Not a gas guzzler – LPG can offer huge savings over petrol and diesel
Benefits of LPG
Fuel Price
The forecourt price of LPG is typically around 45%-50% less than that of petrol and diesel. Latest AA fuel price report (Nov 2014) found petrol average at 121.3p per litre; diesel at 125.2p per litre; LPG at 64.9p per litre
Vehicle Excise Duty
LPG vehicles are eligible for reduced Vehicle Excise Duty (Road Tax). To qualify, the UKLPG Vehicle Register Registration Receipt or Conversion Certificate has to be submitted to the DVLA along with the vehicles’ V5 document and a request made that the taxation class be changed to ‘Alternative Fuel Car’.
Source: www.autogas.ltd.uk
Economic instability rarely provides any small business with an opportunity to pass on lower costs to customers and stay afloat at the same time, but logistics provider Andy McGarvey is one of the few to manage it – primarily thanks to the financial savings his courier business has made running his Ford Transit on cheaper LPG autogas.
Andy’s van was supplied with a factory-fitted LPG system when he bought it with 10 miles on the clock in 2003. In the 11 years since then, he’s racked up a further 225,000 miles on regular jobs travelling between his Preston base and London – and has saved more than £20,000 in fuel costs compared to running the equivalent petrol or diesel model.
“When the recession hit, I was able to cut my prices because I was using LPG,” says Andy. “At the time I also had a diesel Mercedes Sprinter 311CDI with about 50 per cent more loadspace than the Transit, but everyone went for the cheaper Ford, because it cost less even if it needed two trips that the Mercedes could have done in one.”
Explaining what attracted him to the LPG-powered Transit in the first place, Andy said, “As a logistics company I’m always looking for new opportunities to cut costs. I also need to know if it will work, if it will do half a million miles!”
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