Use Case
Fuel Savings for Van Drivers and Tradespeople
Van drivers filling 60–80 litre tanks save more per pence per litre than car drivers. Even 3p/litre cheaper saves £2.40 per fill — £500/year for 2 fills a week.
Potential saving
Save up to £1,040/year
for a Transit van filling twice a week
?The problem
You're a plumber, electrician, or builder doing 500 miles a week in a Transit or a Sprinter. Fuel is your single biggest running cost after the van itself. Because your tank holds 60–80 litres, even a small price difference per litre has a big absolute impact — but working out whether a 5-minute detour actually saves money while you're on the road between jobs feels like too much mental maths.
✓How WorthThePump helps
WorthThePump is built for exactly this. Look up your van by plate, and we retrieve the MPG and fuel type automatically. The calculation accounts for the larger tank volume — so a 4p/litre saving across a full 80-litre fill is £3.20 gross, and we subtract the detour cost to show your net saving. At 2 fills a week, that's £332/year from a single habit change.
- Handles larger tank sizes accurately — the maths is different for a 70L van vs a 40L hatchback
- Diesel prices vary more regionally than petrol — our live data shows the full spread in your area
- Tradespeople often work in multiple postcodes — check prices before each job day so you fill up en route
- Annual saving projection shown automatically — useful for expense tracking and claiming fuel costs
Worked example
Ford Transit Custom 2.0 EcoBlue
Real-world MPG: 32 • Fill amount: £100
Nearest station
185p/L
Cheaper station
173p/L
Net saving
£9.60
✅ Worth it — save £998/year at 2 fills per week
Common questions
Why do van drivers benefit more from cheaper fuel than car drivers?
Because the absolute saving per fill scales with tank size. A 3p/litre saving on a 45-litre car tank is £1.35. The same 3p saving on a 75-litre van tank is £2.25. Over 100 fills a year, that's £225 vs £135 — a significant difference for a small business owner.
Can I claim fuel savings as a business expense?
Yes. If you're self-employed, actual fuel costs are a deductible business expense. Keeping track of your fuel spend — and demonstrating you actively minimised it by shopping around — supports your expense claims. WorthThePump shows the savings per fill which you can reference.
Does it work for diesel vans?
Yes. Diesel is fully supported. In fact, diesel prices tend to vary more between stations than petrol, so the potential saving from shopping around is often higher. WorthThePump filters stations by fuel type and only shows diesel prices when your van runs diesel.
My van is a pickup or a specialist vehicle — will it work?
If your vehicle is registered with the DVLA and runs on petrol or diesel (not AdBlue-only, EV, or hydrogen), the lookup will work. If your vehicle isn't returning an MPG figure from DVLA, you can manually override the MPG in step 2 of the calculator.
Related reading
Check your actual saving now
Enter your plate number — we look up your car automatically and show you every nearby station ranked by net saving.