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Hunting For Cheap Gas Is Easy With Mobile Gadgets

Both the Garmin nuvi 780 GPS and the Verizon Venus cell phone found good deals on gas, though they pointed in opposite directions to find it.

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By RICHARD MULLINS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 20, 2008

Have you heard about the Valrico gas station selling super cheap gas? Or the one in Oldsmar?

How do you know they're low-priced for sure, without driving there?

In daily life lately, perhaps few bits of information are more treasured than where to find an oasis of low-priced gas. And right on cue, consumer electronics companies are launching new options promising to help find them.

As gas tops $4 per gallon, all the major cell phone companies have launched software on their phones that promise to find the cheapest local gas station. So have some major GPS device companies. Typically, they're packaged with other mobile data services, like turn-by-turn directions, movie times or weather forecasts for about $10 per month.

Good timing. People are flocking to those and other services. Traffic at the Web site Tampagasprices.com and its sister sites is up about 100 percent since December to 10 million hits per day. And AT&T says use of its mobile gas price service doubled since January.

Mapping companies supplying the information say that use of all things gasoline is skyrocketing.

Deals

Hunting cheap gas through mobile gadgets can make a big difference for drivers, especially because the devices do more than simply list local prices. They use GPS signals to locate a person's particular phone, show the lowest gas prices nearby and then give turn-by-turn directions there. Whether the services pay for themselves depends on how much gas people buy.

In Tampa, the gap between the cheapest and most expensive gas station is about 40 cents per gallon for regular unleaded grade gas, according to Tampagasprices.com.

That adds up to about $6 per fill-up for a 15-gallon tank, or $8 for a 20-gallon tank. Filling up those tanks once a week can add up to $32 per month. By contrast, gas-finding services range from free to a few dollars a month.

AT&T offers a service with lists of prices from Gasbuddy.com for $2.99 per month, and integrated directions there for $9.99 per month. Sprint's navigation service includes gas-finding features that started in April last year for $2.99 per day, $9.99 per month or included in the company's $99 "Everything" plan.

Verizon Wireless offers a "FuelFinder" service for $1.99 per month that can list local gas prices, and its "Navigator" phone launched last month includes turn-by-turn directions for $2.99 per day, or $9.99 per month.

Any cellular phone that can access the Internet can reach Web sites that rank local gas prices, though they might not integrate turn-by-turn directions. For owners of the new Apple iPhone, a growing list of programmers are writing software that merges real-time gas prices with the phone's Google Maps software.

GPS

Typically, mobile devices draw their gas information from third party companies, then use custom software to deliver the prices to customers where they are. The mobile mapping company TeleNav recently started providing gas prices to companies like AT&T, Alltel and T-Mobile. Traffic rose 62 percent on that service since January.

Meanwhile, companies making GPS navigation devices have seen similar demand for real-time gas info.

Garmin offers a near real-time gas finder service on many of its higher-end models, with prices provided through MSN Direct. The service is free for an introductory period, then costs $49.95 per year or a one-time charge of $129.95. Garmin doesn't formally track usage of the gas feature, but "anecdotally, it's becoming one of the hottest topics among prospective and existing customers," said spokesman Todd Gartner.

TomTom launched its "Fuel Prices" service this spring for $14.95 per year on its higher-end models.

The demand for cheap gas is also showing up online. Gasbuddy.com founder Jason Toews said traffic at its Tampagasprices.com Web site is up to 15,000 hits per day, up from 4,000 in January, mirroring the rise in gas prices. "It seems that if the price are jumping quickly, or falling quickly, the traffic to our site rises," Toews said. "People know the prices are changing and don't want to miss out on a bargain."

Reporter Richard Mullins can be reached at (813) 259-7919 or rmullins@tampatrib.com.

Finding cheap gas is getting easier, as cellular and GPS navigator companies start including real-time gas prices on their products. Most services cost an extra $9.99 per month and are packaged with other features like turn-by-turn directions, movie times and weather info.

Cellular AT&T
Part of "AT&T Navigator" Service: Monthly $9.99 subscription fee, or $2.99 per day.

Works on: Motorola Z9, Samsung BlackJack ll, Moto Q, AT&T Tilt, BlackBerry 8310, 8800 and 8820. AT&T Navigator will come preloaded on GPS-enabled devices soon.

Sprint
Part of "Sprint Navigation," available since April 2007. Cost $2.99 per day; $9.99 per month; or included with a Sprint $99 per month Simply Everything plan. Available on most GPS-enabled phones.

Verizon
Part of GetItNow service, available since October 2005. Cost $1.99 per month for list of local prices. Newest version of VZ Navigator service launched in May provides turn-by-turn directions for $9.99 per month or $2.99 per day. Available on most GPS-enabled phones.

GPS Garmin
Available starting in January 2007 through its MSN Direct service, which draws data directly from credit card transactions. Cost $49.95 per year (about $4.16 monthly) or a one time $129.95 charge.

TomTom
Available starting in January 2008, on most higher-end devices through the TomTom "HOME" service that costs $14.95 per year, or about $1.25 per month.

Magellan
Does not yet have a gas price feature.

INTERNET
TampaGasPrices.com
Part of a collection of Web sites run by Gasbuddy.com.
Cost: Free. Takes information from volunteer observers.

Gaspricewatch.com
Cost: Free. Takes information from volunteer observers.

Reporter Richard Mullins can be reached at (813) 259-7919 or rmullins@tampatrib.com. Reporter Richard Mullins can be reached at (813) 259-7919 or rmullins@tampatrib.com.

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