Despair as diesel hits £6 a gallon

Truckers and taxi drivers in the Black Country and Staffordshire were in despair today as diesel hit an incredible £6 a gallon.

As oil prices soared again on international markets the AA issued a fresh plea to the chancellor Alistair Darling to abandon his tax hike and introduce a fuel regulator to cut duty when price rise.

The £6 gallon works out at 131.9p a litre. BP garage at Hilton Park Services, Essington was charging 137.9 a litre for diesel and 124.9p for unleaded petrol while Texaco on Wolverhampton's Stafford Road wanted 132.9p for diesel and 118.9 for unleaded. Prices are 40 per cent higher than this time last year. Gary Owen, the owner of Bilston's Highfield Haulage, based on Highfields Road, said: "We have 10 lorries which are 44 tonnes each and they take 100 gallons to fill. Pushing the price up to £6 a gallon will cost me another £6,000 a month."

Colin Bateman, managing director at CJ & L Bateman on the Wallows Industrial Estate in Brierley Hill, said he was being forced to hike up prices for customers in the steel industry to cope.

"Since November the price of diesel has gone up by nearly 20p a litre, we buy 9,200 litres a month so that is a price rise for me of nearly £1,500 which is a lot of money," he said.

John Rowley, boss of Rowley Transport Services, Burntwood, said the firm's fuel bill has rocketed from £18,000 every three weeks to £24,000. "All our prices are going up and it's just getting out of control", he said.

Cabbie Joginder Basra, of Albert Road, Tettenhall, said he had to drive around three petrol stations before he could afford to fill up.

The 55-year-old said: "We are being hit from all sides. It's too much."

Edmund King, AA president, said: "The Chancellor should abandon any prospect of the 2p per litre increase."