How rising costs and infrastructure gaps threaten the supply chains we depend on most. By Rupert Gatty, chief executive officer, CoolKit.
When diesel prices spiked by almost forty pence a litre in March 2026, the national debate focused on what it costs to fill a car. But there is a more urgent question almost nobody is asking: what does it cost to keep your medicines safe and your food fresh?
The pharmaceutical and healthcare cold chains – the temperature-controlled networks that deliver insulin, biologics and vaccines from warehouse to patient – run substantially on diesel. So does the refrigerated food chain that keeps milk, meat and fresh produce safe from depot to shelf.
According to the Road Haulage Association, 98% of the food on Britain’s shelves arrives by truck, leaving the entire food ecosystem vulnerable to oil price volatility. The food that requires refrigeration burns even more fuel, because maintaining a constant two to eight degrees Celsius demands continuous power drawn directly from the vehicle’s engine.
These are not deliveries that can be paused or deferred. Medicines must move. Food must stay cold. The cold chain either holds, or it does not.
Yet the system that underpins all of this remains structurally exposed to global fuel markets – and faces additional cost pressure from planned duty rises.
Keir Starmer’s 1 April address was unequivocal: the temporary five pence per litre fuel duty cut ends this autumn. From September, duty rises by one penny, then two pence in December, then a further two pence in March 2027 – the first increase in 15 years. From 2027/28, annual inflation-linked rises resume.
The Prime Minister told MPs fuel duty is frozen until September and that the Government would “look carefully at the situation” – but committed to nothing beyond that.
Every opposition party has called for the rise to be scrapped. The Petrol Retailers Association has urged a delay. The RHA has called it “an inflationary timebomb”.
A planned tax increase landing on top of a geopolitical price shock raises a legitimate question for the industry: at what point does additional cost pressure tip essential supply chains from strained to unsustainable?
In one month, UK diesel rose from around 142 pence to over 182 pence per litre – a 27% increase. Refrigeration can represent up to 45% of cold-chain operating costs. For fleet operators already on tight margins, that is a material threat to the economics of keeping medicines and food safe.
And the pressure does not stop at the pharmacy. The Institute of Grocery Distribution has warned that food inflation could exceed 8% by June 2026, adding over £150 to the average household grocery bill per annum. The same diesel that keeps your insulin cold keeps your milk cold.
The pattern is obvious. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The HGV crisis in 2021, when medicine deliveries to pharmacies were missed nationwide. Iran in 2026. Each time, the cold chain absorbed the blow because it had no alternative. Each time, the structural vulnerability remained exactly where it was. The question is why that dependency persists – when a proven alternative exists.
Some 43% of UK public charging devices are concentrated in London and the South East. For a distributor in Lancashire or the North East, the proposition looks fundamentally different. The Government’s billion-pound funding package and Depot Charging Scheme are welcome steps, but charging bays remain too small for commercial vehicles at many sites, grid connections take months (if not years, depending on your DNO and your specific power needs), and the regional imbalance means operators who would benefit most are furthest from adequate provision.
The pharmaceutical and food cold chains are essential infrastructure. Accelerating the shift to electric fleets would reduce their exposure to global fuel shocks permanently – but operators cannot close that gap alone. It requires genuine partnership between industry and government to get the charging network, the grid connections and the regional balance right.
Just last week, at its Decarbonisation Forum in London, Logistics UK called for an accelerated decarbonisation roadmap to be developed jointly between industry and government.
The medicines your family depends on should not be at the mercy of events three thousand miles away. Neither should the food on your table. The technology to change that is ready. The industry is willing. Logistics UK’s call for a joint roadmap shows there is a clear path forward – one that protects essential supply chains, supports decarbonisation and gives operators the certainty they need to invest. What is needed now is for government and industry to walk that path together, and at pace.
