Save on Gas

[Steve Zane]

Here is an E-mail I've received from a cousin that lives in the States.It's a great trick to save on Gas.


I don't know what you guys are paying for gasoline.... but here in
California we are paying up to $3.75 to $4.10 per gallon. My line of
work is in petroleum for about 31 years 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 t he 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. You should be pumping on low mode,
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 of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor.
Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage
tank so you're g etting less worth for your money.

One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is
HALF FULL. 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 of the dirt that normally settles on the
bottom.

To have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of gas buyers.
It's really simple to do.

[TheGummy]

thats some really good advice, i'll let a few people know some of those tips and hopefully save them a bit of money.

[Rick]

good oh steve, or you could get a pipe steal somebody elses gas..

petrol here is currently €1.25 litre

[Guitarpima]

I want one of those cars that runs on air. The only thing I don't get is why don't they use the rear axel to run a generator to power a compressor to replenish the compressed air supply.

Not that I want you to be unemployed Zane but I can't wait till people get they're heads out of their asses and start taking care of the ability for us to live on this planet. It's all about sacrafice but nobody want's to sacrafice what they have. The problem there is that when they finally do, we'll realize we sacraficed nothing but gained a lot.

Thanks for the tips Steve!

Another BIG tip. don't let your gas get below a 1/4 tank if you can help it. Especially in the cold weather. You run the risk of your feul pump going bad. HUGE costly mistake.

A question for you all. If an electric car that could only go about 120 mile (193.07999999999998 KM), would you buy that electric car?

[Rick]

i would if you could charge it in 2 minutes

[Steve Zane]

good oh steve, or you could get a pipe steal somebody elses gas..

petrol here is currently €1.25 litre

That's almost double of Canada...jeez!
We pay $ 1.49 litre

[Rick_Lamoreaux]

At around US$4.00 a gallon for regular unleaded here - that's about $1.06/liter so about €.50/liter, LOL.

[Rick]

you guys wanna see the uk price..

i think its currently about £1.29 litre

[TheGummy]

yep thats about right rick, places vary though so you can get it from about 119.9p per litre where i am anyway.

[Stew]

£1.29 a litre this morning in UK for Diesel making a full tank for me about £90 ouch. One thing the advice was for fill full tank but that adds alot of weight to the car which it uses more petrol to move around so which advice is right??

[Stew]

For you foreign guys including English lol in Scotland we have a political party that wants independence from rest of UK....scarily they might get their way soon. They are a party all for wind turbines and renewable energy giving subsisies left right and centre to dig up hundreds of acres of green land to put in 1000 tonnes of concrete per wind turbine? how much CO2 doing this? and the clincher is? yes they will fund a better Scotland with our North Sea Oil...hehe does this =hypocrisy...me thinks so.

[TheGummy]

yea ive never been sure about the scottish national party.

it says a lot that they're beating labour in some areas of scotland that havent gone in favour of SNP for a long time.

[Rick]

labours day is done.
Paul Rose once said to me the biggest problem is who ever you vote for the government always win.

very apt i thought.

[TheGummy]

yep it certainly is, unfortunately i can't really see much improving in a hurry.

thats a good saying, i'll try to remember that.

[zeusse]

Ok I gotta chime in on this one since gas is my business and I know a hell of alot more than this dude does. First off depending where you live the corrected volume is what we are talking about here when the temperature is considered. In Canada the correction is done at the pump to 15C, if you look Canadians on the pump there will be a sticker that tells you so. As far as pumping at high rate and low the difference wouldn't be enough to save you enough gas to even start your car...so thats a bag of crap. Another thing is when I'm dropping a load of gas into a station I have to use a vapor recovery hose which in turn circulates the vapor between my truck not the stations tank their vapor outlet becomes the suction so buddy like most petroleum refinery workers no crap. The only thing that he said that was a good idea was keeping your tank full...now the only thing is he takes his information from some chemist at the plant who also didn't tell him that the evaporation in cars today is less than 1litre a year in average...this test was done recently on a Ford pickup truck..wish I could find the article for you on that one. But the best reason to keep your tank as full as possible is this...now get ready this is a long explaination. First if you don't keep your vehicle as full as possible the condensation builds in the tank and your tank will rot at the top. Second if you live in a cold climate like we do in Canada that condensation will get in your fuel line and you will have a rough time starting the engine below -30C. Now the real reason to keep your tank full. Its the same principal as what the gas companies do to maximize volume, the price of fuel changes daily and this is what happens, I'll use some examples that I deal with in Canadian pricing but generaly its the same everywhere execpt for the currency.

For reference my truck can carry 58,000 ltrs of gas thats in whats called a set of B-Trains the longest truck combination and the heaviest in the world without using a special permit...there's a picture of my truck on an old post somewhere my truck is 85ft long from bumber to the back...ya its damm big Zane's seen my truck he can't believe I can actualy turn corners with it..LOL
Ok so here's what happens and this is what the gas companies won't tell you...they are all connected with each other even though they compete against each other! If I go to Shell to load I have choices for whoever I want, Esso,Ultramar,Sunoco,Petro Canada...etc. Now why is that and its the same if I went to Sunoco I can load Shell,Esso,Ultramar...etc. They all have to help each other if one of them runs out of product so they agree on pricing amounts thus meaning they all know how to manipulate the consumer together...and they sit in their boardrooms everyday at 4pm ETA. and discuss there pricing with each other over a video conferance call...trust me I've seen it. It is a conspiracy but thats the way it is, yes its price fixing they do it by satelite from each station but their are other reason for price fuctuations.

