FUEL CRISIS: Record March fuel price surge piles pressure on taxi drivers as annual pump costs rise could tip £2,000
- Perry Richardson
- Apr 3
- 3 min read
Average prices for both petrol and diesel rose by record monthly amounts in March, according to analysis of RAC Fuel Watch data, with the increases linked to the conflict in Iran and feeding straight through to drivers’ day-to-day costs.
A litre of unleaded increased by 20p during the month, climbing from 132.83p on 1 March to 152.83p by the end of the month. That overtook the previous largest monthly rise of 16.6p recorded at the end of June 2022, when petrol moved from 174.84p to 191.43p.
Diesel saw an even steeper rise. The average price went up by 40p in March, reaching 182.77p from 142.38p. That was almost double the previous record monthly increase of 22p seen in March 2022 at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when diesel rose from 155.23p to 177.29p.
Even after the March increases, average fuel prices remain below the peaks recorded in summer 2022. Petrol reached an average high of 191.5p a litre on 3 July that year, while diesel peaked at 199p on 25 June. But the latest rise has still added materially to immediate running costs for both households and commercial drivers.
RAC Fuel Watch data shows petrol and diesel posted their biggest monthly price rises on record in March, leaving high-mileage taxi drivers facing sharply higher operating costs before regulated fares can catch up.
For private motorists, the jump means an extra £11 to fill a 55-litre petrol family car, taking the total cost to £84.06. For a diesel car of the same size, the increase is £22, pushing the cost of a full tank above £100 to £100.52.
The impact is heavier for taxi drivers because of the mileage involved. A full-time driver can typically cover between 30,000 and 40,000 miles a year while working across a town or city. Using a typical diesel taxi consumption rate of around 30 miles per gallon, a driver covering 30,000 miles would use about 4,545 litres of fuel a year, while one travelling 40,000 miles would use around 6,060 litres.
Applied across those annual fuel volumes, a 40p per litre rise in diesel adds about £1,818 a year for a driver covering 30,000 miles and about £2,424 for one covering 40,000 miles. If pump prices remain at elevated levels, those higher costs fall directly on drivers rather than being passed on immediately to passengers.
That lag reflects the way taxi fares are regulated in most parts of the UK. Licensed taxi tariffs are generally set through a formal review process run by the local licensing authority, using a cost index based on retrospective industry expenses including fuel, insurance, vehicle costs and maintenance.
Because that index is prepared and submitted before any tariff change takes effect, fare revisions are based on historic operating costs rather than current market conditions. In practice, that leaves drivers carrying the cost of sudden fuel price rises for a period before any approved increase in fares can take effect.
For operators, licensing authorities and drivers, the March fuel spike adds to pressure on a sector already exposed to volatile costs. The key issue for the trade is not only the scale of the increase, but the gap between rapidly rising input costs and the slower pace of fare-setting mechanisms.
RAC Head of Policy, Simon Williams, said: “March has been truly unprecedented – fuel prices have never risen this fast in a single month. But while this is the biggest pence-per-litre increase ever in a month, it’s not as great in real terms as those seen during the 1973 oil crisis when the price of a barrel quadrupled.
“The increases drivers have had to endure in March 2026 far exceed those seen in the early days of the war in Ukraine.
“While the monthly rise in a litre of petrol is bad enough, the jump in the cost of diesel is even harder to swallow at 40p a litre – 18p more than the previous monthly record. With long-term RAC research showing eight-in-10 people are dependent on their vehicles, these costs must really be taking their toll on both households as well as businesses.
“Ahead of the Easter getaway, which is expected to be the busiest on the roads since 2022 with nearly 21m leisure journeys planned, we urge drivers to fill up as usual and to use the myRAC app to find the cheapest forecourts near them.”
