The average price of diesel in the UK has climbed above £2 a litre for the first time, according to the RAC motoring group - a milestone nobody wanted and everybody saw coming, courtesy of seven months of the Iran war severely disrupting the production and transportation of wholesale oil and refined products from the region and sending prices surging worldwide.

In the North East, charities and businesses are discovering that soaring fuel costs are an excellent way to convert a functioning budget into a series of difficult conversations. Daft as a Brush, a Newcastle-based cancer charity that provides patients with transport to hospital appointments, is now spending £15,000 a month on diesel - £5,000 more than last year - while its 30 vans rack up 600,000 miles annually.

The charity had planned to replace its diesel vehicles with electric ones. It can no longer afford to, because the money is being swallowed at the pump, which is a bit like saving up for a new roof and then discovering the old one is on fire.

Volunteer driver Davey Hall provided the receipts. "Before the big hikes, we used to maybe fill up and it would take £40-45," he said. "Last week, it was £94 to fill the tank from half full." Head of income generation Scott Jobson added that the money is coming out of funds raised by donations, and that the charity isn't eligible for any kind of discount. "At the pump, what you see is what we pay," he said - a sentence that would make an excellent slogan for the entire year.

Over in Middlesbrough, Teesside Minibus Hire director Billy Johnson said his company often signs contracts with schools and businesses spanning multiple years, priced on the cost of fuel at the time they were written - a business model now functioning as a slow-motion magic trick in which money disappears.

"We're not running at a loss yet, but we're running close to it not being worthwhile or sustainable," he said. The company has been passing costs on to customers using services such as day hires, but those customers are dealing with inflation themselves and aren't always willing to pay the higher price. Instead, Johnson said, people are turning to cheaper, unlicensed hire services that don't carry the same overheads - because nothing improves a market quite like a race to the bottom.

Asked whether the business could survive if fuel prices didn't drop, he was admirably direct: "Long term, probably not."

The government, for its part, announced in May that it would extend a fuel duty freeze until the end of the year, capping the tax at 5p per litre for petrol and diesel - a measure originally introduced by the previous Conservative government after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine pushed prices up in 2022. It has also stressed there is no cause for concern about potential diesel shortages over the Iran war, noting the country has a "diverse and resilient supply."

Meanwhile, fuel prices have been added to Google Maps, presumably so drivers can locate the exact spot where their money goes, and the G7 is preparing to release up to 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil in a bid to stop prices soaring further. Charities driving cancer patients to appointments will be watching closely.