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Gas Delivery Startups Want to Fill Up Your Car Anywhere, But It Might Not Be Legal (bloomberg.com)
Eric Newcomer, reporting for Bloomberg: A new crop of startups are trying to make gas stations obsolete. Tap an app, and they'll bring the gas to you, filling up your car while you're at work or at home. Filld, WeFuel, Yoshi, Purple and Booster Fuels have started operating in a few cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, Nashville, Tennessee, and Atlanta, Georgia. But officials in some of those cities say that driving around in a pickup truck with hundreds of gallons of gasoline might not be safe. "It is not permitted," said Lt. Jonathan Baxter, a spokesman for the San Francisco fire department, adding that if San Francisco residents see any companies fueling vehicles in the city, they should call the fire department. "We haven't talked to them. I don't know about that. It's news to me," said Nick Alexander, co-founder of Yoshi. "You can never ask for permission because no one will give it," said Chris Aubuchon, the chief executive officer at Filld. The Los Angeles Fire Department said it's drafting a policy around gasoline delivery. "Our current fire code does not allow this process; however, we are exploring a way this could be allowed with some restrictions," said Capt. Daniel Curry, a spokesman for the city's fire department.
Apps!
Today in "It's Sunny In Philadelphia" storylines coming to life...
Fake it till you blow up in a fiery ball of idiocy.
Gas stations have environmental controls to keep fuel from leaking into the environment...
When I read the headline, I immediately thought of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
What they say:
"Our current fire code does not allow this process; however, we are exploring a way this could be allowed with some restrictions," said Capt. Daniel Curry
What they mean:
"We will soon let you know how much we are going to tax your new business opportunity!"
Unless the ELFs get wind of it, this shouldn't be any more dangerous than most hazardous material transports already in motion. Long as the trucks/tankers are marked properly and reinforced enough and the drivers properly vetted, there's not much chance something would go horribly wrong.
Yoga?
I would enjoy this service!
Sometimes that extra trip to the gas station is a drag when all you want to do is go home after a long day at the office.
There must be a way to make this work with the law. Fuel deliveries to homes for heating fuel are a similar concept. Granted, the trucks are big rigs and no doubt follow a long safety checklist.
I'm going to start a competitor named FillDD. The two D's are for a "double-dose of pumpin".
Security is not a problem. it can be regulated to acceptable levels. Whether these service are still economically viable after that is another matter.
Of more concern is the environmental risk of spillage. There is a reason that gas-stations have to invest in expensive measures to prevent spilled gas to leak into the ground. Those are not cheap and cannot be copied into a mobile gas-station solution.
It's called AAA.
Save Maine's economy: write stuff down. All comments are exclusively my own, not my employer.
Texaco... we now deliver!
Hideki!
with pumping gasoline is the spillage. In the Netherlands, all gas stations are required to have non-porous paving to make sure spills don't end up in the ground.
The other problem is that it's inefficient. Instead of people filling up at the next station they come across, some guy has to drive everywhere to fill up one customer at a time.
A new crop of startups are trying to make gas stations obsolete.
Where then are they getting the gas from? If we're talking about pickup truck beds full of (large containers of) gasoline I would expect they are still filling them at gas stations. They are then just up-charging the people who are paying for it for their own cars. The gas stations are still selling just as much gas, and in fact might do better as this process could involve more consumption.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Texaco comes to you!
If somebody wants to deliver gas let them. It's a free country.
Cut a hole into a coconut and call it Jane.
The problems are:
1. Fire codes.. as mentioned in article.
2. Hazmat codes, most cities & towns have laws against driving tankers full of gasoline up & down residential streets.
3. Garages / locking gas covers. Most of the people who are wealthy/old enough to appreciate such a service are also wealthy enough that you cant get to their gascap.
4. Insurance.
The best option i could come up with is maybe you gas them up in the office parking lot at work. But the property owner would have to be okay with it (good luck with that).. & youve still got the problem of locking gas caps/covers & car alarms.... not to mention parking garages.
Look, OBVIOUSLY it is possible to get permission to legally drive a vehicle around full of gasoline. That's how the gasoline stations get their gasoline. They usually need special tested equipment designed to carry hazardous liquids - and the license to drive said equipment.
