Has Anyone Noticed The New Volume Discrepancies In Fueling Stations?

[terrabytetango]

Okay, so my normal routine is to pump a thousand bucks worth of fuel every 2 days. Since the December '12 price hike, the ratio has been 6.211L/1000 bucks, which actually works down to less than the 6.28 odd one gets when doing the math, but yeah, Sri Lankan Economics®. However, since this week, I've noticed capacities fluctuating at places I pump at regularly i.e. Nugegoda Bo tree and Rajagiriya Pizza Hut. On Tueday, the tally was 6.183 at Nugegoda, and today, the Rajagiriya joint pumped only 6.172 litres, indicated by the display. I didn't fuss about it, but I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed a decline in the pumped volumes of fuel, or if I've just been especially unlucky to win the unjackpot this week.

[Watchman]

well, the he price of a liter of petrol is fixed. So you pump Rs.1000 shouldnt the meter show the actual mathematical value of the quantity pumped..

[terrabytetango]

well, the he price of a liter of petrol is fixed. So you pump Rs.1000 shouldnt the meter show the actual mathematical value of the quantity pumped..

That would be the correct assumption, but till last week the volume for RS1000 worth of petrol had been 'fixed' at 6.211 litres, What worries me is the fluctuation itself and how it varied from shed to shed. It's unpleasant to think shed operators are actually crass enough to operate with such impunity without fear of blowback.

[Watchman]

That would be the correct assumption, but till last week the volume for RS1000 worth of petrol had been 'fixed' at 6.211 litres, What worries me is the fluctuation itself and how it varied from shed to shed. It's unpleasant to think shed operators are actually crass enough to operate with such impunity without fear of blowback.

Maybe i'm not understanding the problem.... For example sake, lets say a a litre of petrol is Rs.100... And you pump Rs.1000 of petrol. You should be getting EXACTLY 10 litres.. not 9.2, 9.4, 9.7 or 10.4 etc... So if the price shows Rs.1000 and the quantity doesnt show 10ltrs can you raise your concern since the price of a litre of petrol does not change?

And out of curiosity, why do you pump Rs.1000 each time? leaves more room for error plus you must need to goto the pump every other day.. Wouldn't it save a lot of hassle if you pump a full tank when you're running low?

[Sampath Gunasekera]

TBT, Are those filling stations Ceypetco or Lanka IOC?

(Added content)

Now Petrol 90 Octane price (Ceypetco) for 1 liter = Rs. 162.00
For Rs.1000/= you should get 6.1728 liters (6.173 liters).

As per your data,

@ Nugegoda : For Rs.1000/= you get 6.183 liters (Hypothetically they have pumped you more fuel)
@ Rajagiriya : For Rs.1000/= you get 6.172 liters (All most correct figure)

Don't know how they calibrated fuel pumps?

Edited March 1, 2013 by Sampath Gunasekera

[Crosswind]

All IOC fuel sheds are required to keep a measuring can. If in doubt about the pump's calibration, you can ask them to show you a measurement. If they decline, you can contact a regional manager or a GM of IOC (if necessary I can intro u).

As for Ceypetco... all I can say is 'ah well'...

Also please note that the difference between 6.183 and 6.172 is just 11ml, equivalent to two teaspoons. Should you bother?

[SpeedyAsA]

But the problem is how many 11 ml s they are robbing from us(customers) per day ???

[colombodriver]

I have noticed serverl times ...the gas station on Rajagirya pump less.... once my low fuel indicator was falshing and stopped directly at the rajagiriya gas station ...pumped petrol for Rs 500. After i drived for around 10 Km again i see the fuel indicator flashing.. This is imposible...althoug the fuel pump meter shows the correct amound ...i dont understand how these guys do this trick any idea how to catch this?

[Sampath Gunasekera]

All IOC fuel sheds are required to keep a measuring can. If in doubt about the pump's calibration, you can ask them to show you a measurement. If they decline, you can contact a regional manager or a GM of IOC (if necessary I can intro u).

