2.51 billion extra business miles travelled in June shows green shoots of recovery, says Allstar

These findings come as Allstar, the UK business and fuel expenses card provider, launches its new Business Barometer which will be tracking business mileage as an economic indicator of sector recovery. As the UK’s largest fuel card provider, Allstar will monitor the extent to which more than 50,000 companies are getting back on the road and which sectors have changed their travel habits the most.

The Allstar Business Barometer reveals that while the impact of COVID-19 has been felt across all sectors of the economy, there are industries currently showing signs of recovery at a faster rate than others, with growth ranging between 11.3% and 101.6%. The largest month-on-month increases were seen in sectors perceived to be hit hardest initially by lockdown, with arts, entertainment and recreation rising the sharpest (101.6%) followed by education (47.8%). Meanwhile, fuel usage in the wholesale and retail sector increased by 46%; manufacturing rose by 40.5%; and the construction sector increased by more than a third (34.3%).

Conversely, activity in essential services like agriculture, forestry and fishing (11.3%), utilities (20.2%) and transportation (22.1%) witnessed less of a sharp bounce back in June and remained more consistent month-on-month. The public sector has also shown signs of uplift since lockdown began to ease in May, with health and social care fuel usage increase by almost a fifth (17.0%) month-on-month.

Paul Holland, managing director of UK Fuel at Fleetcor, Allstar’s parent company, said: “It comes as no surprise that a significant impact has been felt across the board but every litre of fuel used since lockdown tells its own story of a business adapting, and often diversifying, to meet changing needs. It’s promising to see further signs of recovery as vehicle fleets that were mothballed in full lockdown have begun to re-emerge, helped by fuel prices broadly remaining at a four-year low.

“Looking ahead, the pace at which businesses return to a more normalised performance and whether we see a change in patterns of business travel and an ongoing increase in home deliveries will be fascinating. The Allstar Business Barometer provides unique insight into the evolution of the post-COVID UK economy, which will help businesses benchmark their own recovery.”

Tracking the recovery from a baseline during ‘peak lockdown’ (April 6-13), the analysis reflects the easing of lockdown measures in mid-May, when the government launched its return to work ‘COVID-19 Secure’ guidance; and June 15, when non-essential retailers reopened. Across all sectors, fuel consumption has risen 109% between w/c April 6 and w/c June 29, with arts, entertainment and leisure businesses reporting sharpest increase (275%), and agriculture, forestry and fishing remaining most steady (34% uplift).

Allstar provides its customers with access to the UK’s largest fuel card network of over 7,700 fuel sites. The Allstar fuel cards are accepted at 90% of the UK fuel sites, including at all major oil brands and low-cost supermarket sites.