If we can have groceries delivered to us over the Web, rent a video or buy a book using the Internet, or pick up a phone and have water rushed to us in 5-gallon jugs, why can't we have gasoline delivered to our front step?
The idea is to have a delivery service similar to Alhambra, Calistoga, or Culligan: weekly delivery of gasoline to people for their cars.
What a time saver this would be! No more pumping gas, no more waiting in line, just good, clean fuel delivered to where you keep your car parked.-- jeddings, Aug 20 2000 Buy Gas Online... http://gasoline.priceline.com/gas/Not quite what [jeddings] was after, but close. [hippo, Aug 20 2000, last modified Oct 04 2004] ...and, have it delivered by this. http://www.omegaavi...port_equipment.html [Klaatu, Oct 04 2004] What about a service that delivers gasoline to stranded motorists? You could add a hefty markup thanks to convenience and lack of competition.-- Uncle Nutsy, Aug 21 2000 I imagine AAA or any towing service would be happy to do that for you (for a nice fee)...-- egnor, Aug 21 2000 perhaps a better angle would be to offer this as a corporate service where employees have assigned parking spots. the gas delivery truck could just roll through the parking lot/structure every day and deliver gas to anybody who has put in for a fill up...-- JT, Aug 23 2000 Many problems with this idea. First the Goverment regulations of the storage and sale of gasoline. Where would you store it? What kind of delivery system would you use? Surely most people would not want a oil truck like delivery in the middle of the night. Also what about the grade of gasoline? Do you sell only premium, super, regular or any combination of them. How would the delivery be scheduled? Would you have to make sure your car was home say every thursday night between a certian predetermined time? too many to list...-- rooster, Sep 02 2000 Eh, this site is full o' stick-in-the-mud naysayers.
If companies worked out the comparable problems with online grocery stores (and they have, or are trying), then surely they can solve these problems too.
Where would you store it? In the truck, until it's delivered to the car. What kind of delivery system? A gas nozzle, just like a gas station. And why wouldn't you want an oil truck refueling your vehicle in the middle of the night? You wouldn't even have to be there; they could do it quietly at 3 AM, as long as your car was accessible (you'd give them a key to your fuel tank). What grade of gasoline? One or two, all those premium grades are a waste of money anyway.-- egnor, Sep 02 2000 And it's entirely possible to have seperate divisions inside the tank. The big gas tanker trucks can carry something like five different grades at the same time. Smaller ones would obviously have fewer...
<See Egnor? I don't hate ALL your ideas...>-- StarChaser, Sep 03 2000 : )-- egnor, Sep 03 2000 reduces the chance of getting water mixed in.-- adroitt, Mar 07 2002 Heh. In the idea of a truck trolling a parking lot to deliver fuel made an image pop into my head: A few acres of parking lot full of cars, here and there red flags (like those on a mail box) raised to indicate the car's owner wants gasoline.
Maybe a quick scan of the license plate or VIN (probably better) tells the driver if the owner has an account with his company...-- phoenix, Mar 07 2002 Great idea if it weren't for governmental hamstrings that make this impossible in real life. Croissant.-- blainez, Apr 12 2002 [blainez]: What governmental hamstrings? I think it's a good idea to use the word "impossible" with some restraint.-- bristolz, Apr 12 2002 HOW ABOUT they just pipe it to your garage like they do Natural GAS to your house... And you pay a monthly fee...
And whenever you need gas you just "Fill'er Up" yourself...
You would really need to create a pipeline infrastructure, but It would be convenient... to just have it there..-- oxygon, Apr 13 2002 This service could also be offered at work: leave your keys and payment with reception and your car is filled up while you're at your desk. Pay them a little more an they could valet it too. (+)-- st3f, Jan 31 2003 I just did a bit of research on the web regarding regulations on this, and I think [rooster] is right. The fire prevention guidelines for handling gasoline alone fill a book. You could probably cover most of those (after all, most gasoline is delivered in trucks) but in a business situation you'd probably run afoul of rules regarding the indoor dispensing of fuels, if the client's car was in a parking deck. (OK, so you require the client to give you the keys and you move the car outside first).
There are also a bunch of new emissions regulations regarding "vapor recovery," but I think that can be dealt with since delivery trucks handle this when refilling the stations tanks.
I think the real gotcha here is going to be the State tax authorities in the U.S. Every state derives a quite significant portion of their revenue from gasoline taxes. In order to make sure these taxes are collected correctly, every gas pump has to be regularly inspected by a state official and constructed in a way to be tamper proof. Although I think you could probably build mobile pumps that met the spirit of the law, I doubt the *letter* of the current laws would allow you to do it. (It is certainly easier to assert something is tamper-proof when that thing is bolted to a concrete slab than when it is being carted around on a truck).
Oh and I just looked up the laws for my state, which requires a sworn document to be filed with the state for every single delivery of motor fuel that has passed over state roads. That requirement alone would probably drive you nuts with paperwork. (Ah, so carry it in portable containers like used by tow trucks? Those are limited to 5 gallon capacity).-- krelnik, Jan 31 2003 "Please deliver three 5 gallon fuelings to my car today. Thank you!"-- bristolz, Jan 31 2003 Another issue I can see is predictability of usage. Many people can predict their grocery usage a few days in advance well enough that they'll have room to accommodate the food they order but won't run out before then. Most people's gasoline usage is probably going to be rather less predictable. If I'm running low on fuel a day or two before my scheduled delivery, I'll have to add fuel to my tank. Filling the tank part way and then letting the delivery truck finish it is apt to be no more useful than just filling it up all the way at once.
While someone who orders a certain amount of food will be happy if exactly that must shows up at their door, people are apt to be less happy guessing the quantity of gasoline they need. If you think you'll need half a tank next week but you're practically on empty, getting your tank only half-filled could be annoying. If you order up a half tank and it turns out you're already 3/4 full, what's supposed to happen to the extra?-- supercat, Jan 31 2003 You could put this idea into use tomorrow... if cars ran on heating oil.-- rapid transit, May 20 2003 Already done....When you are in the country check out the farms. Many have two tanks on stands....one diesel and one gasoline for the equipment.....NEXT!!!!-- Ultimatesleeper, Jan 27 2004 random, halfbakery