Coach operators have warned that record diesel prices could force cuts to services including school transport, while hauliers say rising fuel costs are pushing hundreds of firms out of business. Nothing like a fuel crisis to make the school run feel like a luxury.

The average price of diesel on UK forecourts hit a fresh record of more than £2 a litre last week, as the war in the Middle East continues to disrupt global fuel supplies. Because apparently, the only thing more reliable than geopolitical instability is its ability to show up on your receipt.

Alison Edwards, director of policy at the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT), said fuel costs had "surged this year to unsustainable levels, pushing coach operators' already tight margins to breaking point." She added: "It is time for urgent action. Without intervention, soaring prices will mean difficult decisions on the availability of services, including home-to-school transport, and the viability of businesses."

Edwards noted that 85% of independent coach operators are family businesses, and called on the government to provide temporary support with the cost of diesel, adding that the industry "needs help." Local bus operators in England already receive fuel cost subsidies; coach companies, which say they carry out a similar role, have received no equivalent support. Because if there's one thing coaches and buses have in common, it's that they both move people - but only one gets a government handout.

Richard Smith, managing director of the Road Haulage Association (RHA), said the haulage sector was under similar strain. "Businesses in our sector operate on slim profit margins, typically about 2%, so the continuing high fuel costs are a huge challenge for us," he said. He noted hauliers are now paying an extra £350 a week for each truck compared with before the Iran war. "It's just unsustainable," he said. "If haulage, coach and van operators can't pass these costs on, they struggle, and we've seen hundreds of transport businesses going bust already this year."

Hauliers are calling for a pause on planned fuel duty rises and a rebate to help offset the cost of diesel. The RAC motoring organisation has called for the government to expand its 5p cut in fuel duty, which has already been extended until the end of the year. Because nothing says "long-term strategy" like a temporary tax cut that keeps getting extended.

Rhys Hackling, managing director of Direct Connect Logistics, said the impact on his own business had been "absolutely enormous." The company runs 22 lorries out of Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire and Warrington, transporting goods ranging from supermarket products to live events equipment. "We are spending over £300 a week more than we were last year on fuel," he said. "We normally spend about £50,000 a month on fuel … it's now knocking on £65,000."

Many hauliers work on fixed contracts with customers, Hackling said, meaning rising fuel costs squeeze or wipe out their margins entirely. "If these events continue, then it's going to put a lot of haulage firms out of business," he said. "There's less confidence in the market, so there are fewer jobs, and that means the work dries up very, very quickly. Somebody somewhere is having to pay for this, whether it's the haulage firm or whether it's the consumer." Spoiler: it's the consumer.

In a move offering some hope that fuel prices might ease, leaders of G7 nations said on Friday that they would release up to 100m barrels of their emergency diesel and crude oil stockpiles. The announcement was partly in response to Donald Trump suggesting he might introduce a ban on diesel exports after the rise in sales to overseas buyers pushed US prices to record highs. It appears to have averted the threat, which could have pushed diesel prices even higher in the UK, since Britain relies on the US for about a third of its diesel imports and does not refine enough to meet demand on its own. Because energy independence is a lovely idea until you actually need the energy.

The benchmark Brent crude oil price declined by nearly 1% on Monday to just over $101 a barrel. The transport minister, Keir Mather, has said the UK's fuel supply is "inherently resilient" and that people "shouldn't be concerned about shortages." In other words: everything is fine, please ignore the £2 litre and the hundreds of businesses going bust.