It is also obviously legal to fill a car with gasoline at places other than gas stations - people that run out of gas do this all the time using a one gallon container.
There would have to be a specific law prohibiting this particular job.
Also this business is a STUPID idea. There is always a premium for delivery and for the premium for a delivery of a hazardous liquid should be so high as to make this a financially stupid idea. Gasoline stations are plentiful, on roads, normal people never run out of it and don't need the minor time savings of delivery.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
"You can never ask for permission because no one will give it"
Translation:
"We are fully aware that our business model violates multiple safety and environmental laws. But we're an app, so fuck you."
GrubHub already delivers Chipotle.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
I get kerosene delivered every year to my house for the furnace??
A new crop of startups are trying to make gas stations obsolete
It's called. . . the Electric Vehicle.
Think the EV is not there yet? I bet it "gets there" before "gas delivery services" ever do. . .
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
"It is not permitted,"
Oh really? A pickup truck with a bunch of gas cans in the bed might not be wise. But even for pickups, there are approved fueling setups.
Petrol sales is sort of a cartel. You have a market, based on your service station location. And you are given a retail price. Violate any of these agreements and your station will suddenly cease to receive deliveries. If people start buying fuel in bulk and hauling it into other market areas, established dealers will be upset. I can see where the fire departments might have a concern. Distributors violating the cartel terms might start mysteriously bursting into flames.
Have gnu, will travel.
Do you realy want to be in a uber that is also a tanker truck?
Are Millennials really that damn lazy and incompetent they can't bother to go to a gas station and figure out how to pump gas themselves? Next thing you know coupons will disappear as Millennials don't want to put any effort into saving money when they foolishly believe they can just buy happiness at full price. No wonder advertisers are solely focused on Millennials, a fool and their money are soon parted.
I want the service where a drone refuels my car ... while I'm driving.
[Insert pithy quote here]
I think this is essentially an idea/service looking for a need they hope might exist, rather than a response to an existing need or demand.
It only takes about 5 minutes to fill up your car at a gas station, and people often use it as an opportunity to use the restroom and/or grab something to eat or drink too. If you're so darn busy, you can't be bothered to put gas in your vehicle -- then I have to question why you're driving one at all? Maybe you're best served hiring services like Uber to take you around, so you won't be stuck wasting more minutes of each day finding parking spaces. You do know - after a few months of driving, you're going to need things like oil changes too, right?
There's no way one of these services can offer what they do cheaper than getting gas at a gas station. They have to use gas just to bring your gas to you!
Given all of that, I'm not sure the legal argument matters. Basically, there's no logical reason to go driving around with hundreds of gallons of gasoline in a vehicle that isn't designed for the purpose (tanker truck), because we have a whole filling station infrastructure in place.
much does it cost to get drivers with an CDL with hazmat and full insurance vs some uber where they don't even have the CDL and the insurance has time gaps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
I don't respond to AC's.
driving around in a pickup truck with hundreds of gallons of gasoline might not be safe.
Look im checking my blindspots at every intersection and im using my goddamn blinkers at every single turn so I dont understand what more you want from me. Christ. you sound just like my wife when I was shoveling cheap chinese fireworks into the passenger seat. It was a good idea 5 redbulls ago, and its gonna be an even better idea for an internet app 5 more from now.
Good people go to bed earlier.
...you will be horrified to learn that MILLIONS of people without any amount of HAZMAT training transport tank loads of gasoline willy nilly every day. Why just today my grandmother decided it would be a hoot to drive around with 25 gallons of highly flammable fuel.
making it easier to pollute the environment is not helping people, it's enabling an already damaging technology.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
The only reason this craziness exists is because some entitled twit sees his workmate with a Telsa charging his car at work and thinks, "hey, why should he get to charge his car at work and not me?".
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
We already have a national disaster waiting to happen.
Millions of untrained laypersons fuel their vehicles, and often other people's vehicles, unlicensed and unregulated.
Hate to disrupt your bubble, but that shit is all regulated to hell. It's on specific property, and those facilities have to get inspected frequently.
