Motorists line up at a gas station to refuel on March 2, 2022 in London (AFP/Archives/Adrian DENNIS)
In Paris, Frankfurt or London, many furious or fatalistic motorists paid two euros or more for their liter of fuel on Monday, an unprecedented level, a consequence of the war in Ukraine which caused the price of oil to soar.
Taxis, for example, prefer to stop driving empty, like this driver we met near the ring road in Paris, who says he drives 200 kilometers a day. “The only thing I can do is limit empty traffic,” explains Aziz Brahmi, 38, jaded. “We wait for customers to come to us and we don’t look for them anymore.”
In London, the same phenomenon has been observed: the capital’s famous 10,000 black taxis, which run on diesel, prefer to wait.
Colin, a 55-year-old courier from London, is directly affected, with a full tank becoming more expensive and income not increasing. Now he prefers “walking rather than continuing to lose money” in the face of English prices: 1.61 pounds per liter on Monday at his gas station, or almost 2 euros.
Fuel prices have been rising continuously for ten weeks. In France, unleaded 95 exceeded 1.88 euros on average last week. The liter of diesel has jumped 14 cents in one week, and now costs 1.8831 euro per liter on average.
But this is only a national average: in Paris or on the motorways, prices already easily exceed 2 euros per litre.
The price of a liter of fuel reaching an unprecedented level due to the war in Ukraine, taxis prefer to stop running empty (AFP/Archives/KENZO TRIBOUILLARD)
Often diesel now costs as much as petrol, as in Sweden where prices are the highest recorded in Europe. On Monday, the price of diesel was reported there beyond the record threshold of 25 crowns (2.31 euros) per liter in many stations in the kingdom.
Same mechanical increases in Germany, where a liter of Super E10, equivalent to unleaded 95, now costs an average of 1.827 euros, and diesel 1.756 euros.
– Public transport and cycling –
At the pump, Sébastien Boudineau, a 38-year-old Parisian, looks gloomy: he has just paid 77 euros for 38 liters of diesel.
The price of fuel at the pump in France (AFP/)
Living in Ile-de-France, “in the remote countryside”, he is employed in an elevator company in Paris. For him, the car is essential. “It’s an extra budget, less money on payroll and above all fewer outings to compensate for this increase.”
Ditto for Abdellatif Helaoui, a 28-year-old paramedic who travels “more than 25 kilometers every day to come to work”. “It’s a budget of around 200 euros per month. So we’re going to deprive ourselves of something else, maybe a vacation.”
For her part, Micheline Pouriel, a 91-year-old retiree, has not yet given up driving but is thinking about it in the face of a situation she considers “catastrophic and insane”.
“We see, depending on the points of sale, drops of 5 to 10% in sales. People travel less, take public transport, carpool”, reports Francis Pousse, representative of French service stations, at the AFP. “There may be additions of ethanol (in gasoline cars). The temptation is great,” he says.
Some, on the contrary, relativize, as in this station near Frankfurt in Germany.
Alexandra Koch, a 37-year-old employee who came to refuel her SUV, says she is ready to take on these successive increases. “If these prizes are the contribution I can make to our independence from Russia, then I am ready to do so,” she said.
Fuel prices at a service station in Harfleur, near Le Havre, on March 5, 2022 (AFP/Archives/JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER)
Advantage of living in an urban area, bicycles, buses or trains can sometimes replace the individual car.
“In town, I now take public transport instead of the car, because of the prices. Because an extra 30 euros per full tank hurts”, says Marco Senfter, 39, bartender, whose l ‘Audi stayed in the garage.
Marius Scheidemann, 23, landscaper, keeps his car for his work but tries to switch to cycling for his leisure… But not to do his shopping.
“Otherwise I’m already trying to drive at a maximum of 100 km/h on the motorway”, he adds, a solution to reduce consumption when you can’t reduce your kilometres.
© 2022 AFP
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