasing salary sacrifice uptake, used MG stock is worth a look. (The Electric Car Scheme) | |||||||||||||
Tax band gap widens BiK bills for identical company cars | |||||||||||||
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Two drivers in identically specified company cars can end up with very different BiK bills, purely down to their income tax band - which matters because HMRC data shows 260,000 company car drivers earned below £50,000 in 2024/25 (Fleet News [https://fleetnews.co.uk/news/what-do-people-earn-who-have-access-to-a-company-car]). The mechanics: taxable value is set first by P11D value and CO2-based rate, then multiplied by your income tax band, usually 20% or 40% in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with Scotland running its own bands. In an illustrative Ayvens example using a 3% EV rate (the rate is 4% in 2026/27), a £45,000 EV has a £1,350 taxable value and a PHEV at 13% has £5,850, so the gap between vehicle choices widens the further up the tax bands a driver sits. (Ayvens) THRIVE's company car BiK rates table sets out the appropriate percentages year by year. | |||||||||||||
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Leapmotor T03 drops below £13k for retail buyers with July grant rise | |||||||||||||
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Leapmotor's UK price list gives retail buyers a sub-£13k EV: the T03 lands at £12,995 on the road after the Leap Grant doubled to £3,000 on 1 July 2026, down from a £15,995 list price, while the larger C10 comes in at £32,750 after a £3,750 grant against £36,500 list, per The Electric Car Scheme. Both qualify for the current 4% BiK band on company cars, well below the rates attached to petrol and diesel equivalents, per the same source. The catch for fleets: the Leap Grant is for private retail buyers only: Leapmotor's terms exclude fleet, business and Motability sales, so salary sacrifice orders do not get it, so the 4% BiK carries over but the grant-reduced prices do not, and salary sacrifice quotes are priced separately. | |||||||||||||
Haulier director indefinitely disqualified as transport manager over tachograph fraud | |||||||||||||
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TMA Haulage Ltd has had its licence revoked, subject to a period of grace until 6 October 2026, after Traffic Commissioner Kevin Rooney found sole director and transport manager Andrew Tucker had used a former employee's tachograph card on at least three occasions in 2025 and again in April 2026 to dodge drivers' hours rules. He is now indefinitely banned from acting as a transport manager anywhere. The case started life as DVSA intelligence on second-card use, and the outcome speaks for itself: a single director running the whole operation still lost his good repute as a transport manager over tachograph fraud. (Traffic Commissioners for GB) | |||||||||||||
Bosch strengthens commercial vehicle workshops with new products and diagnostic solutions | |||||||||||||
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Bosch's new DCP 800 bench tests common-rail pumps up to 2,700 bar and turns results round in about 20 minutes regardless of the pump on the bench, covering a broad spectrum of Bosch common-rail pumps from CP1 to CPN6, per Bosch Mobility. For workshops carrying mixed diesel fleets, that single-bench coverage looks like it should mean fewer rigs and quicker fault-finding, though Bosch's own material stops short of quantifying any downtime saving. Bosch says the DCP 800 is compatible with existing Bosch test kits such as CP1, CP3 and CBX8 from EPS 815/708 systems, allowing a gradual move to the new bench, so independents should check which of their kits carry over. Due at Automechanika Frankfurt in September; worth asking your service partner if they're taking one on. | |||||||||||||
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Škoda's seven-seat Peaq SUV opens orders August 2026 | |||||||||||||
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Škoda is temporarily renaming the Peak District "Peaq District" to promote a seven-seat electric SUV that opens for order in August 2026 - useful ammunition for fleets short on large-format EVs for people-carrying duty. According to Škoda's own news pages, its BEV deliveries rose 48.3% year on year to 108,200 units in H1 2026, making it Europe's fourth-best-selling electric brand, and the Peaq was lined up as the race director's car on 12 of the 21 Tour de France stages (Škoda). Seven-seat EVs remain thin on the ground for family and shuttle fleets, so worth a slot on the 2026 evaluation list once UK pricing lands. | |||||||||||||
Modul-System says it is first UK specialist to fit out BYD E-Vali | |||||||||||||
