BREAKDOWNS caused by motorists running out of fuel have increased by nearly one- fifth over the last year as soaring petrol prices lead people to put off filling up their tank, the RAC has found.
The motoring organisation said it received 4780 calls from drivers who had run out of fuel in February, up from 3900 a year earlier.
Its findings come after the cost of petrol increased by 24% over the past two years, adding £14.66 to the price of filling up a car with a 55-litre tank. Diesel has seen an even bigger price hike of 28%, meaning motorists were last month paying £17.73 more to fill up than in February 2010, the RAC said.
David Bizley, the RAC's technical director, said there was a link between the record cost of fuel and the number of drivers prepared to run on empty. "These figures certainly suggest the spiralling cost of fuel is causing many motorists to drive on empty. Although this is understandable given the current prices, it is clearly leaving many drivers unnecessarily stranded," he said.
The report comes amid growing anger about the cost of fuel and the impact it is having on ordinary motorists, businesses and the UK's economic health, putting Chancellor George Osborne under intense pressure to offer concessions in tomorrow's Budget and scrap a 3p hike in fuel duty planned for August.
The RAC said this will add a further £1.65 to the cost of filling up a car alone. Since December 2008, there have been six rises in fuel duty and two hikes in VAT.
Both the RAC and Automobile Association have published separate research in recent months showing motorists are increasingly cutting back on what they consider to be essential journeys to save on their fuel bills.
The RAC's latest Report on Motoring, published last June, found half of drivers have cut back on the number of journeys they make by car and a 10th had been forced to give up driving their children to school and social activities.
The AA has reported similar findings from its members, with 75% saying they were either cutting back on journeys or reducing spending elsewhere to pay for running their car.
The organisations have urged motorists to shop around for fuel, pointing out discrepancies in price can be up to 4p to 5p per litre in different forecourts and retailers a few miles from each other, including some owned by the same companies.
In its programme for government drawn up in May 2010, the Coalition pledged to provide relief for motorists in remote rural areas who were suffering from high fuel costs. However, a pilot scheme offering a 5p reduction in fuel duty has only been applied to some Scottish islands and the Isles of Scilly, with little hope of it eventually extending it to the mainland, due to a conflict with European Union laws.
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