With petrol and diesel prices going to change everyday from Friday, oil companies plan to inform motorists of the day's price through LED screens at pumps, toll-free numbers, social media posts, SMS and apps.
Representative image | AFP
Motorists can access Indian Oil’s mobile app Fuel@IOC for the rates. Or, they can check the prices by sending SMS RSP< SPACE >DEALER CODE to 92249-92249. The dealer code of each petrol pump will be displayed at the pumps.
Indian Oil Chairman Sanjiv Singh held a video conference on daily price change with retailers of 11 states—Rajasthan, Punjab, Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal and Bihar. He also got feedback from dealers of five pilot cities—Chandigarh, Jamshedpur, Puducherry, Udaipur and Visakhapatnam—where daily pricing has been implemented since May 1.
The dealers' fear about inventory loss is misplaced since prices move both up and down, thus giving gain and loss on earlier stock, the company claims.
The Indian Oil website now prominently displays ‘Locate your nearest Indian Oil Petrol Pump & view prices’. This gives information about daily prices along with dealer’s phone number as also of the Indian Oil sales office.
Dealers will receive information at 8 pm every day on the price for the next day through customised SMSs, emails, mobile apps etc. Prices will change at midnight, but the dealer is not required to be present at the pump to change the price. In automated pumps dealers can programme the midnight price change at 8 pm. In case of mechanical pumps, manual change of price has to be done. Half the pumps in the country are reportedly automated.
The pilot programme in five cities has shown that the market is ready for the change, said Sadhna Khera Mittal, spokesperson for Indian Oil in a press statement.
Indian Oil will set up 87 round-the-clock control rooms across India to address technical glitches faced by dealers.
