The Problem:
There’s not enough time in the day. Who wants to spend it at the gas station? But if we didn’t go to the gas station, how would our cars get filled up?
The Business
Gas delivery. Charges 1.2-1.5x the price of regular gas station. The cars get filled at offices during the day and at homes during the evening. Owner provides a car key to the service. Online scheduling for each client. Likely filled weekly, but can be adjusted up or down based on driver’s changing driving habits and needs.
Doableness
I assume there is a fair amount of legal hassle with this. If that can be gotten around, this is a tremendous business opportunity. It’s extremely capital intensive. And your initial needs are substantial. You would need at least the following in one test market:
- 6-12 trucks to start
- Large marketing expense
- Two customer service people
- Technology person and outside vendor to build scheduling software and web platform
- 12 Drivers
- Licenses
- Insurance
- Industrial park type offices with parking for trucks
- Gas wholesaler (and delivery?)
My Thoughts
You need a lot of cash to figure out if this idea is a go. If this is a success, you take your same model and get a lot more cash to scale quickly. You get bought by Exxon and you have changed the way we fuel our cars. Of course, gas cars probably only have another 20 good years left in them.
People like the gas station, to some degree. Who ever sees one without a quickie mart anymore? You can get your doughnuts and cigarettes. Plus you can clean the car, clean the windows. Plus that free newspaper.
Wait, maybe the gas station isn’t so great.
It is a recurring activity that requires no special skill whatsoever. It eats ten minutes per week. You get nothing out of it other than the continued ability to drive your car.
There are a lot of activities that fit this criteria. Eliminate one and you could have a successful business.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
For this idea instead of starting with POV, (Personal Operated Vehicle), start with businesses who drive dump trucks farm equipment, individuals or company cars. Business of coorperate accounts. Then once the business has started and become larger than go to personal people. This keeps it a 9 to 5 job for your drivers so to speak. well maybe 5 to 9. But the bigger the money the easier and more widely the advertisement of the idea. Plus people like going to the gas station to get out of the house to socialize. But No one wants to fill up or go out of their way to fill up the coorporate of work car or triaxle. The big rigs they keep the gas station or truck stops in business. Imagine getting the rights to someone like FedEx or UPS filling up their mail trucks. And the US Postal Service. Hint Hint $$$???
Just thought of this this morning and did a web search to see if anyone else came up with it. Guess I’m a few years behind you. Let’s do it.
Shawn in Boston
I think this is a good idea, but it has regulatory problems and, unless you achieve great scale, has margin problems