Petrol has recently dropped nationwide from €1,512 to €1,510 per litre, and diesel from €1,361 to €1,353 per litre. Savings certainly not dizzying for consumers, but nonetheless existing. Not on the highway though. According to Leonardo.it petrol on the motorway costs 30 if not 45% more than on the normal network. According to Altroconsumo, which carried out a very detailed research in 2016, petrol costs 9% more on motorways in the Milan area, 6% in Bologna, 11% in Florence, 7% in Rome and even 12% in Naples. Operators and motorway companies shift the responsibility for the cost of petrol, charging it to the royalties that the latter collect for each liter sold.
Marco Bulfon, fuel price manager at Altroconsumo, also has another idea: «We have the most expensive petrol in Europe even though Italy is one of the world's leading fuel producers. This should have ensured more competitive prices. But it turns out that our fuel sold in France is cheaper there. Here there is a gigantic problem of distribution and organization».
Not to mention the fixed costs. Royalties to the highway companies and all that. The expert replies: «As long as the State uses petrol as a piggy bank, we are faced with unmanageable madness. In Italy there are twice as many service stations as in Europe». In Italy there are 24 on the motorway network alone. Who sell less than 1 billion 800 million liters of fuel. An increasingly decreasing figure given that black gold is now as expensive as real gold. And from 2008 to 2013 sales on the motorway network fell by an average of 45%. Thanks to the crisis and not only that.
