PETROL prices are slowly dipping and many consumers are delighted. Yet six Meals on Wheels volunteers have recently had to quit because their weekly fuel expenses are still too high.

Meals on Wheels co-ordinator Shirley Smith said if fuel prices go back to $1.60 or more per litre, more volunteers are expected to be taken off the daily roster.

In the past few weeks, Mrs Smith – a Meals on Wheels volunteer for nearly 30 years – was relieved to see bowser prices drop to below $1.50 per litre. Last week’s lowest price for unleaded was $143.9 per litre at Shell in Berkshire Park.

As of Sunday, August 24, the Australian Institute of Petrol recorded the NSW/ACT weekly average price was $150.2, the lowest at $146.8 and the highest at $1.54 per litre.

Yesterday, at Shell in Berkshire Park, Windsor resident Suzanne Costa could only fill her BMW with $40 worth of unleaded fuel.

The cheap Tuesday deals at local petrol stations have been making a difference in Mrs Costa’s weekly petrol budget, but she’d rather see the prices roll back to $1 per litre.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if we get it back to $1 a litre because as it is now, my $40 has given me half a full tank and that’s just terrible,” she said.

Delivery truck driver, Jason (surname withheld by request), 35, said the cost of diesel yesterday at $167.9 per litre was a reprieve from the $1.80 to $1.90 per litre prices three weeks ago.

“I need 60 to 70 litres of diesel to fill up this truck and go around here and up to the south coast,” he said. “With diesel’s dramatic rise, somebody has to pay.”