Fill ‘er up?

I am happily car free.

These days, I’m mostly Ubering, but when I have to drive (Zipcar or something-renta), I find that the biggest PITA is returning the car with a full tank. For Zipcar, you’re supposed to fill ‘er up if it gets to a quarter tank or lower. I have generally found that on those trips where I’m driving a total of fewer than 5 miles, I inherit a Zip that someone left with a teaspoon of gasoline over a quarter tank. Grrrrrr. So there I am, hunting around for a gas station, which is not an easy thing to do in downtown Boston. When I was a car owner, there were three gas stations a minute or so from where I live. They’re all gone, the real estate too valuable to be wasted on a lowly filling station. The nearest gas stations are now a couple of miles away, near Fenway Park. It’s not the end of the world to get there, but it’s a bit out of the way. And if there’s a game, it’s a no go. Off to Charlestown, which means sitting in traffic and crossing an always-clogged bridge.

Same sitch for the rare times I rent a car. I’ll be dipped if I’m going to pay Hertz $50 a gallon, or whatever the current outrage is. Off to the Fens!

When I was a regular driver, I didn’t so much mind getting gas. There were those three gas stations just down the street, after all. And for most of my car-driving years, there were still attendants to fill the tank, check the oil, and smear dirty water across your windshield for you. But as my driving days were going out, self-pump had taken hold. And I started to resent having to stand there in sleet, waiting for the damned tank to fill. And ending up with gasoline smell on my hands.

So, yeah, I get that having to stop for gas can be a drag.

(And I can only imagine that, if you live in a crowded city where you can’t just plug your car into an outlet on the side of your house, having an EV might be an even bigger pain in the butt-ski.)

At least with rental and Zipcars, you’re not responsible for washing them, which can be a colossal drag during a New England winter, when your car gets completely encrusted with salt and other road dreck. And where the minute your car is all bright and shiny, there’s another blizzard. I like the experience of going through the carwash, but I was always nervous about getting that left front tire aligned on the way in. So mixed emotions about trips to the car wash. But not something I miss.

Help is on the way for those who don’t want to be up close and personal when their tanks are guzzling gas, or spend their Saturdays at the carwash putting quarters in the vac machine. And that’s thanks to Yoshi and other mobile gas stations.

Yoshi brings complete car care directly to you! We anticipate your needs, provide services on your schedule, and deliver everything right to your vehicle. We’ll wash your car, change your oil, swap your wiper blades - and more! And of course, Yoshi will refuel your vehicle - just tell us where your car is parked and we’ll come to you. Yoshi handles the details, so you can keep moving.

You have to join Yoshi ($20/month), on top of which you of course pay for all the services you opt for. (One of the brands of gas they deliver is Mobil. So you can get mobile Mobil.)

One of Yoshi’s 17 locations is Boston.

Yoshi is banking on the idea that there are millions of people like [California Yoshi subscriber Whitney] Block all over the country: urban professionals whose demanding schedules and disposable income make them ideal candidates for outsourcing a chore that has been a feature of car ownership since the inception of the automobile. (Source: Wapo)

Here’s what Block has to say, and I don’t imagine there are many folks who’ll disagree with her sentiments:

“The more demanding my career has become, the more I’ve realized I don’t want my free time to be consumed by mundane tasks that I don’t want to be doing — and that includes going to the gas station to fill up,” she said.

“It’s not fun, it’s not stimulating and it’s not enjoyable,” she added. “If I can pay somebody to get it done for me, I will totally do that.”

When I starting reading this article on fuel delivery, the first thought that came to mind was a bit of a fear-factor that guys would be driving around town with tanks of gasoline in their cargo bed. Guess I’m not alone:

“Some of the [companies] are using 1,000-gallon tanks,” Greg Andersen, a division chief in the California state fire marshal’s office, told the Guardian newspaper. “If they’re going into the basement parking lot of a high-rise, that actually is a large concern.”

Yoshi field technicians deliver gas to parking garages and high-rise buildings when necessary. The company says its field techs are hazmat-certified and have not had a single spill in three years of operation.

I don’t care what Yoshi says about their field techs. What we now have is a plot device for an updated version of The Towering Inferno.

And there’s the old fashioned gas station, already in decline – it’s not just downtown Boston: the number of gas stations in the US has declined by about 25% over the past two decades – just sitting there, waiting to be disrupted…

Still, I think $240 a year is a lot to pay for someone gassing your car up. Personally, I’d rather tack on $5 a filler-up trip. But that’s just me. We’ll see where Yoshi and the other mobile gas stations end up.

I have yet to see a Yoshi truck making a delivery. But I’ll be on the lookout now. If only so I can keep my distance.