So yeah, it is regulated... already.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
"You can never ask for permission because no one will give it"
The correct translation is:
"We already are protecting and enriching certain cronies, and they will not allow us to permit this business."
FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! /Beavis
For some reason, this business reminds me of this article from Brian Krebs blog: http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/11/gas-theft-gangs-fuel-pump-skimming-scams/
Scroll down to where it says, "Mobile Bombs", or "Countering Fuel Fraud"
There are a number of approaches to legally driving around with thousands of gallons of fuel.
Say you identify as a car and the thousands of gallons in the back of the truck are for the baby you plan to breastfeed soon as you are pregnant with another car.
Furthermore note that being Sanctuary city, you are illegally in the city and thus immune from all prosecution or laws.
As a final backup, keep a lit rag in the truck at all times, and if firefighters try to stop you simply toss the lit rag into the nearest building which the firefighters will be forced to deal with as you make your escape.
If your truck actually does explode and take several buildings with you, trust me San Francisco will be better off.
It's not dangerous, like gasoline. It's vegetable matter, so it isn't going to ruin the local eco-system. On top of all of this, there are very few distribution points for the fuel. Add on top of this, this might be the only way to bring many diesel cars into compliance with environmental laws.
It works better as diesel, because that's not nearly as dangerous.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Not only do they deliver fuel to your vehicle, but they wash all the windows and check the tire pressure, all in under 60 seconds!
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
After starting to work at a brand-name full-serve gas station, I have never let anyone else refuel my vehicle since.
Most gas jockeys ("Fuel Service Technicians" ?) are in a rush and honest mistakes are made. And, of course, some are jerks and do things intentionally.
During my shifts, I witnessed:
"You can never ask for permission because no one will give it,"
So DON'T FUCKING DO IT.
"But officials in some of those cities say that driving around in a pickup truck with hundreds of gallons of gasoline might not be safe. "
Around here, quite a few farmers and construction workers who drive pickups have large tanks of fuel mounted on the bed behind the cab. Gasoline and diesel. It's not all that unusual to see.
/. Dissent will not be tolerated. Think like us or perish.
So as gasoline is on it's way out, these guys are just trying to get innovative? They would have been considered smart, 20 or 40 years ago, today, they are just lazy fucking millennials unwilling to do actual labor and think everything needs fucking app.
Aside from the huge steps they need to take to ensure they are doing this legally and safely, gasoline usage is just going to go downhill very rapidly very quickly (if you consider 2-3 decades quick). From a business perspective, they cannot possibly be in this for the long haul. They are going to be washed up and out of business in 20 years at most.
This is the equivalent of investing in copperwire land line infrustructure in the late 90's
Those are perfectly safe? What id your startup was driving around a fuel tanker truck with 2 million gallons of gas in it? That would be safer?
The next thing will be the delivery driver will text his mate - "I've just filled up a car at xxx", who will then drive along and pump it all back out again.
Do you want that to happen in your parking lot or in front of your home?
At one point people in the US who lived along the Mexico border would (still do?) travel over the border to fill up. Gas in Mexico was (still is?) vastly cheaper than the US, partly due to govt subsidies. You can't just drive over a big tank to fill up and bring back.
To get around this, people would have an auxiliary tank added to their vehicle, usually in the bed on pickups. To be legal it had to be a functioning proper tank tied into the vehicle's fuel system. Once back over the border there was nothing to prevent you from siphoning out the tank to use on your other vehicles.
I imagine this would be the same way to get around this law.
Only in the SF area would someone be able to afford this... and be dumb enough to leave their gas door open.
Filld charges a delivery fee of up to $5 and then asks the same price per gallon for gas as the least expensive nearby gas station.
For most cars $5 worth of gas will get you atleast 40-60miles. If you're truly out of gas and you need this in an emergency then you should have thought about filling up before you go to the office.
If you joined AAAwith a basic membership you get free emergency fuel delivery as part of your membership. Some levels of membership even include the fuel itself for free and not just the delivery. The basic membership is about $50/year and includes towing, roadside assistance, car battery jumping etc..
Most Auto-Insurance companies also include this emergency roadside service.
