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Fuel Price Pulse methodology
A transparent method for turning reported price-change events into consistent daily and weekly comparisons. Each qualifying forecourt contributes one equally weighted price.
Core calculation
The source history records changes, not a fresh observation from every station every day. Fuel Price Pulse reconstructs a comparable daily position before calculating an average.
For each station and fuel, the final genuine price event recorded that day becomes the closing value.
The last recorded price remains in place until a later price-change event replaces it. No change event does not mean the station had no price.
One closing value per qualifying station is averaged for each fuel. Frequent reporters cannot contribute extra observations and dominate the result.
Weekly and 30-day movements use only stations with a reconstructable price at both endpoints. The matched station count is published with the change.
Two views of the market
The distinction matters when comparing a published weekly figure with the current Price Pulse dashboard.
Published weekly series
Historical prices are reconstructed from change events. A station and fuel enters the series from its first genuine event, and today's active status is not projected backwards.
Current live cards
The live cards use active stations updated within the previous seven days. This is a separate current cohort and is not used to rewrite an older edition.
Coverage and validation
These checks keep obvious errors out and prevent very small groups from being presented as meaningful market comparisons.
A station and fuel enters the historical series from its first genuine price-history event.
Prices below 50p or above 300p per litre are excluded as implausible.
Retailer and postcode-area comparisons require at least five like-for-like stations.
A dated permanent closure removes a station from that date onward when the source provides one.
Reading the figures
Known limitations
Fuel Price Pulse keeps these limits visible so a reader can judge each comparison in context.
The current schema does not contain a complete dated history of station activation and deactivation.
Brand, postcode-area and motorway labels use each station's current classification because dated dimension history is not yet stored.
A change event proves that a price changed. It does not prove the source checked and resubmitted an unchanged price that day.
A withdrawn fuel is not currently represented by a null history event, so its last price may carry forward until another trustworthy status signal is available.
Industry bodies may publish sales-volume-weighted figures, which can differ from an equal-station average.
Retailer, area and motorway groupings reflect the classification available when the edition is generated, subject to the limitation above.
Reproducibility
Each edition stores a frozen data payload and methodology version. Later station updates do not rewrite an older report. CSV and JSON downloads expose the figures and station counts used in that edition.
Questions and corrections
Include the edition date, fuel and metric so the published payload can be checked directly.