Yeovil Freewheelers draws on reserves and raises more funds as fuel costs climb

Yeovil Freewheelers, a motorbike charity that delivers blood samples and other medical supplies in Somerset, is drawing on reserves and fundraising more as its costs rise, a BBC report published on 1 October 2026 says. Alex Wood, from the charity’s Yeovil branch, said its operating costs had increased 20% since January. The account shows how higher running costs are affecting an organisation that relies on vehicles to carry out its work.

Wood described the impact as ‘huge’ and said the costs were unpredictable. ‘We’re having to do a lot more fundraising so that we can keep operating,’ he told the BBC. ‘We just have to keep going as best we can, we have to keep plodding on.’ The charity’s response, as reported, is to use its reserves and seek more donations to meet its costs.

How much have petrol and diesel prices risen?

The BBC reported that petrol prices in the West of England had risen 8% in the preceding month, to 174.8p a litre, while diesel had risen 9%, to 200.1p. Over the seven months since the US-Israel conflict with Iran began, it put the increases at nearly 34% for petrol and more than 40% for diesel. In cash terms, it said those longer-period rises amounted to 42.5p and 59p a litre respectively.

A separate national measure points to the same broad pressure at the pump. The RAC Foundation said its analysis of government Fuel Finder data showed average UK diesel passing £2 a litre at 8am on 30 September. It reported petrol at 174.7p a litre. The Foundation’s figure is a UK average; the BBC’s figures describe prices in the West of England, so they should be read as different measures rather than a single price paid by Freewheelers.

What Freewheelers says the increase means

Wood’s 20% figure describes the charity’s operating costs since January, while the larger petrol and diesel percentages describe pump prices over a different period. The BBC interview does not establish the charity’s fuel bill, the size of its reserves or how much of its overall cost increase came from fuel. Its reported response is nevertheless specific: Freewheelers is using reserves and doing more fundraising to keep operating.

The charity delivers blood samples and other medical supplies by motorbike, according to the BBC. That makes vehicle costs relevant to its work, but the published account does not establish a change in delivery numbers or service levels. Wood’s comments describe pressure on the organisation’s finances and the steps it says it is taking to continue operating; they do not quantify an effect on patients or medical services.

Other transport operators face higher bills

Somerset-based Berry’s Coaches also told the BBC that climbing fuel prices had increased its costs by £750,000 this year. The company, which runs five services a day from the South West to London, said it had absorbed much of the increase but introduced a £2 fuel surcharge on each leg of some London journeys. Its owner, James Berry, said he was confident the business could weather the situation and called for further cuts to fuel duty.

The coach company’s surcharge is a reported response from that business, not a measure of what Freewheelers may do. Together, the two accounts show different ways vehicle-dependent organisations say they are meeting higher costs: one is drawing on reserves and seeking donations, while the other says it has passed part of its increase to some passengers. The BBC’s account does not provide audited figures for Berry’s £750,000 estimate.

Fuel duty and the next policy decision

The RAC Foundation calculated that 86p of a £2 litre of diesel went to fuel duty and VAT, with fuel duty set at 52.95p a litre for both petrol and diesel. Its director, Steve Gooding, argued that the government could ease costs by cutting fuel taxes. That is the Foundation’s policy position, rather than a measure of how much a tax change would save Freewheelers.

At the Labour Party Conference, Chancellor John Healey said fuel duty had been frozen until the end of the year and acknowledged pressure on household and business costs, according to the BBC. He said a budget due a month later would recognise those pressures. The reporting establishes the stated freeze and his comments, but no later budget decision. For Freewheelers, the immediate position Wood described remains a need to raise more money while meeting higher operating costs.