Help &
how-to.
Everything FuelHawk does, plainly explained. Skim the contents, jump to what you need, or read end-to-end on a Sunday morning with a coffee.
Searching for the cheapest fuel
Type any UK postcode into the search bar on the home page or the search page. We geocode it instantly and pull every reporting forecourt in your chosen radius — 2, 5, 10, or 20 miles.
Results sort by price by default. Switch to distance with the toggle. Filter by fuel type (E10, E5, B7 diesel, premium diesel) and amenities (24-hour, car wash, EV charging) using the chips above the list.
Each result shows a live price, the distance from your postcode, the brand, and a margin score (more on that below). Tap a station to see its full price history, all fuels it sells, and a one-tap drive-time link.
Forecasts — fill now or wait?
Our forecast engine runs every six hours. It looks at six signals: wholesale price trend, oil futures, the GBP/USD rate, day-of-week patterns, retailer lag, and regional momentum. Each is weighted; the combined score gives a direction (up, down, stable), a confidence (low/medium/high), and a recommendation (fill now, wait two days, etc).
We backtest weekly against realised prices. Current accuracy hovers above 65%. We surface the actual hit-rate at the bottom of the forecast page so you can judge for yourself.
Forecasts apply at the national level for E10 and diesel. Regional forecasts are rolled out per city — see the city pages for your local one.
Price alerts (Members)
Add up to five price alerts on Member, twenty on Fleet. Pick a fuel, a postcode, a radius, and a target price. Every fifteen minutes we scan every reporting forecourt in range. The moment one drops below your number, you get an email — and a push notification if you've enabled it.
A 24-hour cool-down stops a single low-price station from emailing you all day. Each alert can be paused independently from the alerts page.
Commute alerts
Different from price alerts: a commute alert pins a journey (origin postcode → destination postcode) and a target price. Each morning at the time you choose, we check every reporting station along the corridor. If one's under your target, a single email goes out before you leave.
Two routes on Member, ten on Fleet. Most Members set one weekday route and one weekend route.
Loyalty true-cost pricing
Add the loyalty cards you actually use — Shell Go+, Tesco Clubcard, Nectar (Sainsbury's/Esso), BP Rewards. We rewrite the headline price you see on search and station pages to show what you'll really pay after the discount.
We don't ask for card numbers. You enter the discount value (we pre-fill the typical) and we apply it automatically when the station brand matches.
Budget & fill-up logging
Log every fill-up — vehicle, fuel, litres, price, optional odometer reading — and the dashboard maths run themselves: monthly spend, average pence-per-litre paid, lifetime saved versus national average, CO₂ footprint per tank.
Set a monthly budget and the dashboard tracks you against it in real time. Going over goes amber. Cleanest fuel diary you'll ever keep — your accountant will thank you.
Fleet management
Fleet tier (£99/month) lets one owner add up to 15 vehicles and invite drivers by email. Each driver logs their own fill-ups against an assigned vehicle; the owner sees per-driver and per-vehicle totals, with monthly CSV export for accounts.
20 price alerts and 10 commute routes per fleet. Ideal for small van fleets, taxi firms, and field-service operations under 20 vehicles.
What is a margin score?
Every station gets a 0–10 margin score visible on its detail page. We compare its current price against the wholesale benchmark for the day and against the average margin of stations within five miles.
Green (8–10): below-average margin, a fair price. Amber (5–7): on the local average. Red (0–4): unusually high margin for the area. We don't accuse anyone — we just show the numbers.
Setting up push notifications
On the Alerts page, tap 'Enable push'. Your browser will ask permission. Once granted, alerts are delivered to whichever browser or home-screen PWA you've enabled them on — phone, laptop, or both.
We never see your device location. The push endpoint is opaque to us. Disable any time from the same toggle, or in your browser's site settings.
Exporting or deleting your data
Account → Data export downloads everything we hold for you as a single JSON file: profile, vehicles, favourites, alerts, commute routes, fill-ups, and loyalty cards. Use it to back up, move providers, or just to inspect.
Account → Delete account permanently removes everything. There's no soft-delete — once you confirm, the data is gone immediately and irreversibly. If you have an active subscription, cancel it through the Stripe portal first to avoid further charges.
Quick answers.
- How fresh are the prices?
- Prices come from the UK Government Fuel Finder scheme, which retailers update at least daily and most update every few hours. We sync every five minutes, so you're seeing what was reported in the last sync window. Always confirm at the pump.
- Is FuelHawk free?
