The order of your results is not for sale.
Forecourt UK ranks stations by price. Nothing comes ahead of that — not a partnership, not a sponsorship, not any commercial relationship. This page sets out exactly how the order you see is worked out, and the one place a paying partner could ever affect it.
It's a promise with a code basis rather than a slogan: the sorting, the “Cheapest” label and the cheapest-station summary are each pinned by tests that fail the build if they change.
Price is the first thing we sort on
Every result list is sorted on the price of the fuel you're looking at. If you're showing several fuels at once, we sort on the cheapest of the fuels you've selected, so the station that serves you best for what you actually buy comes first.
Price is the primary key. Nothing can move a station above a cheaper one.
What a paying partner can and cannot do
We don't sell placement on Forecourt UK, and no station pays us today. Even so, the rule is worth stating plainly, because it's the promise this site is built on:
- A paid placement may appear above another station that charges exactly the same price. It breaks a tie, and that is all it does.
- A paid placement may not outrank a cheaper station — whatever it pays, and however close the gap.
- A paid placement is always labelled Sponsored, next to the station's name.
- A paid placement is never given the “Cheapest” label, and never becomes the cheapest station summarised at the top of your search.
- A paid placement's price is shown as the station reported it. We don't round it, dress it up, or hide it.
How a paid placement would appear
If a station ever does pay for placement, it appears in your results like any other station, at the price it charges, with a Sponsored label beside its name. You'd always be able to see it — and, just as importantly, see that it never beat a cheaper station.
The “Cheapest” label is not for sale
Two things on a results page say “this is the cheapest option”: the “Cheapest” tag on an individual result, and the cheapest station summarised at the top of the page. Both are worked out from stations that don't pay us. A paid placement can't be given either one, whatever it offers.
There is one honest caveat: if every station within range were a paying partner, those two would fall back to the cheapest of that group, because there'd be nothing else to choose from. No station on this site is a paying partner today, so that situation doesn't arise.
When you sort by “Nearest”
Switching from “Lowest price” to “Nearest” sorts by distance, with price as the tie-break. Sponsorship plays no part in that order at all — a paying partner can't move up or down the list when you're sorting by how close it is.
Today, nothing here is paid for
Checked : no station on Forecourt UK is a paid placement, and no result on the site carries a Sponsored label. Sponsorship isn't switched on.
There are no ads on the site either, and no station has paid us for a position in your results.
How to check this yourself
You don't have to take our word for any of it. Search any postcode, for any fuel, and look for a Sponsored label: there are none. If one ever appears, it will be on a station that is priced the same as or lower than the one above it — and if you ever catch it higher, that's a bug in this promise, not a matter of opinion. Tell us at hello@forecourtuk.co.uk.
If we ever sell placement
We'd say so on this page, and the rules above wouldn't move. Prices on Forecourt UK are as reported to the government's Fuel Finder scheme, and the order they're shown in is decided by those prices alone.
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Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.