New trends may alter the future of gas stations
By NACS Online
Everyone loves delivery services, but forget pizza and florists. Now Yoshi, a gasoline provider in Silicon Valley, is delivering fuel directly to individual cars and fleets in 14 cities, according to The Outline, an online news publication.
Drivers in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Nashville, the Raleigh/Durham area, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, St. Louis, Tampa Bay and Warren, Michigan, can get their vehicles refueled at their home or workplace by a gasoline-carrying delivery truck. Yoshi expects to be serving 25 cities by year-end.
Customers pay $5 for the service, in addition to the cost of fuel. For additional fees, the company also can provide oil changes, car washes and anything else the auto needs right at the customer’s location.
Convenience is the reason, according to Kurt Hoppe, an advisory board member for the Internet of Things Consortium. Since 1996 when GM’s OnStar service was launched, Hoppe has watched as autos became more connected. Thanks to Internet access and the ability to communicate with other devices, he predicts that cars, not customers, eventually will notify on-demand fuel companies when they are low on gas.
If Yoshi’s expansion succeeds in building a strong customer base, large c-store chains might be able to make the transition to providing on-demand fuel combined with food delivery, observers believe.
Yoshi is not without competition. Booster provides fuel on-demand to customers in the San Francisco Bay Area and Dallas-Fort Worth. Filld services individuals and fleets in the Bay Area and Seattle. In Portland and Vancouver, it serves fleets only.
