Gaspy spokesman Mike Newton outlined how users could report accurate information to avoid errors. <\/p>\n
What should you do? <\/p>\n
There has been confusion over whether consumer-reported outages and prices in the app are accurate. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe already have a system in place. We can disable individual fuel types at any station, or we can disable entire stations, and they just won\u2019t show up in the app from that point forward,\u201d Newton said. <\/p>\n
He said the problem is that, rather than the users contacting them directly when a station runs dry, \u201cthey\u2019re taking things into their own hands\u201d. <\/p>\n
Gaspy users have reported unverified prices of $4 a litre at some stations, apparently as a way of signalling that those stations are out of fuel. There is no way to post directly on the app that a station has run out. <\/p>\n
Newton said people should use the reporting feature within Gaspy. <\/p>\n
\u201cJust let us know which station it is, what fuel type it\u2019s out of, and then we can make the updates on our end to basically show that,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
On Friday morning, some Pak’nSave and New World petrol stores had closed their stations because they were empty and awaiting delivery. Photo \/ Jimmy Ellingham, RNZ<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking to do a bit of a communications blitz with our users and send out emails and notifications, and just to let them know that that is the correct process,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Newton said it seemed like the outages were getting worse, and he didn\u2019t think there was any respite in the near future. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to obviously become a bigger problem, so we need to now get on top of it with the user base,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Newton said to verify reports of an outage, they are working towards connecting with the petrol companies. <\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, they\u2019re not telling us straight up if they\u2019re out of fuel or not, but I mean, they\u2019re pretty busy fighting fires of their own.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re not really on their radar,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Newton said that with the influx of new users, there are some people who are putting in the wrong information accidentally. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe advantage of having everybody so active in the app at the moment is that if a price is wrong, it gets updated quite rapidly,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
BP New Lynn has tipped just over $4 a litre for 98 grade petrol. Photo \/ NZME.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, BP New Lynn was charging $4.039 for ultimate 98, one of its \u201ctop performance\u201d fuels, and $3.649 for unleaded 91. <\/p>\n