The Story Behind Fuel Finder
Built with a full tank of passion (and a thirsty old bus)
I'm Scott. I live in Norfolk, work as a software developer, and spend my weekends exploring the UK in a 44-year-old VW T25 campervan called Bernie. My partner and our two dogs, Belle and Poppy, come along for the ride. The Lake District is our favourite. Mountains, fresh air, and absolutely no phone signal. Perfect.
Why I Built This
Bernie is brilliant, but he's not cheap to run. Old diesels rarely are. So I've become that person who checks fuel prices before every trip. And the more I looked, the more annoyed I got.
Two stations, a mile apart, 10p difference per litre. Motorway services charging a fortune because they know you're running on fumes. Rural stations hiking prices because there's nowhere else for miles. It started to feel less like a market and more like a shakedown.
I wanted to do something about it. So I built this.
Levelling the Playing Field
I started building Fuel Finder UK a couple of months ago. The idea was simple: what if everyone could see exactly who's charging fair prices and who's taking advantage?
Too many stations make their money by catching people out. You're low on fuel, you're in a hurry, you don't know the area. They know this. They price accordingly.
But if drivers can easily find the cheapest option nearby, the game changes. Suddenly it makes sense to compete on price. The stations offering fair deals get the customers. The ones relying on catching people short? They lose out.
That's the goal. Take some power back from the oil giants and their questionable pricing practices. One fuel stop at a time.
About Bernie
Yes, I appreciate the irony. A diesel campervan owner building a fuel price app. Bernie is not what you'd call economical. But that's exactly why saving a few pence per litre actually matters.
Whether you're driving something sensible or something with "character" like Bernie, nobody deserves to be ripped off at the pump.
Independent Rankings. No Background Tracking.
Fuel Finder UK is still independently run. Free users may see display ads, while paid Pro users get an ad-free experience. Those ads do not buy their way into your fuel search rankings and there are no sponsored stations pushed to the top of your results. I am not tracking your background location to sell data to anyone.
It is still a tool built to help you find cheaper fuel with ranking driven by the product logic, not by advertiser preference.
Built on Official Data
Today the core fuel prices come from the official UK Government feed, which means broad nationwide coverage without relying on manual community submissions for the main live pricing.
Community input still matters. Drivers can flag problems, rate stations, and suggest missing sites, which helps keep the data quality high and the map more useful for everyone else.
Run an independent forecourt?
Fuel Finder also supports the operator side. If you manage an independent station or a smaller forecourt group, the free forecourt fuel price submission flow gives you a straightforward way to keep Fuel Finder and GOV.UK price updates in sync.
Forecourt SubmissionWhat's Next
This is a side project, built in the evenings after work. I've got a full-time job and a campervan that needs constant attention (ask me about the constant oil puddle that follows me around). But seeing people actually use this thing and save money? That keeps me going.
I don't know exactly where this is heading. For now, I'm just enjoying building something useful. A bit like those trips up north with Bernie and the dogs: no fixed destination, just the journey.
Safe travels,
Scott
Norfolk, UK
Press & Media Enquiries
Featured or referenced by BBC, Bloomberg, The Grocer, The Sun, and The Daily Telegraph. For interview requests, data citations, or press enquiries, please visit the press resources page or contact me directly.