App gets gas tank filled while you work in office
Lara Mijatovich says she hasn’t pumped much gas in five months. Instead, about once a week, she pulls into the parking lot at her workplace in San Ramon and opens an app on her phone. She requests a fill, heads to the office and waits for a notification that the car has been refueled.
“It gives me time, which is priceless,” she said. It’s also cheaper, she said, than going to a gas station.
Filling up the gas tank is routine for commuters — not least in the Bay Area, where the ride to work can take hours and burn a lot of hydrocarbons. Two startups, Booster Fuels of Burlingame and Filld of Mountain View, are trying to eliminate the chore of lining up at the pump. Both are attracting investor interest, even as fire officials scramble to catch up with the new trend. Filld announced $9.65 million in funding on Tuesday, bringing its total to more than $16 million. Booster Fuels, which Mijatovich uses, raised another $20 million in funding this month — its total backing is now $32 million.
They work similarly: A user schedules a fuel delivery through a mobile app and leaves the car’s gas flap unlocked. Payments are processed within the app, and the customer comes back to a tank full of gas.
“It’s all about fuel disappearing into the background,” Filld CEO Michael Buhr said.
It turns out that’s exactly what local officials are worried about: all that gas leaking out as flammable vapor or spilling. Filling up in dense commercial and residential areas requires companies to go through a series of safety tests and receive permits and certifications —
which some cities do not even make available yet for mobile fueling companies.
Booster fuels cars at office parks, companies and universities in the Bay Area and around Dallas-Fort Worth. Filld operates in residential as well as commercial areas in the Bay Area. It also services cars for corporate clients like Daimler’s Car2go and Enterprise Rent-A-Car in the Bay Area and Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia.
The company relies on off-the-shelf pickup trucks that are fitted with a rig consisting of four 100-gallon fuel tanks, a pump and firesuppression equipment.
Filld, which claims more than 5,000 individual users in the Bay Area, says it figures out the prices for the three gas stations closest to you and charges customers the lowest of the three, plus a fee that varies according to the time of day (it’s generally around $3, the company says, or up to $8 at peak times). Booster says its fuel costs are competitive and it charges no delivery fee.
But Jeff Lenard, spokesman for NACS, a national organization for gas retailers and convenience stores, doubted that on-demand fueling can maintain gas prices that are competitive with gas stations because of the high labor costs that go into delivery.
“People will inconvenience themselves to save money,” he said, though he added that a subscription service might prove competitive in the long term.
Filld is not yet profitable, according to Buhr. Booster co-founder and CEO Frank Mycroft said its fueling service covers its operating costs.
At Filld, according to Buhr, drivers have commercial driving licenses and undergo hazardous materials training. The fuel tanks are certified through the federal Department of Transportation, and trucks are approved by the state Department of Motor Vehicles.
Each truck’s fuel pump must be inspected by the local county’s sealer, who ensures the accuracy of weights and measures. Joseph Deviney, sealer for Santa Clara County, said the test ensures that the pumps accurately calculate how much gasoline is needed; that both the truck and the receipt contain accurate information about the type and quantity of fuel; and that the pump is not leaking.
Fire departments are watching warily. California’s fire code is based on the International Code Council’s rules, which do not have a provision for on-demand mobile fueling. Last year, following what state Deputy Fire Marshal Andrew Henning described as “concerns from local fire departments,” he led a working group that proposed a new section to the International Fire Code addressing ondemand mobile fueling. The code would require a permit and approval for all fueling locations, and prohibit fueling on public streets and on the roofs of parking structures.
The San Francisco Fire Department said it will not issue permits for mobile fueling until the state fire marshal reaches a consensus on enforcement. Henning said that California is in the process of adopting the proposed new fire code section but has not yet done so; however, individual jurisdictions are currently able to add mobile fueling regulations to their local fire code if desired. Sunnyvale and Menlo Park adopted such regulations as of January. Booster has a permit with Sunnyvale, but Filld has not applied for one, according to city Fire Marshal Lynne Kilpatrick.
Filld serves clients in San Francisco; Booster does not.
“We don’t have to, but we do” reach out to local fire officials before moving into a jurisdiction, said Filld’s Buhr. “We do want this to be somewhat regulated.”
Booster said it obtains mobile fueling operator permits for every fill location and only operates in open-air parking lots, for safety reasons. At Oracle’s Redwood City campus, which has both open-air parking and a parking garage, Booster trucks fill only in the open area, according to Mycroft. Booster’s bright purple fuel tanks hold up to 1,200 gallons, three times as much as a Filld truck.
“We need to find places where we can do many deliveries all at once,” Mycroft said. “Anywhere you have lots of painful, congested roads and commuters, we’re looking to save them time.”
Gas station operators in California might suggest there’s no rush. “Fuel distributors and station operators in California are held to extremely stringent and costly standards, like enhanced vapor recovery requirements, to ensure both personal and environmental safety,” said Ryan Hanretty, executive director of the California Independent Oil Marketers Association, in an email. “It is important that those same regulations are applied to mobile fueling.”
“Anywhere you have lots of painful, congested roads and commuters, we’re looking to save them time.” Frank Mycroft, Booster co-founder and CEO