The widening price gap between petrol and diesel is hitting the region’s struggling haulage industry hard, Midland firms warned today.

The gap between the two fuels is now 8p, the widest for three years. Bosses at the Try Us haulage firm in Brierley Hill said the rises are crippling business.

Boss John Banner said: “It has got so bad if you have a £500 job you can be arguing about £10 because the margins are so tight. The cost of fuel and London congestion charges have been our main problems for years.

“But now our pricing to our customers is based on this. We have to compete with other haulage firms so we have to bear some of the cost.”

Transport manager John Heighway, of Devaney’s Haulage Ltd in West Bromwich, said: “This is yet another nail in the coffin for a lot of firms.

“The prices are just crippling everybody. We are waiting to see whether fuel duty goes up in January but it is really difficult at the moment.

“Many companies have already folded this year and I think more will go that way if something isn’t done in the new year.”

Toye Anifalaje, who runs Triton Shell on Tettenhall Road, Wolverhampton, said: “People who own a diesel vehicle might try to address their travelling mode but you can’t stop buying diesel.

“They may car pool or reduce places of interest they go to. If I can walk somewhere, I will walk to save on fuel and I think some of my customers are doing the same.”

AA spokesman Luke Bosdet said the main reasons for the widening price gap were Europe’s reliance on “unreliable” diesel imports from Russia and Asia, and a reduction in production by European-based refineries to maintain sustainable prices.

He added that market speculators had been buying up stock and holding onto it until prices become more favourable, while diesel was always in greater demand in Europe in winter, which also accounted for the latest price rises.