Cambridgeshire firms warn inflation driven by fuel prices is costing customers

• Watch Sarah Cooper's report

The rising cost of fuel is not just hitting drivers in the pocket - we are all going to pay more for goods and services as a result, firms are warning.

Hauliers say increases in diesel prices is driving up the price of food and other essentials in our supermarkets.

In October, the average UK price of petrol hit 142.94p, beating the former record, set in April 2012, by 0.46p, while diesel prices reached 146.5p a litre, just short of its all-time high of 147.93p.

The figures are a sharp increase on the early days of the pandemic, when the price of petrol collapsed to a low of 106.48p in May 2020.

Ross Taylor owns Buffaload Logistics in Cambridgeshire. He said: "We run probably about 150 trucks from here and our fuel's gone up at least 12% over the last 12 months.

"We pass on the rising fuel costs to our customers, but our customers are passing that on to the supermarkets, which are then passing it on to the consumers. So the consumers are actually paying more money for the goods."

That trickle-down effect is behind a CPI inflation rate that rose sharply from 3.1% in September to 4.2% last month – the highest level since December 2011.

The situation is driving up costs at Glebe Farm Foods in Kings Ripton, near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire. It grows and mills gluten-free oats and oat milk.

Owner Philip Rayner said: "Even from farming, right the way through to milling, you're using fuel to generate heat and also electricity. Effectively, it has increased costs of every part.

"We at Glebe are combating that, because we've got a very strong push on renewable energy and we're currently in the process of building a biomass boiler and, if there is a good side, it's that rising fuel prices help promote that."

It is also making it more expensive for Papworth Brewery to distribute its bottles - and the company cannot afford to have a backlog of beer at its busiest time of year.

Head brewer Chris Jones said: "We were meant to be bottling today, but the bottles are two days late arriving, so we have to label instead, which means putting beer into cardboard boxes that have gone up 30% in price since last year.

"We're putting labels on to bottles that are costing us 10 or 15% more than they cost us last year."

Some businesses are trying to absorb the extra costs to avoid passing them on to customers before Christmas but with costs continuing to increase, many say they are being left with little choice.