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Modul-System UK, formerly Tevo and now pushing nearly 50 years in racking and conversions, says it has built what it calls the UK's first professionally converted BYD E-Vali long wheelbase high-roof EV, fitting parcel shelving on the nearside and lightweight aluminium racking on the offside. That matters because payload is the usual EV van headache, and racking weight eats into range and load capacity fast. The company points to ultra-high-strength steel construction and a three-year installation warranty, backed by a service network across Scotland, the North, South, Wales and Ireland, as the aftersales case for fleets comparing conversion suppliers rather than just base vehicle specs. | |||||||||||||
Nine in ten EV drivers won't switch back to petrol | |||||||||||||
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Roughly nine in ten EV drivers wouldn't switch back to petrol or diesel, according to Indra's review of DfT and EVA England data, with EVA England's own survey putting the figure at 98% and Zapmap finding just 3% of fully electric drivers wanted out. That retention rate is worth noting for fleet business cases: driver pushback is the usual excuse for stalling EV rollout, and this evidence works against it. The same review cites Carbon Brief's estimate of £1,100-plus annual fuel savings versus petrol, assuming mostly home charging on a cheap tariff, which adds a cost argument to the retention data for fleets weighing up salary sacrifice and home charging infrastructure. | |||||||||||||
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UK pension giants explore £1bn fund to back Britain’s innovators | |||||||||||||
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UK pension providers are exploring a new Scale-up Fund worth over £1bn, aimed squarely at high-growth British science and technology firms, with the British Business Bank and the Office for Investment lending support to get it off the ground, according to HM Treasury. It's early-stage and exploratory rather than committed capital, but worth watching: fresh domestic funding for scale-ups is the kind of pipeline that could eventually feed through to the tech suppliers fleets rely on, though the announcement itself names no sectors. No named companies yet, so nothing to action beyond keeping half an eye on where this money lands. | |||||||||||||
Where the Money Actually Leaks: A Practical Guide to Fleet Cost Control | |||||||||||||
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Fuel typically makes up a quarter to a third of total fleet operating costs, according to a Quartix guide written for its US market, but Quartix argues the pump price is the one part of it operators cannot control Its case is that the real leaks sit elsewhere: engines left ticking over rack up fuel and engine hours nobody billed for, a few vans idling half an hour a day, five days a week, adds up to a real annual cost, and rough driving styles quietly inflate both fuel bills and brake, tyre and drivetrain wear. Unverified mileage compounds it, turning business-versus-personal splits into guesswork at expense time. Quartix's answer, as a tracking supplier, is to measure these leaks with telematics (Quartix). | |||||||||||||
Cox sharpens Central Dispatch's AI pricing tool for volatile US transport market | |||||||||||||
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Vehicle-transport pricing is a live problem for anyone moving stock between auction, dealer and depot, and it is worth watching how the data side of that market is evolving - even where the tool in question is US-only. Cox Automotive has sharpened the AI behind Price Check Plus, the pricing tool on its Central Dispatch marketplace which, together with the Price Check tool, has informed more than 16 million pricing decisions, because vehicle-shipping rates are swinging faster than the firm has tracked in years, according to Cox Automotive. There is no UK equivalent on offer here, but the underlying shift, away from static rate cards and towards live pricing data, is the same one reshaping haulage and logistics contracts closer to home. | |||||||||||||
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BEV share hits 30% of UK new car registrations in June | |||||||||||||
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Nearly one in three new cars registered in June 2026 was pure electric - BEV share hit 30.0%, up from 24.8% a year earlier, with volumes up 35% to 63,950 units (SMMT). Year-to-date the figure sits at 25.01%, still climbing steadily rather than spiking. For fleet buyers still hedging with PHEVs or diesel, that trajectory is worth building procurement and charging-infrastructure plans around now, rather than assuming the pace will stall. | |||||||||||||
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