Every Driver Filling Up Can Lose 79p a Tank as Pumps Fail Tests

• A Telegraph investigation found pumps at an Asda Express in Tynemouth and at Welcome Break’s Charnock Richard services on the M6 delivering less fuel than the legal error limit allows, and all three were disqualified from use.
• The Measuring Instruments Regulations 2016 let a fuel pump run 1 percent over the indicated quantity but only 0.5 percent under, and each of the three pumps missed by more than that lower limit.
• A 55-litre petrol fill at 168p a litre costs £92.40, so a pump that is 0.85 percent short takes 79p of it, and a report to Trading Standards goes through the Citizens Advice consumer service.

Your Tank Fill Is Allowed to Be Out by This Much, and These Pumps Were Further Out

A slow-flow test on an unleaded dispenser at an Asda Express in Tynemouth ended with the pump 76ml short of the indicated 10 litres. North Tyneside council said the dispenser was disqualified from use. On the M6 in Lancashire, Welcome Break’s Charnock Richard services lost two pumps to disqualification, after test deliveries of 20 litres came up 170ml and 120ml short.

Those numbers look tiny until a full tank is set beside them. At the average petrol price of 168p a litre, a typical 55-litre tank costs £92.40. The Charnock Richard pump that came up 170ml short on 20 litres delivered 0.85 percent less than it displayed, and 0.85 percent of £92.40 is 79p. A diesel driver pays more: the AA average is 197p a litre, which makes the same 55 litres £108.35 and the same shortfall 92p.

The same investigation found council trading standards offices admitting that their regular forecourt inspections have fallen behind, and many cases are feared to have been missed. A driver at an unchecked forecourt has no way to tell from the nozzle whether the pump is inside the limit.

What the Law Lets a Pump Get Away With

The Measuring Instruments Regulations 2016 set the error a petrol or diesel pump can show once it is in use. A standard fuel dispenser sits in accuracy class 0.5, and for any delivery of 2 litres or more above the pump’s minimum measured quantity the regulations allow it to run 1 percent over the quantity displayed and 0.5 percent under. On 10 litres that is 100ml over and 50ml under, and on 20 litres it is 200ml over and 100ml under.

The lower figure is the one that costs drivers money. A pump that gives 0.5 percent less than it shows is inside the law. A pump that gives more than 0.5 percent less is outside it, and every pump in this story was.

How Far Each Pump Missed the Mark

Take the lower limit first. A pump sitting exactly on it, 0.5 percent short, takes 46p from a £92.40 petrol fill. A driver who buys fuel at a pump inside the limit can still be down that much.

The Tynemouth dispenser was 76ml short on 10 litres, or 0.76 percent, against a limit of 50ml. That is 26ml beyond the line, and 70p on the same £92.40 fill if the pump behaved that way across a whole tank. The two Charnock Richard pumps were 170ml and 120ml short on 20 litres against a limit of 100ml. The first was 70ml past the line at 0.85 percent, the second 20ml past it at 0.6 percent.

Asda said the Tynemouth pump was found over-delivering and under-delivering at inspection, taken out of service, repaired and switched back on within a week. A spokesperson for the retailer said: “All our pumps are monitored and tested regularly. If it is found to be faulty then it is immediately taken out of service and repaired. This specific pump was found to be both over and under dispensing as a result of standard wear over time, was immediately repaired and passed its next inspection.” A spokesman put the issue down to what was “most likely due to normal meter drift over time rather than a physical pump failure”.

Welcome Break called the faulty pumps an “isolated incident, with those found to be under-dispensing “immediately taken out of service and the issue was corrected.”

Jack Cousens, who heads roads policy at the AA, said motorists were being “ripped off” and added: “If the actual amount of fuel a driver receives is even five or 10 miles less than what they pay for, that can blow a tight budget. And imagine what that means if the motorist always goes to the same retailer out of ‘loyalty’.”

What a Short Fill Costs Over a Year

One 79p shortfall will not worry anyone. Twelve of them will. A driver who fills a 55-litre petrol tank once a month at a pump 0.85 percent short loses £9.42 over the year, and a diesel driver at 197p loses £11.05 over the same twelve fills. Drivers who return to the same forecourt every week pay that price on repeat.

The price on the sign is policed separately. The competition regulator has been chasing forecourts through its fuel price letters to forecourts, and that work says nothing about whether the litres on the display are real.

Diesel drivers who want the wider numbers can read what a 55-litre diesel fill costs on ONS data.

Northern Ireland offers a recent count of how often forecourt equipment is out. Between April and July this year, the Department for the Economy’s Trading Standards Service there made 87 unannounced visits. Inspectors checked 371 pieces of equipment, reverified 64 and found 12 outside the limit of error, about 3.2 percent. Ten pieces of equipment carried non-compliant markings, ten had an incorrect or missing data plate and 39 had incorrect or missing seals.

Judith Gough, the service’s metrology deputy chief inspector, said: “Consumers in Northern Ireland have the right to get exactly what they pay for when they fill up at a pump, especially during times of rising fuel costs.” She also said: “While it’s very reassuring that the vast majority of petrol stations are delivering accurate quantities of fuel, the high volume of missing seals and data plates identified during the project is a concern. Anti-tamper seals are a critical line of defense against fraud and unauthorised equipment adjustments. TSS has worked closely with retail service providers to rectify all issues of non-compliance.”

Gough added: “The focus of the project was to ensure consumers are protected from short measure fuel while ensuring a level playing field for businesses that operate in this sector.” And: “The inspections revealed a high level of compliance regarding the dispensing of liquid fuel from the pumps, although some technical deficiencies were uncovered. Where issues were identified, equipment was immediately taken out of service for repair, recalibration or adjustment. If possible, pumps were tested and reverified on the day to ensure any detriment to consumers was addressed.” Follow-up visits then confirmed that every issue had been corrected.

How to Report a Pump That Looks Short

A driver cannot see 76ml in a nozzle, but a driver can notice a pattern: a tank that takes less fuel than the display says, a receipt that does not match the pump, a forecourt where the numbers never quite add up. Note the station, the pump number, the date, the time and keep the receipt.

In England, a report to Trading Standards goes through the Citizens Advice consumer service, which passes it on. An online form is open from 5pm on Fridays to 9am on Mondays, and Citizens Advice replies to form reports within 5 days. Drivers in Northern Ireland report concerns to the Trading Standards Service through Consumerline on 0300 123 62 62. The gov.uk page for finding a local Trading Standards office takes a postcode and points to the office near you.

Set the expectation correctly. Trading Standards can take a business to court or stop it operating, but it will not fix an individual problem or get a refund. It decides whether to investigate from the information in the report, and contacts a driver only if it needs more detail. Silence after you file does not mean nothing happens: if several drivers complain about the same business, the pattern can count later.

For the money itself, Citizens Advice lists a formal complaint, a dispute resolution scheme or a court claim as the routes when a business will not put a problem right. For a 79p gap, the value of a report lies in the pattern it builds. A single complaint is one data point. Several about the same forecourt give Trading Standards something to act on.

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Sources

• Express: Asda among petrol stations AA claims was ‘ripping off motorists’
• Department for the Economy: Consumers at forefront of Trading Standards Service forecourt inspection
• Legislation.gov.uk: The Measuring Instruments Regulations 2016, Schedule 6 Part 3 Liquid fuel and lubricants
• Citizens Advice: Reporting to Trading Standards

Reviewed by Preetam Gadekar