AN unsavoury dimension to the prevailing crisis in the nation’s oil sector is the fact that many filling stations appear to have perfected different ways by which they cheat their customers. Unknown to many, the unsolicited gestures and friendly jokes dispensed by many filling station attendants are meant to divert the customer’s attention from the fuel dispensing metre with the sole aim of dispensing less fuel than the unsuspecting customer would pay for. This, in addition to outright adjustment of the metre to dispense less fuel than is displayed on it, is a practice that has been going on for long, according to investigation conducted by our correspondent.
According to a report, during the last fuel scarcity, in just three months, Nigerians lost about N200 billion to fuel underdispensing.
According to the report, on every one litre of fuel bought at filling stations, Nigerians lose at least N5.82k on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise called petrol.
Statistics obtained from the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) put daily consumption of petrol at 38.298 million litres.
When computed, a total of 3,446,820,000 litres of petrol are consumed in three months (90 days). Statistics from the Weight and Measures department of Trade and Investment Ministry revealed that most fuel-pumps have been adjusted to dispense between 18.8 and 19.2 litres of petrol in place of 20 litres to short- change unsuspecting consumers. On the average, 18.8 litres are dispensed as 20 litres.
By implication, 0.94 litre of petrol is dispensed as 1 litre and this means Nigerians are paying N97 per litre of petrol for every N91.18k worth of petrol purchased.
Further investigations revealed that petrol attendants are not alone in this shady business. They commit the heinous crime in connivance with their station managers and owners. This, according to investigation, explains why many attendants who have been caught engaging in such sharp practices express no remorse and still manage to retain their jobs at such filling stations. The situation leaves a victim helpless because their superiors would rather plead with a customer than fire an errant attendant.
“How would the manager of a filling station punish an errant attendant who knows that even the owner of the filling station has tampered with the reading of the dispensing machines?” asked Tiamiyu Salami, manager of a filling station in Lagos.
Different strokes
The deeds of errant filling station attendants have left bitter tastes in the mouths of many motorists and other users of petroleum products. While a few muster the necessary courage to challenge such attendants, others simply grumble and carry on without challenging them. But it is believed that the trend has caused unnecessary friction between many private car owners and their drivers, as the former often think that their drivers are the ones trying to play smart.
Narrating his experience, 30 -year-old Samuel Ajenifuja, an unemployed graduate who had to turn to driving for survival, said the “stupid act” of such unscrupulous filling station attendants nearly strained the relationship between him and his former boss.
He said: “Oga gave me N7,000 to buy fuel for him because the fuel in his car was inching towards ‘reserve’. I did as he instructed only for him to call me a few hours later to tell me that I was a fraud.
“My brother, I was mad. Out of annoyance, I went to the place to challenge the attendant. But while I was raging, a friend who was also an attendant in the said station, confided in me that it was usual to dispense less fuel than the metre indicates.
“The first question he asked me was whether the attendant had sold fuel into an okada (motorcycle) before attending to me, and I said yes. It was then he told me that the attendant most likely did not rub off the quantity he had sold to the okada rider before selling into my vehicle.
“He said I should always make sure that the attendant rubbed off the sum displayed on the metre before selling fuel to me.”
If Ajenifuja was lucky to have somebody tell him about the antics of filling station attendants, it was not so with Peter Uzor, a senior manager in a publishing company. According to him, the fuel in his car, a Honda CRV, had entered the ‘reserve’ and the red light had appeared on the dash board, meaning that he had to refuel as quickly as possible.
He was, however, surprised that the fuel gauge of his car remained on the same spot even when he had moved a considerable distance from the filling station, and the light indicating that the fuel tank was near empty was still on. He said his initial thought was that his gauge was faulty. On a second thought, he decided to visit another filling station to buy the same quantity of fuel he bought initially. Immediately he started the engine, the fuel metre began to move upwards and the red light went off.
“I narrated my earlier experience to the attendant and he burst into a prolonged laughter. He said the first attendant might have merely pumped air into my tank which was why the reserve light remained after I had bought fuel.”
Another respondent, who identified himself simply as Steve, recalled that he had a bitter experience with a filling station where he had gone with a 25-litre jerry can he uses in buying fuel for his generator.
He said: “I had to go to the station because there was no fuel at the one where I usually bought fuel. To my surprise, the fuel that was sold to me was nowhere near the level the same quantity used to get at the usual filling station.
“From that day, I swore never to buy fuel from that filling station again. I later discovered that the petrol station was doing it to everybody that bought fuel from there.
“I was not surprised that the filling station lost patronage after some time. In fact, the first day I went there, a brother of mine saw me and asked what I was doing at the filling station, saying that station was fraudulent.”
‘Shaddy’ to the rescue
A filling station attendant, who asked not to be named, said in order to make more profit, many filling stations resorted to a practice he called “shaddy.” By this, he said, many stations resort to “undercutting”. That way, he said, it is difficult for officials of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and other filling stations regulatory agencies to accuse the petrol station of any crime since they are seen to be selling at the official price as indicated on their metres.
“In order to break even, they have resorted to passing on the cost to their customers by engaging in what we refer to as ‘shaddy’,” he said.
While he would not confirm or deny the issue of pumping air into vehicles, he said most times when such happens, it is not the fault of the attendants. Rather, he said, the owners of petrol stations should be held responsible because, in most cases, it is a sign that the pump is old or faulty.
“When a pump or machine is faulty, what is the fault of an attendant in that? Your own is to work and collect your pay. How a businessman runs his business is none of your business,” he said.
While customers complain of being short-changed, it is more money for the attendants when a pump is faulty. Unfortunately for most modern cars, pumping air into their tanks could spell big trouble.
In his anger, Olumide Balogun, a car dealer, described many petrol station attendants and dealers as a band of cheats, saying: “Nigerian businessmen generally are cheats and they are greedy. They are always looking for extra profit at the expense of their clients. A good example is our filling stations which is one avenue through which a lot of customers are ripped off without they knowing.
“To begin with, one litre of petrol, diesel or kerosene is never up to the standard litre approved by the Directorate of Petroleum Resources (DPR). The best you can get from most filling stations is between 0.5 to 0.85 litres. Also, most filling stations, especially independent marketers, tend to manipulate their dispensing pumps in order to discharge both air and petrol together. This is done by the in-house engineer to distort the regular workings of the pump so that they can make extra money.
“The principle behind this is simple: adjust the pump and slack the spring or lever inside the pump, and educate the attendants how to handle the pump so that the public will not suspect any foul play. That is the reason behind some stations dedicating some pumps to vehicles and others to jerry cans because it is easier to detect the anomaly when you buy in a keg.”
Our story, by filling station attendants
However, a petrol attendant in one of the leading petrol station in Akute, a suburb Lagos, dismissed the notion that attendants cheat their customers.
He said: “I think the people who hold this opinion are ignorant. I used to suspect every petrol attendant until I took up this job. It is impossible to cheat a customer because the machines we use have been programmed.