- Reader (free) gets you full search, station detail pages, the national forecast, and one vehicle. Member (£4.99/mo) adds price alerts, commute alerts, loyalty true-cost, unlimited favourites, three vehicles, and 12-month price history. Fleet (£99/mo) is for businesses up to 15 vehicles.
- Do you sell my data?
- No. We never have, never will. See the privacy policy.
- Can I cancel any time?
- Yes — Account → Manage subscription opens the Stripe portal where you can cancel in two clicks. Cancellation stops future billing; you keep access until the end of the period you've already paid for. UK law gives you a 14-day statutory right to a full refund; after that, payments already taken are non-refundable. See the refund policy for the full wording.
- Why doesn't my local supermarket appear?
- We show every forecourt that reports to the gov.uk Fuel Finder scheme. A small number of independents don't yet participate. We're working on adding manual reporting for Members.
- How is the forecast accuracy measured?
- We backtest each forecast against the realised national average for that fuel on the date it predicted. A 'down' forecast counts as a hit if the average dropped by 0.5p or more; 'up' if it rose by the same; 'stable' if change was within ±0.5p. Current rolling-90-day accuracy is shown on the forecast page.
- Why an email and a push?
- Email is the audit trail; push is the immediacy. Email has the station details, the price, the link — it sits in your inbox. Push lands on your wrist or in your hand the moment the price drops, with a tap-to-open link to the station.
- I think a price is wrong — what do I do?
- Use Support (in the dashboard) and tell us the station and the price you saw at the pump. We log it, the station gets a verification flag for 24 hours, and we feed the discrepancy back to the gov.uk scheme.
- How often do UK fuel prices change?
- Retailers can change the pump price as often as they like — most major brands adjust daily, some twice a day. The UK Government Fuel Finder scheme requires forecourts to report any change within 30 minutes. FuelHawk syncs that feed every five minutes, so our prices are typically no more than a few minutes behind the pump.
- What's the difference between E10 and E5 petrol?
- E10 is standard unleaded petrol with up to 10% ethanol; E5 is super unleaded with up to 5% ethanol and a higher octane rating (97–99 RON versus E10's 95 RON). E10 is cheaper but gives slightly worse fuel economy — around 1%. Almost all petrol cars built since 2011 run on E10 safely; check the government's compatibility checker if you're unsure.
- Why is diesel more expensive than petrol in the UK?
- Three structural reasons: UK diesel demand is heavier because most commercial vehicles run on it, refining diesel costs more than refining petrol at most UK refineries, and recent years have seen diesel wholesale prices disconnect from crude as global supply tightens. Fuel duty and VAT are the same on both, so the gap is almost entirely wholesale + retail margin.
- Is supermarket fuel cheaper than branded forecourts?
- Usually — supermarkets (Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Costco) sit 3–5p/litre below the UK average most weeks because they use fuel as a footfall driver for the shop. The quality is identical: UK law requires all E10 and diesel to meet the same EN 228 / EN 590 standards regardless of brand. The myth that supermarket fuel 'damages engines' has no basis in lab testing.
- What is B7 diesel?
- B7 is the standard UK diesel grade, containing up to 7% biodiesel (FAME). It's what every forecourt has been pumping since 2019 and is compatible with every modern diesel engine. Some stations sell 'premium' or 'super' diesel with additive packages claimed to improve economy and engine cleanliness — worthwhile for older or high-mileage diesels, not a necessity for most.
- What is HVO fuel?
- Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil — a paraffinic diesel substitute made from waste fats and vegetable oils. It produces up to 90% less CO₂ than fossil diesel over its lifecycle and runs in any diesel engine without modification. HVO is more expensive per litre and only available at a minority of UK forecourts (we track every one that reports).
- When is the cheapest time to buy fuel in the UK?
- Wholesale prices settle weekdays at 16:30 UK time, so forecourt prices often step on weekday mornings when retailers pass changes through. Mid-week (Tuesday–Wednesday) tends to be marginally cheaper than weekends when demand is higher. That said, the station you pick matters far more than the day — a 5p/litre spread between nearby forecourts is common.
- How do I find the cheapest petrol near me?
- Enter your postcode into FuelHawk's search and sort by price. We pull every reporting forecourt within your chosen radius (2–20 miles), rank them cheapest-first for the fuel you select (E10, E5, diesel, super diesel, HVO), and show the distance and a one-tap drive link. Free, no signup needed.
We'll come back to you.
Members get one-business-day support. Open a ticket in the dashboard and we'll reply to the email on your account.