We Had an Idea. We Tested Some New Tools. We Built ukfuel.live.
UK petrol prices are now at their highest level in over two years. Diesel has surged by nearly 50p a litre since the end of February. And most drivers have no idea how much prices vary between forecourts or that the data to find out is publicly available in real time.
That's exactly why we built ukfuel.live.
What's happening at the pumps right now
Since the conflict in the Middle East escalated at the end of February 2026, crude oil has surged past $100 a barrel for the first time since 2022. The impact at UK forecourts has been severe. Average petrol has risen to around 158p per litre. Diesel has hit over 192p. A 55-litre tank of diesel now costs over £105 to fill.
The 5p fuel duty cut already on borrowed time ends in August 2026. With no resolution to the Middle East conflict in sight, prices are not heading down any time soon.
When costs move this fast, knowing exactly what your nearest forecourt is charging stops being a nice-to-have. It becomes genuinely important.
An idea worth testing
We built something last week that we didn't plan to build.
No brief. No client. No budget sign-off. Just a problem worth solving, a conversation about whether it was possible, and a window of time to find out.
We've been expanding our build toolkit for a while now. This felt like a good opportunity to push things into new territory and see what was possible outside of a client brief.
So we picked a problem, cleared the decks, and got to work.
Why fuel prices?
Because it was a useful problem with a real audience. Everyone in the UK drives past a petrol station and wonders if they're getting ripped off and right now, with prices climbing weekly, that question matters more than ever.
Since February 2026, the government's Fuel Finder scheme has required all major UK retailers to publish live pricing data within 30 minutes of a change. That data exists. It's public. Prices can vary by 20p or more per litre between nearby stations. Most people have no idea how to access it.
We wanted to make something that changed that. A clean, fast, honest dashboard that takes government data and makes it genuinely useful for anyone watching what's happening at the pump.
What we built
ukfuel.live tracks live petrol and diesel prices across the UK, pulling from 7,000+ stations via the government's open Fuel Finder data feed. Here's what it does:
- Live national and regional price averages for petrol (E10) and diesel (B7)
- Brand-by-brand breakdowns: see who's cheapest across the major retailers
- 7-day and 30-day price change tracking so you can see the trend, not just the number
- Daily market analysis explaining what's driving prices right now
- Mobile-friendly, updated every 15 minutes, zero sign-up required
Intentionally simple. No noise. No upsell. Just the data, made readable at a time when that data has never mattered more.
What we learned
The gap between idea and working product is closing fast. What once required weeks of development resource and a project brief can now be tested in a day. That changes how you think about building and it changes what's worth building.
But the tools don't do the thinking. Knowing what the product should feel like, what it needed to do, and crucially what it didn't need to do that still takes judgement. The idea still has to be right. The execution still has to be considered.
Better tools don't replace good thinking. They reward it faster.
Go have a look
With UK pump prices at a two-year high and no immediate end in sight, ukfuel.live is the fastest way to see what's actually happening nationally, regionally, and by brand.
We'll keep building on it. That's what we do spot a problem, back the idea, and make the thing.
