Motorists are increasingly buying their fuel little and often, rather like the trend away from big shops at supermarkets in favour of top-up shopping, according to the latest report by him! research and consulting.

In its Symbol Forecourt Focus, it reports increasing numbers of motorists are saying they are leaving refuelling to the last minute, they are putting smaller amounts in each time rather than filling up, and more motorists are comparing pump prices between forecourts.

It also found that symbol shops are increasingly driving footfall on forecourts, rather than fuel, with 17% of shoppers not even owning a car. When looking at shoppers’ main missions in symbol forecourts it reports that fuel has fallen from 31% in 2013, to 24% in 2014 and 14% in 2015.

It also reports that the forecourt sector accounts for a 9.1% share of the UK food & grocery sector with annual sales of £8.7bn.

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