Mobil Speed Pass

In My Humble Opinion
1

I did a search on this (set to Any Date), and the best I could find was a thread from last May. So if it’s been covered more recently and my search missed it, I apologize.

Who here uses the Mobil SpeedPass? Does it work for you? In your opinion, is it worth it?

I am also interested in learning its purpose. The commericials I keep hearing on the radio make it seem like it’s so fast! And easy! And fast!

But what takes me the longest at the pump isn’t the paying of the bill - it’s the pumping of the gas! I’m not waiting there for the credit card to be accepted, I’m waiting for gasoline to make it into my tank. I can see how waving a card in front of the machine will be faster than me going to the cashier inside the gas station, but how could it be faster than simply sliding my credit or debit card?

And it’s not as if the SpeedPass is a credit card unto itself, like a Mobil card (or any other gas card) would be unto themselves. This card simply adds to whatever credit card you attach to it, right?

Am I missing something here? Please help me shed this cloak of ignorance, so that I may see the light again!

2

What it saves me is the “where is my #@# Mobil card” that used to happen. Speedpass is right on my keychain.

3

You have to “tie” the Speedpass to whatever credit card you choose to use. If you “tie” it to your Amex, then if you buy $25.50 worth of gas tomorrow and wave your Speedpass, your Amex will automatically be billed for $25.50. You save time by not having to go inside.

Yes, it’s a gimmick, as you only save a few seconds over sliding your credit card right through the reader there at the pump.

I agree about the speed of the gas going into the tank: it’s just so godawful slow! I wonder if there isn’t some sort-of blanket federal (or state) legislation that regulates how fast a pump can put gas into your tank for safety reasons? If I were to open up Rastahomie’s Ultra-Fast Pump-in-a-Hurry Gas Station (1 gallon per second) and charge a penny more per gallon for the convenience, I’d make a killing.

4

Me too! I love it. I don’t have to reach for my wallet, I don’t even keep my mobil card with me anymore.

5

There might well be. I’m certainly not in the awl bidness.

You know, now that I’m thinking about it, why do the pump hoses come from the tops of the pumps? Aren’t the tanks underground? Why aren’t the hoses lower? It looks like the hoses come up from the ground, wind around the top of the entire pump, then come down the side, where the consumer can then fill up his or her car. Why don’t they just come up the side in the first place?

Wouldn’t it be cool, rastahomie, if the speed at which the fuel left the nozzle was more like that at which water leaves a firehose? Whooooooooooshhhhhhhhhh! Course, then you might get more outside your tank than in it, but… :slight_smile:

6

Do those Speed Pass things require a PIN code or similar?

7

The reason I got rid of Speed Pass is because it does NOT require a PIN number (at least, it didn’t when I used it). I have a habit of losing keys, and I’d hate for someone who found them to fuel up all of their friends tanks on it before I discovered it’s loss.

It was pretty handy, though. I didn’t have to dig in my purse for my credit card. That’s about it.

Zette

8

That’s the first thing that occurred to me when my friend got it. She was about to give her car keys with the Speedpass on the ring to a valet, and I asked her if he could use it to fill up his own car or if it required a PIN. She promptly took it off.

Of course, if you lose your credit card, people can use it at a gas station without a PIN too. I learned that the hard way.

9

The only purpose I can see is that it makes you more likely to fill up with Mobil, since it only works with their pumps.

10

I think you will see greater uses for this in the future. Mobil has sent out millions of these things (well, I don’t really know how many but this isn’t Great Debates).

For now it builds customer loyalty. If Mobil attains a large enough base of these in consumer hands, just think of the applications. Fast food drive thrus, Vending machines or any where else that there is a large volume of small dollar transactions.

Mobil can license the use of the speed pass, lease the communication devices required or come up with other ways to profit from their use.

11

Well, they’re not the originators of the idea, are they? What’s the new part, the keychain gimmick? What about those passes you use for tollbooths? Since they can’t patent an idea that’s been around for a while, they surely can’t license the idea.

I could be wrong, but I don’t think they can do much with it themselves other than what little they’d done now.

12

Dan
I think that you missed my point. The factor that plays well for Mobil is that they have over 4 million of these Speed Passes in consumers’ hands. (I was able to track down that number.)
Handling small cash amounts is a major expense for many merchants. Especially those that have a large volume of small dollar transactions.
If Mobil can “deliver” this base of customers to other businesses, they will profit from it. Others can enter the business if there are no patents that Mobil holds on the technology. Mobils existing base gives them a huge headstart in producing revenue from this transaction.

13

Let it also be known that you can use your Speedpass keychain at the Mobil Marts to buy food or asprin or condoms or whatever. Is this a helluva lot quicker than using cash or a credit card. Nope. Do you feel cooler when you do it. Yup.

14
      • The reason gas pumps go fast or slow has to do partly with the type of gas pump it is (normal or vapor-recovery) and how dirty the filter is (pump filters have no internal bypass). The reasons the hoses come out of the top of the pumps (and the reason newer ones have only one hose) is so you don’t trip over the hoses and sue the gas station. I swear to God. It’s California’s fault.
        ~
  • I thought about getting the speedpass but the lack of a PIN nunmber set me off too. Does it use batteries? It would be priceless to swallow it and be able pay for stuff by rubbing my tummy on the little window. - MC
15

Whew, almost forgot about this thread…

barker, sorry if I seemed contentious. (I probably was.) To me, simply having that product out there is not enough to ensure that other businesses will want it, too. After all, the product needs to be an improvement in some way over the methods currently used to purchase gas.

It doesn’t seem to be faster (as those endless ads claim), but it does seem to be convenient in that you don’t have to scramble around for a plastic card - it’s on your keychain, which you’ll have in your hands, since you’re a consciencious consumer and have turned off your car while at the pump.

If it applies to buying other products - such as food - at the Mobil Marts, then maybe other minimarts would profit from it. For example, in the PA/NJ area there are zillions of Wawa convenience stores that now also sell gas. How convenient would it be to swipe the pass at the pump, get your gas, then go into the store and buy your food? I guess that’s what the MobilMarts are doing now, and if so it’s a damn fine idea.

Of course, NJ doesn’t have self-serve, so who knows!

So…

Advantages: convenient

Disadvantages: no security (i.e., PIN)

Push: Speed - it doesn’t seem to make the whole transaction any faster

Anyway, it’s not that I object to the SpeedPass at all - in fact, anything in the name of convenience, since I’m a lazy bastard. However, I kind of resent those commercials, since they scream about how fastfastfast their damn product makes the transaction, and by most accounts that seems to be a falsehood.