Essex ice cream vans warn of price increases to cope with fuel costs
A 99 no longer costs 99p
As we come into the hottest weather of the year so far in Essex, it may be bad news if you fancy a Mr Whippy.
Ice cream van operators are warning they're having to up the price of their products to cope with the rising cost of fuel.
John Bonar runs Piccadilly Whip, a Romford based ice cream van company: "Everything has gone up in price. What you used to be able to buy for £100 is now costing £200.
"Someone's got to pay the price and unfortunately it's going to be the customer."
Many ice cream machines in vans are powered by running the engine, meaning they're using up fuel even when stationary.
John says they've had to rethink their business plans to cope with increased prices: "Just like most vans, they run on diesel and the ice cream machine runs off the engine when it's running, so diesel's running through the vehicle all day.
"Once upon a time it was just an inconvenience to put diesel in the vans, but now it's a big part of the equation. You really have to take into account where you're going.
"For example, if you're taking seven or eight vans to Birmingham or somewhere for a job, it's going to cost around £700, or £100 a van to get there and back, so it's a really big thing...
"We now try to be a little bit cleverer in working out where we will and won't go, and taking jobs that are a little bit closer to home than some of the regular work we used to do."
They're now having to charge £2.50 for a 99 ice cream, which was traditionally 99p, but John says the prices don't seem to have put people off so far: "It might seem a lot of money to charge around £2.50 for an ice cream but it's not that much in the scheme of things compared to other things.
"It's not a fortune, it keeps the kids happy and it's an English tradition to buy an ice cream!"
The company have looked at ways to limit their fuel usage, including ordering a van which runs off a battery instead, however they've been waiting for more than a year for it to come into stock.
John says it's not easy to make switches like this, which may - long term - save the company money: " It's so, so expensive now to get a new van, you're looking at the same price as a house for some, and they only work for a certain amount of the year."