We know how to save money on fuel
Today, Czech Post in collaboration with the Ministry of Industry and Trade is launching the web portal www.tankujlevneji.cz (Fill Your Fuel Tank in a Cheaper Way). Thanks to an interactive map, it will offer the users current prices of petrol and diesel at petrol stations all over the country. The application is also available for tablets and smart phones.
High fuel prices have a negative impact on the economy. The project run by Czech Post and its partner, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, aims at only one thing, i.e. to provide transparent information on fuel prices in an environment open to the general public.
„It is my priority that customers - both individuals and companies - get good-quality fuel at petrol stations for a reasonable price. Therefore I welcome the Czech Post’s project “Fill Your Fuel Tank in a Cheaper Way”. I do not wish to set up any new inspection agency or impose a new administrative burden on sellers who would have to report their prices,“ commented the Minister for Industry and Trade Martin Kuba.
Easiest solutions have the largest effect
Czech Post runs a car delivery service with staff of nearly four thousand who can now perform a daily monitoring of petrol stations and send text messages with information on prices from their mobile phones to the system. They will have a simple template in which they will fill in the prices of standard fuels without monitoring premium fuels. The „Fill Your Fuel Tank in a Cheaper Way“ application could therefore provide the most comprehensive and daily updated survey of prices across the country. The users will also have a possibility to find out where the cheapest prices are at their current location. If they plan a longer journey, they can find the information here where to get the really cheapest fuel.
„This project done in collaboration with the Ministry of Industry and Trade brings us no income. Yet it allows us, at a negligible cost, to show that we can provide benefit to the society even in an area which is not typical for us. I am sure that in the course of time the application will become popular, which will certainly be beneficial for the name of Czech Post. We have to care for it so that the customers connect it with everything that is good and simply useful for them,“ commented Petr Zatloukal, Czech Post’s Director General.
Stages of the „Fill Your Fuel Tank in a Cheaper Way“ project:
- In the first stage of the project 450 petrol stations will be monitored;
- In the following two months Czech Post wishes to monitor 2,210 petrol stations;,
- Data will be collected by approximately 4,000 delivery staff all over the country;
- This means that they will send about 200 text messages in the first stage, followed by up to 2,000 text messages every day in the following stages.
The useful application will bring a lot of further information
Although the website and mobile application for the entire project have a transparent and simple design, further features will still be added. These include information arising from the collaboration with the Czech Trade Inspection Authority (CTIA). The users will soon be able to use the interactive map to display petrol stations which passed through a CTIA inspection without any problems as well as those with a negative finding.
A database including individual fuel providers will make the navigation easier. The users will find a key with expert comments added by another partner of Czech Post, ČAPPO, enabling them to compare same fuel categories traded under different names.
The application will continue to be upgraded after its launch but the users can be sure that the key project attributes: easy navigation, simple design, good functioning, current content, as well as minimum costs, will always be there.
Learning by example
The „Fill Your Fuel Tank in a Cheaper Way“ project is nothing new in Europe. For instance, a similar project has already been in operation in the neighbouring Austria for several years. The original website, run only by the Austrian Car Club, belonged to the most visited in the country, and the application for smart phones also attracted enormous interest. Both were created not only by registered members of the club but also by Austrian Post delivery staff.
| Mgr. Veronika Forejtová | Marta Selicharová
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