All Latest News articles – Page 311
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News
Petrol tanker ruptured in crash in Wales
A Texaco petrol tanker has been ruptured in a collision with a crane in Pembrokeshire, in south-west Wales. Dyfed-Powys Police said no-one has been hurt in the crash on the A4076 at Haverfordwest on Friday morning but a substantial amount of fuel had spilled into the road. Fire crews from ...
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BOSS and Allstar set up joint fraud initiative
BOSS, the British Oil Security Syndicate, has entered a partnership with leading fuel card services provider Allstar to help reduce fraud on UK forecourts. The joint working initiative will see BOSS and Allstar sharing information on incidents and suspected fraudsters, boosting efforts to identify and bring to justice serial offenders. ...
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Price surge has peaked says AA
The surge in UK petrol pump prices, which has added an average 3p per litre (ppl) to the cost since June, shows signs of faltering according to the latest AA Fuel Price Report. Average prices peaked last week at 137.61ppl, before dipping slightly over the weekend. The AA said some ...
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M6 services win permission for wind turbine
A motorway service station has won permission to erect a wind turbine to generate electricity despite objections from nearby residents. Moto initially won permission for a 61m high turbine at its M6 northbound Stafford service station from Stafford Borough Council in 2011. But the mast intended for installation has since ...
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MRH joins Payment Watch scheme
MRH Retail, which is number one in Forecourt Trader’s Top 50 Indies, has joined the Payment Watch debt recovery scheme run by the British Oil Security Syndicate (BOSS). MRH’s sites throughout England, Scotland and Wales are all joining the scheme which has helped members recover 80% of their ‘no means ...
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Spar and Londis enhance ranges
Two of the biggest symbol groups in the forecourt sector have introduced changes to their ranges. Spar UK is revamping two of its own brand soft drinks ranges with a redesign and new flavours in line with trends in the market. Spar’s flavoured still water range is getting a revamp ...
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Rural support plans criticised
Government proposals to extend its fuel discount scheme to more isolated rural areas have been described as “too little too late” by the Rural Shops Alliance (RSA), which represents 7,500 rural retailers. Noting that the number of filling stations in the UK has declined from 37,500 in 1970 to less ...
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BP joins banks’ loyalty scheme
BP has joined Natwest and RBS’s new loyalty programme, Cashback Plus, as one of the launch partners. According to RBS and Natwest, Cashback Plus is the UK’s only debit-card linked loyalty scheme, and more than 12 million of their customers will be rewarded for shopping on their debit card. Cashback ...
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Motorists shopping around more for fuel
Motorists in Britain are collectively spending £516m a month more on fuel compared with a year ago, according to new research from Sainsbury’s Bank car insurance. This equates to, on average, £14.64 more per motorist per month on fuel compared with a year ago. The findings reveal that in a ...
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Call for action over illegal fuel in Ireland
The Freight Transport Association Ireland (FTAI) has called on the Irish government to take immediate action in order to combat illegal fuel which has generated millions of Euros for criminals. During a meeting with Leo Varadkar, the minister for transport, tourism and sport, FTAI representatives said the availability of illicit ...
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Retailers urged to act over card fees
The PRA is urging retailers to get involved in a campaign to curb excessive fees charged for processing debit and credit card transactions. The EC has announced plans to introduce limits, but it could take years before they are implemented and the PRA wants to apply pressure for the process ...
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Warning over new EU tobacco plans
Retailers have been urged to take action over proposed new restrictions on the sales of tobacco. The EU is considering a number of proposals including the ban of pack sizes below 20 for cigarettes, a ban on packs below 40 grams for roll your own (RYO) tobacco products, a ban ...
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Dealer hid drugs on forecourt shelves
A drug dealer hid a package of drugs on the shelves of a petrol station shop in a bid to avoid being caught in possession of them, a court has been told. Craig Steele, who was described as one of Plymouth’s main cannabis dealers, was arrested by police while at ...
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Man threatens customer with pool cue
A man has been given a suspended prison sentence after threatening a customer on a forecourt with a pool cue and demanding he hand over the keys to his vehicle. Scott Wilson raised the pool cue above his head and ordered Leighton Stephenson to hand over his keys at the ...
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Light commercial vehicle sales slip
The latest light commercial vehicle sales figures were down 0.6% in July but are still up 6.5% for the year-to-date. Van sales dipped 2.6% last month but remained 9.3% ahead year-to-date. “It is positive to see that the commercial vehicle market remained stable during July, with a healthy increase in ...
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Autogas opens new facility in Grimsby
LPG supplier Autogas has opened its first refuelling facility in Grimsby at the newly rebuilt Shell petrol station on Moody Lane. Autogas invested in excess of £67,000 putting the new autogas LPG refuelling facility in to the site as part of Shell’s full refurbishment of the facility. It means that ...
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Car auction value and volume up
The average value of used cars sold at auction increased from £4,828 to £4,862 in July and the total volume of sales rose 6% from 83,637 units to 88,697 units, according to the National Association of Motor Auctions (NAMA). NAMA chairman Justin Lane said: “During the first two weeks of ...
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Spar to advertise on TV
Spar UK will be back on shoppers’ TV screens for the first time in four years, as part of a £5m national multi-media campaign, kicking off in early October. Featuring TV and digital advertising, a customer magazine and in-store communication, Spar’s new campaign is intended to celebrate its convenience and ...
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Subway opens 4,000th European store
The Subway brand has reached the milestone of 4,000 stores operating in Europe with the opening of the latest outlet in the Gara de Nord railway station in Bucharest, Romania. The first European Subway store opened in the UK, in Brighton, in 1996. Since then the brand has expanded its ...
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Shock new figures undermine OFT findings
January’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) report on the road fuel market has been seriously undermined by new market share figures for supermarkets released by the Government. They show the supermarkets have a far higher share of the road fuels market than previously admitted. The latest combined total for petrol and diesel sees an increase to 46.5% in 2012. This compares with 39% for 2012 stated in the OFT report, which gave a clean bill of health to the way the market operates. The figure of 39% was also reported for 2011 in a report by Deloitte – Study of the UK petroleum retail market. This report was commissioned and published last year by the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC), and was used by DECC as proof of the security of UK fuel supplies. The PRA said it was told the statistical data on retail fuel volumes since 2008 has recently been revised on the DECC website, after gross reporting errors were uncovered by officials. PRA chairman Brian Madderson commented: “5,000 forecourts have closed since 2000, another 175 closed last year and the independent retailers are continuing to get massacred by the aggressive discounting and below cost sales tactics by supermarkets. “There was considerable complacency evident in the Deloitte and OFT reports which assumed that supermarket volumes were levelling off and so the market was steady. However, we warned Government that the 2012 Christie study indicated that supermarkets are trying to open up to 50 new forecourts for each of the next four years.” “The data revision indicates that the average hyper sells 12 million litres per year and independents 2 million litres. Thus every new-to-industry opening by a hyper could suck up the entire fuel volume of six independent retailers in the local area and jeopardise the business of at least 10 existing forecourts every year if such expansion proceeded. This is will be bad for competition, bad for consumer choice, bad for jobs at local family firms and bad for rural communities.” Madderson added: “This re-jigging of key market information underpins our members’ real concern that the UK’s energy resilience for retail fuels is at stake. If this situation is allowed to continue, there will be an inevitable acceleration in the number of site closures to more than 300 per year. Thus there will be a severe worsening of supply resilience from fewer sites with low stockholdings. “This should ensure that our request to DECC for a round table review of the independent forecourt industry will receive the full attention of Michael Fallon MP, minister for energy, in the coming weeks.”