On-Demand Fuel Services

Has your car ever run out of gas? Has it ever “run on fumes” while you search for a nearby gas station? For most people, these events have likely happened a few times. Wouldn’t it be nice if your car automatically had its tank filled up without needing to take it to a filling station? And maybe get oil changes and wipers replaced without needing to spend hours at a repair shop? Well, several start-ups are trying to answer this dilemma.

Take a company like Yoshi, an on-site refueling and car maintenance service that brings gasoline and other services directly to your car. Using an app, drivers can schedule fuel deliveries and select maintenance services. Yoshi’s trained mechanics pump the gas and handle maintenance while the car is parked at work or at home.

Membership ($20/month or $192/year) provides you access to all services with no delivery fees including lowest-priced top tier gas within a 2mile radius, oil change, car wash and detail, repairs, windshield fluid, wiper blade changes, window cleaning, and tire air check and fill. The service is currently in 12 cities and is also used by companies to keep their car fleets fueled up and ready to go.

There are a few other competitors in the market but the disruption is still has taken hold (PLC anyone?)

• Fuelster: https://www.fuelster.co/ 
• Booster: https://www.trybooster.com/

Take a moment to browse these companies websites, then answer the following questions in the post below:

1. How critical do you think "access" to a product is as a source of innovation? (not that these companies have not changed the core product – gasoline – but rather the distribution of the product
2. How do you think the global pandemic may impact the adoption of this product innovation?
3. If you were in charge of an on-demand fuel delivery start-up – who would you target and how would you structure your product offering?