High-octane app - Fuel Finder helps motorists save

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

Garfield Coke does not own a car, but he cannot help but hear the complaints of motorists about high and climbing fuel prices. So the 2011 University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech), graduate in enterprise computing drew on his skills to create the Fuel Finder application, currently available for devices on the android platform.

The 26 year-old officially launched it on February 6, not to commemorate Bob Marley's birthday as may be first assumed, but in honour of the birthday of his late mother's. However, the impetus to spend a year of nights after work at RealDecoy and weekends to develop the application stemmed from a trio of other needs.

"Three factors merged," Coke said. "I liked Android and wanted to learn. I had a couple conversations with people who needed to buy gas. It was a common discussion in the car." And he said, "I wanted to push the level of development in Jamaica. If you visit Google Play, the standard (of apps from Jamaica) is very low. I wanted to do something that people would say this is the standard coming out of Jamaica. So if someone else is doing something, it must be of this standard or higher."

Instant access
to prices

Fuel Finder gives instant access to prices
of gas stations whose details have been entered into the system. Coke
depends on users to provide the information. Currently, Fuel Finder is
able to monitor about 150 gas stations islandwide, with a heavy
concentration on the urban centres of Kingston and Montego
Bay.

In addition to giving prices, the app also tells
users if it is a 24-hour facility, has attendants or is self-serve, has a
convenience store, air pump or ATM. "Any feature that the gas station
has is integrated into the app," Coke said.

So far,
Fuel Finder gives prices for both grades of gasoline, as well as diesel.
While it does not give ultra-low sulphur diesel prices, the app
indicates stations where it is available.

Through the
app and personal observation - which is then entered into Fuel Finder -
Coke has observed some wide gaps in fuel prices per litre. "I see two
stations under the same brand, a minute apart on Half-Way Tree Road, and
there is a $5 difference in (gas) prices. I have seen a $20 difference
in diesel - $130 versus $150," he
said.

Challenges

Although Fuel
Finder utilises several service station brand logos, Coke said he has
not approached any of them. He said one of his former lecturers at UTech
had done something similar in the past and "he told me the challenges
he had." So Coke said, "I am not reliant on gas stations to contribute
price. People contribute price. If I can get most drivers in Jamaica to
use the app, it will be easy to get them (the service stations) on
track."

Coke may have some difficulty getting to his
usage targets. Since Fuel Finder's official release, he said, "It has
not been booming. It is averaging 30 users each day." There have been
over 600 downloads, strangely enough with a high percentage coming from
outside Jamaica. Coke said there have been downloads from over 50
countries. While Jamaica naturally has the most activity so far,
combined, the overseas downloads outstrip local usage. It is not the
only overseas factor in Fuel Finder's brief life so far. Initially, Coke
located a number of gas stations using Google, subsequently adding
others through his and others' observations.

Still, he
remains hopeful for the app's popularity in Jamaica as so far, Fuel
Finder has been pushed solely by word of mouth and he intends a more
aggressive promotional effort.

As Coke's app depends
on users to input prices, there is always the possibility that
gas-station operators can deliberately input wrong information on Fuel
Finder. Naturally, the developer is aware of this and says "there is a
level of security hindering that. To add a price, you have to log in.
From you can be tracked, people will be more
hesitant".

In addition, he said, if it does happen, "I
have conceptualised how I will deal with it. But since it is not
happening now, I rather spend the time improving the app, rather than
looking at things that might or might not
happen".

Refining the app

And there
has been a lot of tweaking. Coke has done 16 refinements so far and
actually having already introduced version two of Fuel Finder. In the
current version, there is an offline mode, which automatically uploads
updates entered while the user was offline as soon as he or she goes
online.

He has come a far way from the initial stages
of drawing freehand what the app would look like, and Coke explains that
the native Android app was developed in Java. From the drawings, he
went on to Photoshop, then started coding. Coke intends to make Fuel
Finder available for Apple and Blackberry
devices.

Even as he waits for the app to take off, he
has ideas for many others, among them, one which deals with public
transport. It comes closer to home as, Coke said, "public transportation
affects me".