1. The station ordered his gas at 1pm his price was 131.00per litre, he puts an order in and the rack price is changing at midnight to reflect the new price of 128.00p/ltr. He is told the truck won't be there for 4hours but he has a slow afternoon maybe because the weather is bad or its a Sunday...so he panics and drops his price 3cents p/ltr to sell more gas to make room for his load thats coming...the station across the street sees buddy drop his price they now half to but the problem is they already payed 134.00p/ltr the day before so they are now loosing 6cents/per litre..they advise the head office and the head office calls the competitors distributor and another deal is cut so that station doesn't loose so across town they tell one of their other stations to raise there price to make it fair...it sounds nickle and dimish I know but thats the crap that goes on everday.
2. The station has run out of regular gas and has to sell its premium gas at regular prices...this happens alot so if you there when it happens you get a bonus. Sometimes they have to keep the price high until the truck gets there and when I usualy show up as soon as I finish unloading the price will change again...and by the way when I unload it may stir the tanks but that doesn't effect anything because the pumps have filters inside that clean the fuel as you pump...so once again buddy knows crap.

I could go on all day but if you want a question answered ask me I know way too much on this subject right down to what chemicals are mixed in your gas and by what amounts...I may seem like a nutcase but when it comes to my job its my business to deal with all these issues not just sit at a refinery and eat potatoe chips all day...those guys know nothing.

Ohh and by the way Americans are dealing with what is refered to as hot fuel they did a thing on CNN about it and its been like that because the oil companies never wanted to admit it...in Canada they were forced to by the government back in the 70's when we went metric...yes want to end it all go metric you can't calculate a corrected volume properly without the metric system. They just dump the fuel in the ground and it will change the amount depending on temperature but in your car it will still amount to nothing the privat stations get hit with this not the corporate stations they do the correction at the terminal.

[Stew]

TBH I don't think we have a flow rate control on our petrol/diesel pumps...its more a case of squeeze hard or gentle. I had a real problem with my latest Merc with pumping in diesel it would cut out every few seconds and the tank was empty rather than full. I think the flow rate at some garages is too high and you get it spalshing back. My solution is to turn the nozzle upside down once in the fuel filler and it seems to not cut out that way.

So I need to by the looks of it sit at petrol station until the price sign changes lol to save about £2 which I could earn in blink of an eye at work hehe.

[TheGummy]

yea it does seem that the major savings will be made by the companies using these tips, whereas us average joes will save ourselves perhaps a couple of quid with it.

and hey i dont even drive anyway :-)

[Stew]

Note to self...go from 3.2tdi to 1litre fiat punto lol.

[ZappaFan]

Think a gallon of petrol is expensive?

This makes one think, and also puts things in perspective.


Diet Snapple 16 oz £1.29 .. £10.32 per gallon


Lipton Ice Tea 16 oz £1.19 ...........£9.52 per gallon


Ocean Spray 16 oz £1.25 ......... £10.00 per gallon


Brake Fluid 12 oz £3.15 ...... £33.60 per gallon


Vick's Nyquil 6 oz £8.35 .... £178.13 per gallon


Pepto Bismol 4 oz £3.85 . £123.20 per gallon


Tippex 7 oz £1.39 ....... . £5.42 per gallon

And this is the REAL KICKER...

Evian water 9 oz £1.49..£21.19 per gallon! £21.19 for WATER and the buyers don't even know the source

(Evian spelled backwards is Naive.)


You don't even want to compare it with perfume or after shave.

Ever wonder why printers are so cheap?

So they have you hooked for the ink.
Someone calculated the cost of the ink at................
(you won't believe it....but it is true........)
£5,200 a gal.. (five thousand two hundred pounds)

So, the next time you're at the pump, be glad your car doesn't run on water, or Tippex, Pepto Bismol, Nyquil or God forbid, Printer Ink!


Just a little humour to help ease the pain of your next trip to the petrol pump...

[bigdoug]

lmao, brilliant

[Stew]

pmsl Zap that is superb :thumb:

[Rick]

tippex looks a bargain and if i had to sniff anything its would be either tippex or petrol with uhu coming a close 3rd :-D.

one of my customers from my pc era was a petrol station and i was shocked that they made less than 900 quid if they were lucky on a load costing over 30 grand.

[Steve Zane]

Think a gallon of petrol is expensive?

This makes one think, and also puts things in perspective.


Diet Snapple 16 oz £1.29 .. £10.32 per gallon


Lipton Ice Tea 16 oz £1.19 ...........£9.52 per gallon


Ocean Spray 16 oz £1.25 ......... £10.00 per gallon


Brake Fluid 12 oz £3.15 ...... £33.60 per gallon


Vick's Nyquil 6 oz £8.35 .... £178.13 per gallon


Pepto Bismol 4 oz £3.85 . £123.20 per gallon


Tippex 7 oz £1.39 ....... . £5.42 per gallon

And this is the REAL KICKER...

Evian water 9 oz £1.49..£21.19 per gallon! £21.19 for WATER and the buyers don't even know the source

(Evian spelled backwards is Naive.)


You don't even want to compare it with perfume or after shave.

Ever wonder why printers are so cheap?

So they have you hooked for the ink.
Someone calculated the cost of the ink at................
(you won't believe it....but it is true........)
£5,200 a gal.. (five thousand two hundred pounds)

So, the next time you're at the pump, be glad your car doesn't run on water, or Tippex, Pepto Bismol, Nyquil or God forbid, Printer Ink!


Just a little humour to help ease the pain of your next trip to the petrol pump...


Same thing here in Canada..all those things are more expensive than Gas.

For the ink thing there is a cheap way to do it. I don't know if you guys have any Walmart in the U.k,but if you do,they have some ink refill which cost $ 15 here in Canada and you can refill your cartridge 3 times.One Cartridge cast $70.

They have this in back or color.It works very well too.