As for Ceypetco... all I can say is 'ah well'...

Also please note that the difference between 6.183 and 6.172 is just 11ml, equivalent to two teaspoons. Should you bother?

As far as I know Ceypetco fuel sheds also should have this measuring can. But practically, I don't know the situation.

Here I don't see any cheating regard to TBT's case.

Machan, Crosswind,

But if it happened in other way around, just imagine, if 10 milliliters cheating per 1 liter means, Fuel Station cheat & earn 1 liter per every 100 liters they sell.

Can you imagine how many liters they sell within a month and how much they can cheat and earn?

Edited March 1, 2013 by Sampath Gunasekera

[iRage]

But the problem is how many 11 ml s they are robbing from us(customers) per day ???

true....but these machines are not high precision machines so can it be helped at all ?

It is a fact of life isn't it ? It is just like for example when you calculate the price/interest rates etc...the actual numerical figure might be Rs.xxx100.80 but wouldn't they usually charge you Rs. xxx101.00 ? and over a day they would be making a truck load of money just through rounding up the figure.

[terrabytetango]

So it seems there was a 3 buck price increase on Saturday?? I wasn't aware of this because I was out of town during the long weekend :/ And also I did pump a full tank before my trip, which was at the regular rate. However that still doesn't explain the differences does it? I mean it's the principle of the thing that irks me, like the bus conductor withholding 50 cents in change, not the actual loss.

[iRage]

true....it is the principal of it all....in Japan I get a packet of tissues at my regular gas station and shops (and tissue packs are forcibly dumped on people on the streets over here with advertisement so it literally has no value but) which at least makes me feel good about not getting 1yen back....so maybe the gas stations should do something just to feel like the customer is not getting screwed....maybe wash the windshield or check the tire pressure ? give a few toffees ?

Edited March 1, 2013 by iRage

[trinity]

So it seems there was a 3 buck price increase on Saturday?? I wasn't aware of this because I was out of town during the long weekend :/ And also I did pump a full tank before my trip, which was at the regular rate. However that still doesn't explain the differences does it? I mean it's the principle of the thing that irks me, like the bus conductor withholding 50 cents in change, not the actual loss.

Theres always that risk ne machan... Lets say the petrol pump actually showed you the correct rupee amount for the gas you pumped or vise versa.. But can you measure whether they actually have pumped correct quantity even though the pump indicates he correct figures???

[Crosswind]

As far as I know Ceypetco fuel sheds also should have this measuring can. But practically, I don't know the situation.

Here I don't see any cheating regard to TBT's case.

Machan, Crosswind,

But if it happened in other way around, just imagine, if 10 milliliters cheating per 1 liter means, Fuel Station cheat & earn 1 liter per every 100 liters they sell.

Can you imagine how many liters they sell within a month and how much they can cheat and earn?

true....but these machines are not high precision machines so can it be helped at all ?

It is a fact of life isn't it ? It is just like for example when you calculate the price/interest rates etc...the actual numerical figure might be Rs.xxx100.80 but wouldn't they usually charge you Rs. xxx101.00 ? and over a day they would be making a truck load of money just through rounding up the figure.

It's a known fact that some of the fuel pumps are rigged, but I really wouldn't call this particular example as cheating, because

1. like irage said, these pumps (especially the chinese made ones) are not high precision ones. There is a margin for error

2. petrol expands with heat. Actual volume of petrol pumped to your vehicle during daytime will have about 0.5% difference compared to night time (in sri lanka).

3. Some amount of petrol gets vapourized when getting transferred from the nozzle to your tank

So the fact is, there's no way u can get an absolute measurement of petrol volume, I would use the principle of materiality on this one and forget about it.

Edited March 1, 2013 by Crosswind

[SpeedyAsA]

true....but these machines are not high precision machines so can it be helped at all ?

