High diesel prices will see the UK’s millions of van and pickup drivers spend an additional £2.5bn at the pumps this year compared to 2025.
Last year those drivers spent a combined £5.95bn on diesel, but with prices hovering around the £2 a litre mark, up almost 60p since March, that figure is set to top £8.5bn in 2026.
The numbers were crunched for The Guardian by Moneysupermarket, which estimates the average van or pickup driver covering typical annual mileage will spend £1,965 this year, up from £1,294 in 2025.
Forecourt Trader estimates over £1bn of that £2.5bn will go straight to the Treasury, with rising VAT takes sending an additional £160m to the Treasury’s coffers from van and pickup drivers alone.
Richard Smith, managing director of the Road Haulage Association (RHA) told The Guardian that “many of our members run on margins of around 2%, adding that “surging diesel prices are impacting firms across the country, with some spending many thousands extra every week on fuel”.
Smith urged the government to call off the fuel duty hikes planned for January and March, saying they would be a “hammer blow” for drivers adding that, given supermarkets’ dependence on diesel-powered haulage, “a fuel duty hike is a food price hike”.