"Purple has a fleet of about 80 cars driving around Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County and Seattle with up to a half-dozen five-gallon gas canisters in the trunk. “We wanted to give an option to drivers to skip the gas station, as if they were ordering an Uber or a Lyft,” said Uzzan. Speaking of ride-hailing services, some of Purple’s drivers pick up passengers for Uber between refuel gigs, according to Uzzan. Uber declined to comment."
Some of the others have specially equipped trucks but Purple is putting a bunch of new-age Ford Pinto's on the market asking for trouble. Now imagine your Uber driver has a trunk full of five-gallon cans.
Fun time indeed.
I'm not making this up, but...Paris. You can be walking down a downtown thoroughfare like the Boul' Mich, and a mini tanker truck zips into a parking space and sets itself up as an instant filling station, complete with a big ESSENCE sign just like the conventional gas stations.
Do you think people who mow lawns all day keep running to the gas station to fill all of their equipment? Hell no, they got 20+gallon tanks of extra gas that they drag along with their equipment. I can't see how this is any different, and good luck enforcing anything in this regard without getting every landscaper from here to China pissed off. Anyway, we allow tanker trucks full of corrosive chemicals drive down any "main" street and they are so dangerous that if one of them tipped over and spilled they'd kill anyone downwind. Gasoline is not nearly as dangerous, as it is not especially good at explosive burning -- it only becomes so when it is aerosolized and hit with an electrical charge in a confined space. This is just not as dangerous as people think -- Semis have 100-gallon tanks of diesel and no one complains, most cars are 20 gallons, etc... "Explosive" gas tanks everywhere! It's not going to be any more dangerous, especially if the hauling vehicles take safety precautions that we use with other vehicles. (Plastic containers to prevent sparks if they are impacted, cages, etc...) Mostly, much adieu about nothing..
There is already an industry that does this - construction companies. They have tankers that drive to the job site to fill up cranes, bulldozers, generators and all of the other equipment you see on the job. I mean, when was the last time you saw a crane at the 7-11 getting fuel?
as well as a lot of construction guys. lot of that is diesel. lot of that is gasoline. this is not the end of the world.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Close his eyes and think of Windoze...
Of 'disruption' that exists solely to facilitate laziness or privelage and has the added benefit of turning workers into what are essentially servants. This is not the way forward, folks.
It'll be nice when this obsession with having other people do everything else for you will be over. Then again, it might require a certain demographic to just grow up a bit and not panic about having do anything they don't like because they are busy.
Frankly, if you aren't horribly overworked and not constantly distracted, things like shopping for you own food, filling up your own gas and so on aren't intolerable annoyances that you must eliminate at any cost. That's where the mobile app bubble is, there's not nearly enough people that can't manage to balance work and life out there as Silicon Valley thinks there is.
"San Francisco, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, Nashville, Tennessee, and Atlanta"
One of these things is not like the others.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
So regulations should be narrowly tailored. "Something bad might happen" should never be used as a justification. Regulate specific things to prevent specific problems -- problems that have been shown to really be problems,
IOW you believe that regulations should be "written in blood" only after someone has been killed or maimed.
Asshole.
think Silicon Valley, Seattle, parts of California. Also, what will make it profitable is the 'Sharing' economy. Aka paying people piecemeal with no benefits, no taxes for you (just them) and above all no insurance, training or safety equipment. Just about any stupid idea can be profitable when you're allowed to externalize your expenses onto society at large...
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
not a one of them carries commercial drivers insurance and I don't trust Uber to pay up if I ever get in a real wreck and need long term medical treatment. And yeah, my health insurance company will try to weasel out of paying too so...
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Proper placarding hazmat endorsement I dont see why not.
Yet AAA can do it anytime they please.
Proof that San Francisco is as corrupt as Chicago.
Burn that fucking hippie hole down.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Illegal in california to drive commercial fuel delivery vehicles in residential neighbourhoods. It took quite a few major fires (and more than a few well-broiled children) to get Sacramento to ban it.
If the quotes are accurate then this is yet another case of wilfully ignoring the law to make a profit. Those persons called corporations are the ultimate elites, above the law. interestingly, that's something TTP and TTIP will permanently set in stone.
