Google Maps now shows UK fuel prices⁠.

Google Maps will now show fuel prices to help drivers find cheaper petrol and diesel in the UK¹. From Thursday, a search for forecourts in the app displays their locations and their prices, using data supplied through the government's Fuel Finder scheme¹. The same near real time prices appear in Waze, under a partnership the government announced with Google².

It comes days after the price of diesel topped £2 a litre for the first time, which Simon Williams, the RAC's head of policy, called "a price threshold no one wanted to cross"¹. RAC data put diesel at 200.11p and petrol at 174.89p on Wednesday². The AA says an average 55 litre tank of diesel still costs around £110, with the petrol equivalent around £96¹.

Since February, UK petrol stations have had to report a price change within 30 minutes or risk a fine². The Competition and Markets Authority can step in where the rules are not followed, and around 99 per cent of stations now take part fully². The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero estimates the scheme saves households with cars an average of £40 a year².

Some experts say Fuel Finder is not entirely reliable¹. Clare Lafferty, a director at the price comparison site PetrolPrices, said her firm still adds other data because the scheme on its own does not give the coverage and accuracy needed¹. She said it identified 200 forecourts in September that it did not believe had updated their diesel prices in time¹. Sarah-Jayne Williams of Google said the firm would check the data independently and show a price only when it had high confidence it was right¹.

Google Maps is used by 77% of Britain's adult population for general navigation, according to Ofcom¹. Waze is used by around 2 million people in the UK¹. Apple Maps does not show the price of fuel, although some third party apps can link to its maps on iPhones¹.

What it means for your fleet

For a firm with a few vans, or staff who claim mileage, this is a small and useful change rather than a big one. The saving the government quotes is for a household; across a fleet the sum is larger, but only if drivers look before they fill up, and only where the price on the map is current. The awkward part is the data. A price is only as good as the forecourt that reported it, and Google says it will hide prices it doubts, so a station with no price shown is not a bargain, it is an unknown.

None of this is AI in the sense the headlines use the word. It is a public data scheme, a legal duty on forecourts and a map that most of your staff already open every day. That is often how useful technology reaches a business: not as a new tool to buy, but as a better number inside a tool you already have. If your people expense fuel, it costs nothing to ask them to check the map first.

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