SOARING fuel prices are hitting businesses all over south Essex, as the cost of petrol and diesel hits record highs.

Haulage firms, driving instructors and cab drivers have all said the rising price of crude oil is costing them dearly.

In Southend, taxi drivers are asking the council tomorrow for a seven per cent rise in fares - meaning a trip from the town centre to the hospital which now costs up to £6 could increase by nearly 50p.

Former chairman of the Southend Taxi Association, Paul Sutton, said the rising costs were hitting drivers hard and urged the council, which sets the fares, to help.

The 57-year-old said: "When you consider taxi drivers are doing 40,000 to 50,000 miles a year any rise will soon add up. It is very difficult out here at the moment. Drivers were spending £10 to £15 a day and now they are spending £22 to £25."

He added that in a year a litre of diesel has gone from 89p to 116p - a rise of 27p.

In Basildon, taxi drivers are also asking the council for a price hike.

David Downton, 54, who is chairman of the Basildon Private Hire Association, said: "We are feeling the crunch. Fares will go up."

A driving instructor in Southend, who asked not to be named, said instructors were absorbing the costs and not passing them on to the customers.

He said: "Driving instructors are earning less and a lot are working for very little money."

Haulage firms are being hit. Bosses say that in one month the cost of a 22,000-litre tanker of diesel has risen from £22,000 to £25,000.

Clive Mullins, the director of haulage firm E&K Bentons in Stanford, said: "I am frightened to order more diesel because I don't know what the price increase will be next."