A third of all petrol stations registered on the government’s Fuel Finder database as motorway sites are not at Motorway Service Areas, with some being 50 or 100 miles away from the nearest motorway, Forecourt Trader can reveal.
Since February, fuel retailers have had to report petrol and diesel prices to Fuel Finder, while also sharing whether each forecourt is a motorway service station. Government rules require that only forecourts at official Motorway Service Areas (MSAs) be labelled motorway sites.
But while there are 214 petrol stations (all data drawn at 10am on 20 April 2026) registered as motorway sites on Fuel Finder, geographical analysis reveals 71 are not at Motorway Service Areas.
The mislabelling means price comparisons that exclude motorway forecourts due to their high costs would not count sites that should be included, potentially giving an inaccurate picture across geographical areas or brand comparisons. One industry expert has warned the problem could ”undermine trust” in Fuel Finder.
This latest issue follows a host of documented Fuel Finder problems including delays, bugs, and forecourts listed as being in the middle of the ocean.
Of those 71 mis-labelled sites, 31 are operated by Asda. The private-equity-owned supermarket firm runs 792 petrol stations in the UK split across 321 supermarket forecourts, 84 sites wearing Asda Express liveries, and 387 filling stations that trade as Asda Express but have BP, Esso, Shell or Texaco canopy branding.
All 42 forecourts marked as motorway service stations on Fuel Finder by Asda trade as Express sites but wear oil-company branding on their canopies. All 31 mislabelled sites are on major trunk toads bar Asda Heathrow South Express, which is by the airport’s Terminal 5.
Some Asda ‘motorway’ sites nowhere near motorways
Asda Peterhead Express forecourt adjoins the A90 trunk road on the east coast of Scotland. The site is roughly 100 miles away from the M90, the nearest motorway, but is classified as a motorway filling station on Fuel Finder.
Asda Express Weyhill East and Weyhill West services sit on either side of the A303 some 15 miles from the M3. Both are labelled as motorway sites on Fuel Finder.
The firm’s Bangor Express site on the A55 is some 50 miles from the M56, while its Stoke Road filling station is on the A50 Uttoxeter Bypass, 13 miles from the M6. Both are registered with Fuel Finder as motorway sites.
Some Asda-owned sites registered as motorway forecourts are closer to the roads, but despite being just a third of a mile from J23 of the M5, Asda’s Dunball Express filling station is not at a Motorway Service Area so should not be classed as a motorway site.
Dunball Express sells unleaded at 171.9p and diesel at 193.9p. A forecourt operated by Shell just 80 metres away is not classified by the oil major as a motorway site; it sells unleaded at 165.9p and diesel at 194.9p.
Asda declined to comment.
Asda not the only firm mislabelling filling stations
Many mislabelled filling stations are run by single-site operators. The majority are on major trunk roads or close to motorway exits.
Nine mislabelled sites wear BP liveries, although just two of these are registered with the trading name of BP. Five feature Shell forecourts but just two appear to be owned by Shell, while a further two mislabelled motorway sites have Esso branding, but both are owned by independent operators.
A BP at Moto Tiverton is labelled as a motorway site on Fuel Finder, but while Tiverton is just off J27 of the M5, its lack of official MSA status means the ‘motorway’ marker should not be applied.
Five sites operated by Top 50 Indie Karan Retail, which runs around 60 forecourts, were mislabelled as motorway filling stations when Forecourt Trader conducted its analysis. The firm said this was an error, and the motorway markers were removed within 24 hours.
Cluanie Inn Hotel in the Scottish Highlands, meanwhile, is an isolated site adjoining the A87 main road; its pair of fuel pumps are registered as a motorway site.
Why Motorway Service Areas are unique
Motorway service areas are subject to government regulation and must offer certain amenities such as 24-hour hot food and a minimum number of free parking spaces.
MSAs must also not be ‘destinations in their own right’, meaning they cannot feature attractions such as luxury hotels or activity centres that could cause drivers to visit them were they not passing.
Fuel at official MSAs tends to be significantly more expensive that at traditional forecourts due to the areas’ remote locations, which bring high staffing bills, while expensive rents and captive audiences also play a part in pricing. Further, MSA forecourts tend to sell a high proportion of petrol and diesel to customers using corporate fuel cards, which bring with them cheaper prices than are displayed to retail customers.
Responsibility lies with retailers and Fuel Finder ‘aggregator’
The government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has oversight of Fuel Finder. It told Forecourt Trader that “operators should accurately put in their details and we encourage we encourage any suspected data errors to be reported using the official form”, adding that this requirement is mandated by the Motor Fuel Price (Open Data) Regulations 2025.
DESNZ added, though, that as the “aggregator” for Fuel Finder, VE3 Global, which won the contract to build and run the system, “has a responsibility to identify instances of inaccurate reporting and work with petrol filling stations to resolve any issues in the first instance.”
The Department said that if any issues could not be resolved between fuel retailers and the VE3, the aggregator would escalate the matter to the Competition and Markets Authority, which has the ability to fine forecourt firms up to 30% of their UK turnover – though the CMA will not begin enforcement of the rules unto 1 May 2026.
DESNZ considers that “mislabelling does not affect national pricing analysis, as greater weight is placed on prices at petrol filling stations with higher sales volumes, irrespective of location”, but VE3 Global disagrees with this assessment.
A spokesperson for the company said: “The ‘motorway’ field in Fuel Finder is intended to identify sites located at official motorway service areas (MSAs), so that comparisons - such as league tables - reflect like-for-like pricing. This is similar in intent to other non-regulatory flags, such as identifying supermarket sites. VE3 added:
“The information is provided by fuel retailers when registering or updating their forecourt details, and they are responsible for its accuracy. Where inconsistencies are identified, these are reviewed and flagged for correction.
“Fuel Finder is a live national service, and improving data quality is an ongoing process. The core pricing data remains accurate and timely, and we continue to strengthen validation and consistency across the platform.”
The Competition and Markets Authority would not speculate on any enforcement that may be taken for Fuel Finder non compliance, but the organisation’s executive director, Juliette Enser, has previously said:
“In most cases, the company that operates the Fuel Finder scheme, VE3, will work with petrol stations to resolve any issues. They will refer matters to the CMA where businesses refuse to comply with the rules.”
Clare Lafferty from MyAutomate, owners of Petrol Prices commented: “Consumers rely on accurate, well-structured data to make quick and confident decisions, especially in time-sensitive situations like refuelling.
”When data cleansing is carried out without sufficient industry understanding, even small classification errors can undermine trust. Data quality isn’t just a technical exercise, it requires context, precision, and accountability. Without that, confidence in the data quickly erodes.”
As of 10am on 20 April 2026, when the Fuel Finder dataset downloaded and analysed, a litre of unleaded stood at 158.03p across the 7,676 filling stations registered with the scheme, while diesel was 191.19p.
Official MSA sites were far higher than this, at 182.23p and 203.47p and while the 10 Asda-owned forecourts at official Motorway Service Areas were slightly cheaper, Asda sites mislabelled as motorway sites on Fuel Finder were significantly higher than the national average, non-Asda mislabelled motorway sites, and all other Asda-owned forecourts.
All data drawn on 20 April 2026, 10am Fuel Finder update
