Pumping profit and loss

A 30-gas station probe by The Sunday Gleaner and Northern Caribbean University (NCU) has found that consumers in the western end of the island are seemingly getting more value for money at the pumps than at other stations across Jamaica.

The investigation canvassed service stations in Kingston, St Andrew, St Thomas, St Catherine, Clarendon, Trelawny, St James and Manchester, recording the price and quantity of gas served at each location.

Our team found that for each $500 of gasoline purchased, consumers were being short-changed quantities valuing up to $18 at one gas station in St Andrew, $13 at two others in St Thomas and Manchester, and $11 at another location in St Thomas. These represented the four worst of 23 outlets – or 77 per cent – who were found selling consumers less gas than they had paid for.

However, despite the price variations, the researchers noted that “Overall, most gas stations did not stray far from the $500 threshold … [and therefore] provided value for your money.”

While minuscule for some motorists, the figures add up over time, especially for high-volume gas users such as public transport operators. Just over two weeks ago, taxi operators fingered increasing gas prices as the main reason for hiking fares – sometimes more than doubling the rates stipulated by the Transport Authority.

One taxi operator recently complained that his daily target is $15,000 per day. He said this is shared three ways between his boss, himself and ever-increasing gasoline prices, which are ultimately passed on to commuters.

Meanwhile, 23 per cent of the service stations visited were offering customers more gasoline than they paid for – the practice more frequent in Trelawny and St James.

In St James, one gas station was dispensing up to $35 more gas per $500 purchase.

“We purchase our petrol from West Indies Petroleum instead of Petrojam and that is why we are able to pass on the benefits to our consumers,” offered a St James operator, an anomaly among the sampled outlets, the majority of whom purchased petrol from the state-owned Petrojam.

Researchers at NCU’s chemistry department, led by Dr Nicole White and Dwight Rose, however, pointed to differing temperatures and the calibration of gas station equipment as possible reasons for the discrepancies between prices charged and the volume of gasoline dispensed at these outlets.

“It is possible that the issue at the pump with receiving more or less gas could be due to two factors: the temperature of the ground in which the gas is being stored and the ambient (surrounding) temperature,” they explained.

“It was seen in the northwestern hemisphere (St James and Trelawny) that a few of those gas stations provided more gas than was expected for the $500,” said the researchers, before noting the value of efficient calibration to customers.

“Failure to calibrate the pumps on a regular basis is another factor. In science, equipment used to take measurements need to be calibrated on a regular basis to maintain quality measurements and provide consistent results,” they said. “The lack of consistent calibration could lead to inaccurate measurements at the pump, especially since there is a relationship between gas prices and volume.”

During our investigation, gasoline samples, both 87 and 90 grades, were collected between 9 and 2 p.m. two Thursdays ago. Each bottle containing samples was sealed with plastic saran wrap at the pump to prevent evaporation. The samples were then taken to the NCU’s main campus in Mandeville, for examination that same day.

When confronted, one station manager at the Kingston outlet that served customers $18 less gas than the quantity depicted on the pumps said the revelation was news to her.

She claimed the pumps are calibrated every three months by in-house technicians and every six months by the Bureau of Standards Jamaica.

“The machines are calibrated very often and if we have any other problems, we call the company and they come and sort it out,” she explained, confirming on her computer the cost of gas at the station as documented in the investigation.

“I don’t know anything about that (under-serving). They (researchers) would have to come and do the study in front of us. But depending on the heat of the time the gas will drop,” she offered.

At the time of the sample collection, the price for 87 at that location was $209.30 per litre. When revisited last Friday, the cost for a litre of 87 gasoline was $215.60.

Another gas station manager in St Thomas also denied knowledge that his establishment was selling consumers $493 worth of gas for each $500 purchased.

“I did not know about this. I would want to know that if a man comes and buys $500 gas is $500 gas he is getting,” said the owner, promising further checks.

The Sunday Gleaner was unable to immediately get information from the regulatory arm of the Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ), the National Compliance and Regulatory Authority (NCRA), regarding the frequency of the testing of service station pumps. The NCRA indicated, via the BSJ, that it was experiencing a human resource challenge and would need more time to provide a fulsome response.

Age, environment conditions, sensor poisoning and monitor abuse are listed among the major causes for calibration drift on pumps and gas station equipment.

Dianne Parram, president of the Jamaica Gasolene Retailers Association (JGRA), told The Sunday Gleaner the calibration of pumps at service stations is the responsibility of the marketing companies with assistance from the BSJ.

“A sticker is placed on the pump with an expiration date. I do not know if this was checked when the sample was collected for the project. If there is no sticker or an expired sticker, then that is cause for concern,” Parram noted in a written response.

NO QUALITY CONCERN

Of note was the shades of 87 gas samples, which varied drastically from lime to dark green. The difference in orange appearance of the 90 gasoline was not as striking.

NCU researchers theorised that the colour variation could be linked to the amount of dye used in the gasoline.

Lab-grade filter paper tests revealed no impurities in any of the gas samples, however, which come as relief, following Jamaica’s costly 2015 bad gas saga.

“The general quality requirement of gasoline (ASTM D4052) should be between 0.710 and 0.78 g/cm3 in density measurement (15 degrees Celsius). All of our samples, whether 87 or 90, proved to be within this range (average temperature was 25 degrees Celsius) suggesting that there seemed to be no problem with the quality of the gasoline tested,” the NCU researchers said in summarising the results of the qualitative tests.

“Most service stations receive petrol from Petrojam,” the JGRA boss said in response to the qualitative findings. “While some marketing companies use an additive to distinguish that brand, there is now a more rigorous process for the importation of finished product into the trade.”

Additional reporting from Mark Titus and Shanna Monteith.

corey.robinson@gleanerjm.com