How software can help save money on fuel price increases
It’s safe to say that the first Wednesday of every month has sadly become the most feared day for many South Africans. That’s the day when fuel prices in the country are adjusted. Unfortunately, these monthly price adjustments are not in our favour due to various factors, such as the war in Ukraine and the weakening Rand. The adjustment for this past July alone resulted in South Africans having to fork out an additional R2,37 per litre of petrol and R2,31 per litre of diesel.
To put these numbers in perspective, a 50-litre fuel tank now costs an extra R118.50 and R115.50 to fill up (most of us aren’t just filling up once a month). As with all software engineers, our careers rely on our ability to create solutions to the problems we face.
I have been aware that the government does not set the diesel price in the country for a while. As I drive a petrol car, I never used to think much about that. However, just over three months ago, I came across an article online that mentioned that the South African government is considering deregulating the price of 93 octane petrol in the country to help alleviate the financial stress on the consumer. Fuel stations could charge their own fee for this particular fuel grade just as they do for diesel.
Unfortunately, at the time of writing this article, no decision has been made regarding the deregulation of the price of 93 octane petrol. Nevertheless, based on the points I mentioned above, it gave me an idea to come up with a solution that could help me and hopefully many other South Africans try to alleviate the stress on our pockets. It has also been a means to keep myself busy and improve my skills during my free time while not at work.
My solution was to create PetrolPrices.co.za. It is a website that tracks the prices of fuel at stations and allows the user to see which nearby fuel stations are the cheapest based on their location. Each fuel station added to the website will be displayed as a marker on the map. Each marker displays the logo of the fuel company and the diesel price at that particular petrol station without having to click on it. As a result, it is possible to locate nearby options quickly. In addition, the user can see which brands of fuel stations are nearby if they prefer a particular brand.
When clicking a marker, a popup will be displayed, showing the prices for all the fuel types available at the selected fuel station. From the popup, the user can get directions to the fuel station by clicking the “GO HERE” button or see more details about it by clicking the “VIEW MORE” button.
PetrolPrices.co.za acquires its information from the input of its users and not necessarily from the management of the fuel station. Therefore, if users come across a fuel station not on the map, they can add it themselves. The same applies to updates to the existing fuel stations. If a user comes across an incorrect price, they can submit to correct the price that is incorrect themselves.
Whenever a user requests a price change, the price won’t go live immediately (unless they have enough FuelBounty) because another user must first validate the request. Earning FuelBounty gains users their reputation on the website. In exchange for contributing to PetrolPrices.co.za, users earn FuelBounty, which they can use to enter occasional competitions and place them on the leaderboard as the most active contributors on the website.
To conclude, although my website won’t reduce the overall fuel price, it will still help soften the blow by letting people know where to get fuel at a lower price without needing to look around beforehand.