It is a fact of life isn't it ? It is just like for example when you calculate the price/interest rates etc...the actual numerical figure might be Rs.xxx100.80 but wouldn't they usually charge you Rs. xxx101.00 ? and over a day they would be making a truck load of money just through rounding up the figure.

In your point, there they say genuinely they don't have change money & you also know it. You can't compare that with this case. If they marked the price or what ever the service in this way, your comparison is fair enough.

But regarding this fuel marts, they have a proper way to follow, they can calibrate the machines properly, but not following it & this is absolutely cheating the customer. Theft.

[SpeedyAsA]

It's a known fact that some of the fuel pumps are rigged, but I really wouldn't call this particular example as cheating, because

1. like irage said, these pumps (especially the chinese made ones) are not high precision ones. There is a margin for error

2. petrol expands with heat. Actual volume of petrol pumped to your vehicle during daytime will have about 0.5% difference compared to night time (in sri lanka).

3. Some amount of petrol gets vapourized when getting transferred from the nozzle to your tank

So the fact is, there's no way u can get an absolute measurement of petrol volume, I would use the principle of materiality on this one and forget about it.

Yes, absolutely correct Crosswind. Those pumps are allowed a +/- 0.5% tollerence to calibrate. I got to know this from a technical guy from one of those Dispencer seller. But not sure it is exactly for the expanding characteristic of those liquids.

But if the fuel mart people are cheating their customers by this kind of things, then that is a different story.

[Rumesh88]

I have noticed serverl times ...the gas station on Rajagirya pump less.... once my low fuel indicator was falshing and stopped directly at the rajagiriya gas station ...pumped petrol for Rs 500. After i drived for around 10 Km again i see the fuel indicator flashing.. This is imposible...althoug the fuel pump meter shows the correct amound ...i dont understand how these guys do this trick any idea how to catch this?

Vehicle fuel indicators usually do not have enough resolution to show small changes (one or two ltrs) accurately. Hence in your case the conclusion may not be correct. But assuming it is correct, usually what happens in these situations is that the pump operators deliberately ignore resetting the meter if the previous customer has pumped something like Rs. 100 or so. You must ensure that the meter is reset before they pump into your vehicle, particularly if the previous customer was a three-wheeler or a motorcycle. I always make it a point to get out of the car and step in close to the pump before they start, just to ensure.

[terrabytetango]

The issue at hand was never about speculating how much fuel is actually pumped into the tank, just what is read out on the display. So the conclusion is that the Nugegoda joint actually rounds things up slightly giving us an advantage. The question was originally posted with the mindset that prices were at 159, not 162, which was due to my carelessness being unaware of a change which took place 6 days ago. Looks like it's time to tear myself away from Crysis 3.

Edited March 1, 2013 by terrabytetango

[iRage]

In your point, there they say genuinely they don't have change money & you also know it. You can't compare that with this case. If they marked the price or what ever the service in this way, your comparison is fair enough.

But regarding this fuel marts, they have a proper way to follow, they can calibrate the machines properly, but not following it & this is absolutely cheating the customer. Theft.

The point was that you should realize that these are not precision machines and that you should realize that it is case of life and that just as you would know that you wouldn't get the exact change back (and you wouldn't go around suspecting fraud about it) you should realize and KNOW that a differential of 11ml cannot be helped and it is not a case of you getting ripped off and all you can do is just live with it.

You also state "If they marked the price or what ever the service in this way, your comparison is fair enough."

So in the shops and places they have marked stating that they will NOT give the exact change ? thus you have learnt to expect it ? or do they not show the prices and the volume being pumped at the stations ? Maybe the suggestion to put up a table of volume pumped for prices should be put up on all stations ?

The comparison was the attitude one chooses to view the situation of round-off errors and imprecision ..which I apologize for if my analogy did not made clear to you...

Either way, I believe Terra summed up the whole discussion

<sorry..I think I am having a pissy day today>

Edited March 1, 2013 by iRage