In America the highest law of the land is the treaty, not the Constiution.
(Ohai America! Guess what? You're fucked!)
Certainly not the way you did. That shit has gay written all over it!
California Highway Patrol says this is illegal without permits and commercial licenses plus hazmat endorsements, and people doing this will be cited and/or arrested. They are considering a policy of impounding their vehicles for illegal operation (without permits, etc.) and safety violations, the same as with illegal bulk tankers. CHP also emphatically says such fuel deliveries are prohibited in neighborhoods and these vehicles must obey the same highway restrictions as larger bulk tankers. But let's see if these startups can buy off the cops...
For a new driver that needs to be trained? Depending on the area, as little as a couple hundred if the driver doesn't need to be trained. With training it will start at $600 even in the cheapest areas. For the insurance go get an estimate yourself from your insurer. Mine went from $70 a month to $600 a month with no "insurance gaps". I live in a state that always requires insurance.
"We haven't talked to them. I don't know about that. It's news to me," said Nick Alexander, co-founder of Yoshi. "You can never ask for permission because no one will give it," said Chris Aubuchon, the chief executive officer at Filld
No shit "no one will give it". Driving around in a bomb on wheels isn't something I'd permit just anyone to do.
Have to admire the proprietors for their ingenuity, but for the customers...how lazy can you get?
From what I’ve seen above, it doesn’t look like a good idea to transferring petroleum away from a station. Overall it would be safer to have someone arrive, grab your keys and take your car to the gas station. They don’t have to buy a truck then.
I’m old enough to remember 16K of memory being described as “whopping”
Those vehicles exploding in Hollywood movies could be imitated by an SUV near you!
Is it just me or is it starting to look like the USA is trying to regress to something like a third world country in a lot of little ways now?
What do you know? It really is a telemarketer number. They don't leave a message, want you to call back, call if you are on the DNC list, and are an automobile warranty thing - from Texas, or so it seems. They have at least 17 complaints.
I figured it was some lady who mistakenly gave the AC her number but only wanted him to fix her computer and no, not like porn star computer fixing. ;-)
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Get the self-driving cars to be able to go to the gas station by themselves and have a drink without supervision and there's no need to violate any fire codes in a way nobody imagined they could be violated when using a jerry can.
"Everybody's naked underneath" -- The Doctor
Nothing is legal without either a constitutional amendment or a law making it legal. I'm not aware of any law that allows just anyone to drive around with thousands of gallons of gasoline just waiting to blow a neighborhood to smithereens. Thank God. What are these people thinking exposing the general public to this level of reckless disregard?
Happens all the time in Florida, Except it's a truck delivering fuel to boats parked behind houses. I don't see how this is different.
Custom Truck (longbed with a dropgate to protect the pump)
Driver trained (CDL with Hazmat endorsement)
Limit on size of truck and amount to be delivered
MSD setup before the dropgate gets unlocked
Inflammable means flammable? Who knew?!?
That would be more appropriate if he wanted to experience being fucked in the ass without feeling gay.
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
I'm thinking of buying a gas station, then having an employee come to your car and pump the gas for you! Maybe even clean your windows! I can't imagine why anybody hasn't tried this yet, it's genius!!!
Have you read my blog lately?
The old tried and true gas delivery service is called AAA. Of course they will bring you gas if you were stupid enough to let it run out. They won't fill your tank but will give you a couple gallons so you can make it to the next filling station.
Paul E. Bahre
Who would of thought that a startup formed around the plot of an episode of It's Always Sunny In Philidelphia might not have had been completely thought through
If you can't drive gas in trucks, how pray tell does the gas get from the refinery to the gas station?
according to this documentary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
In rural America probably half of the pickup trucks I see have a slip tank. You don't pull your 4wd tractor the size of a small house up to the pump at BP for fill-ups. They use transfer tanks to get the fuel to the equipment in the field.
To make this financially viable, the trucks need to carry a lot of fuel, and thus become a serious hazard.
Is there even a market? It's easy to find a filling station during normal driving.
Warning: Really bad "hot new start-ups" says we're in a bubble.