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Urban Myth TIPS ON PUMPING GAS

Many times, I delete forwarded email without even reading them. This one from my brother in law made me think. Thanks Allen!

TIPS ON PUMPING GAS

I don’t know what you guys are paying for gasoline…but here in California we are also paying higher, up to $3.50 per gallon. But my line of work is in petroleum for about 31years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money’s worth for every gallon…

Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose , CA we deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline. One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, regular and premium grades. We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons.

Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening….your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role.

A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps. When you’re filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3)stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some other liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you’re getting less worth for your money. One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.

Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up–most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some f the dirt that normally settles on the bottom. Hope this will help you get the most value for your money.

DO SHARE THESE TIPS WITH OTHERS!

Makes sense – right? Well no matter how humble these things sound there are damn few that are for real. Here is another view:

From the Rumor website – Snopes.com

Origins: This collection of purported money-saving tips for buying gasoline is another item difficult to classify as strictly true or false. It’s not completely false in that one or more of the tips might actually result in some savings (however modest), but it can’t fairly be classified as true either, as the practical utility of all of these tips is disputed, and the economic gains to be had from following them is highly questionable.

From Yahoo Answers

this myth has been around since the late 40’s when gasoline storage tanks were just starting to be buried underground. in the early days the tanks were buried just below the surface, and thus temperature did have an effect of the volume of fuel in the tank, but mostly due to the amount of vapor released due to the higher temperatures. these days the storage tanks are buried much deeper to the point where the tanks are kept at a steady 55 degrees regardless of outside temperature, and thus has no meaning these days.

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Now’s Not the Time to Slow Down

I read an interesting take on the current economic situation in an automobile dealer’s vendor newsletter I subscribe to. It had the message right up to the point it started selling a particular product the publisher offers, then went off the tracks – anyway – here is the top part with my commentary below…

 Now’s Not the Time to Slow Down 

 

According to a recent J.D. Power and Associates forecast, new-vehicle sales in 2008 are expected to reach their lowest levels since 1994, dropping to 14.95 million cars and light trucks. This obviously isn’t good news for our industry, and your first instinct may be to cut back on spending (including marketing and advertising), ride out the rough times and wait for sunnier weather. But if you do that, you’d be missing a huge opportunity. 

 

First things first… if you’re experiencing a slow-down in sales, the last thing you’ll want to do is to cut back on the only thing that can drive sales – namely advertising and marketing. 

 

Second, slowdowns like this are an opportunity for the marketing savvy among us to capture market and mind share so that when things rebound, as they most certainly will, you’re in the driver’s seat.  

Here is where the author went off the tracks in my opinion:

One way to accomplish this is to ramp up your traditional media spending during this lull. Chances are you’ll even probably see some favorable media rates…

O.K. first, traditional media like what? Newspapers? A bad investment for most businesses – readership is in a deep decline especially among folks under 40. (I can defend that stat with facts)

Traditional media like local radio? National statistics show overall use of radio declining, and with the rise in Satellite radio listenership the only logical deduction is that the audience for live local radio is also in decline. (And I can defend that stat with facts)

I could go on, and you could probably argue both sides of the media penetration issue. That being said the Internet is the 900 pound gorilla in the room.  I would consider placing shrinking budgets into growing media, not declining media.  But how?

O.K. – that’s another blog for another time – better yet – a Web Strategies Podcast J