Express Pumping

So, I filled up the truck this morning at the Arco at Franklin and 47th...$92 bucks, and of course I'm expecting to pay $392 as I'm expecting a real oil/gasoline shortage sometime over the next decade or two.

I watched three others this morning fill up with $5.00 worth of gas...somewhere around a gallon and a third, I'd reckon. I've always filled completely up every time I've ever entered a gas station simply to reduce the number of trips I have to take there, regardless of whether or not I could afford a full fillup. Nowadays I get to jack off in my truck for ten minutes each time I go to the gas station, waiting in line behind the myriad people who fill at $5 a crack and visit the station six times a week. I visit maybe six times a year in the truck. I bite the bullet and pay the bill all at once.

Three people filling $5. I admit that represents a few minutes of work for me and 2/3rds an hour for a lot of people, but the fill station doesn't discriminate between those willing to fill up and those who are just trying to get to their next gig.

Here's my thoughts: someday there'll be an express pump at most stations for fill ups only, much like there's business class on airlines. People willing to fill their tanks will get priority over those who only want a coupla bucks worth of gas. Yep, the price per gallon will be a little bit more, but as we know that people will make illegal u-turns to get to the station with gas that's $0.01 cheaper, a full quarter differential for Express Pumping will draw those in their Mercedes, their Beemers, their Land Cruisers, and their Chevy Trucks (me) into these express lanes such that the wait is minimal, the gas is pumped by a professional, and the commoners (whose unwillingingless to pay so much as another nickel per gallon) will never entering the query.

We are creating toll roads across the U.S. for the exact same reason -- the rich whose time is more valuable than yours, more valuable than sitting idle on congested freeways, willing to pay a premium for the right to commute 72 miles a day to their financial, insurance, or real estate jobs from their 3,700 sq ft housal units on 1/2 acres 37 miles down the interstate.

Toll roads are already here. Toll gasoline stations are next, you watch. Rich people unwilling to fill their Land Cruisers next to $5.00-paying people, but who are willing to pay extra for the right to fill first, amongst other expensive imported rigs. If this would be considersed discriminatory, then perhaps a simple express lane can be created for those willing to pay a premium for expedited service, at a price premium that eliminates most others from contention.

That'll be the line for me...oh yeah...