Rideshare services like Uber and Lyft have become cabbies’ biggest competitors. Now a new company is trying to find similar success in fuel delivery. But instead of providing individual consumer services, it is building its business through company partnerships.
The company’s goal? “… to be the world’s largest gas station,” Wisam Nahhas, one of the app’s developers, told the Washington Examiner.
FuelMe, available to Texas residents on Apple or Android smartphones, charges a $5 delivery fee plus the price of fuel for its services. Nahhas, told the Examiner that the app typically charges about five cents less than the average area fuel costs. The app determines the car’s location by GPS and delivers gas with trucks that can hold up to 500 gallons.
For the time being, FuelMe mainly serves corporate companies with at least 5,000 employees. Nahhas said that FuelMe is often offered by companies as a perk to its employees. Some of its clients pay the $5 fee, leaving the employees to pay only the reduced fuel price.
FuelMe already has seven Texas businesses committed to using its services into next year. And Nahhas says businesses in Baltimore and Boston have also shown interest.
FuelMe’s four targeted client types are universities, airports, hospitals and large employers.
Uber and Lyft have become popular by offering customers lower rates than taxi services. Gas stations are FuelMe’s greatest competitor. But Nahhas said that gas stations have approached his company with offers of reduced gas prices, which raises the prospect of FuelMe establishing partnerships with gas stations. It makes sense, since filling a 500-gallon FuelMe truck would be good business for gas stations.
According to Nahhas, FuelMe has a pending patent that would make it the only company to deliver fuel using GPS coordinates on an app.
For the time being, FuelMe’s business model focuses on partnerships with large companies and gas stations, not individuals. Personal service may come later.
But can FuelMe grow with just corporate partnerships? Will it approach the scale of Uber? The market will decide.
Emily Leayman is an intern at the Washington Examiner
