Petrol stations or Gas stations have come up with ways of attracting customers to turn to their filling stations and among those tactics are the fuel cards. This card works like an ATM for cash withdraws.

 

A customer will park by the petrol station, demand for fuel as required and as opposed to giving cash in exchange for the fuel; this card is presented. The pump attendant will then swipe it through to his terminal to assess whether there is fuel or not. He will then deduct the litres you have taken off the card. However for this transaction to be complete you must insert your pin number. If you have a Total card then you will not stop at Shell and vice versa.

 

In times of scarcity card holders tend to benefit at the expense of cash holders because they have paid already and thus entitled to fuel. The Kenyan Crisis last year brought in serious scarcities and card holders at the time were entitled to at least 20 litres and yet those paying by cash were paying three times the normal price for a liter of petrol.

 

Cooking Gas has become a phenomenon in most homes and the in thing. Petrol stations like Shell, Kobil and Caltex have taken advantage of the growing market. Refilling Gas Cylinders of 15Kgs can cost you 60,000 less the cylinder charges of course bearing in mind that the cylinder is bought once. In supermarkets like UCHUMI you can pay for your gas and cylinder and you will be presented with a coupon which you can then present to that filling station you are attached to. This option is for those whose locations might not have petrol stations to which they are subscribed to near them. The moment you have been served you will be given a receipt which you can then present back to UCHUMI for a refund. It works like when you go to a beach and pay for beer but you are charged the price of the empty bottle and once you bring back the empty bottle, you are given your deposit fee.

 

Shops/Restaurants.
You will notice that these days all petrol stations have supermarkets/shops attached to them. Total has Bonjour and Shell has Select Shops. Petrol stations realize that other than fuel they need to diversify their services. Servicing cars, selling tires, Washing Bays, Pressure refill, phone Airtime of all networks etc. Some have taken this very aspect very far for example Shell Bukoto is known for Meat and Vegetable Sambusas and Shell Ntinda is popular for Pan Cakes (Kabalagala) and you will see people from all walks of life lining up for Kabalagala. They recently had an overhaul of the entire place which saw the suspension of selling Kabalagalas.

 

Shell, Caltex, Gapco, Hass, Gaz, Kobil, are among the petrol stations operating in Uganda. Otherwise they are quite a number and some have no names and these tend to charge a lesser price but at your own risk. The Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) normally carries out inspection checks to find out which pumps pass its test and those that have passed the quality check, an approval sticker will be displayed.