Many non-brand chains like Fred Meyer, Kroger, Costco, etc., likely get their fuels from multiple refineries and brands, and even the same station will get different brand fuels at different times. I think it’d be best if these are just listed as unbranded.
I’ve seen a delivery truck at Costco and, IIRC, the name on the truck was “Murphy” … who knows who refined what was inside? Barring concrete evidence to the contrary, I agree that Unbranded would be the best choice.
The brand of a gas station has rarely anything to do with a refinery. In fact there are anti-trust laws in place (at least in NY State) that prohibit a franchise from requiring that a franchisee purchase gas only from the franchise. A franchisee is free to purchase gas from any company they desire.
For a majority of gas stations (i.e. all the non brand company owned ones), brand name is a pure marketing agreement and has little to do with anything else (e.g. gas quality).
After Hurricane Sandy, I learned a lot (through TV news and web sites e.g. http://www.governor.ny.gov/press/11032012gasshortageupdate) about how gas distribution works on Long Island NY. All the gas on Long Island comes on barge and one barge company (Northville Industries) has a de facto monopoly on it for the middle section of Long Island. This company pumps gas from barges to a distribution point located at the center of the Island (https://www.waze.com/editor/?zoom=7&lat=40.81256&lon=-73.06513&layers=BFTFFTTTTTTTFTFTTTFTTTFTT&landmarks=391792) where all the brands pick up their gas to deliver to the gas stations. You can read more about this on Northville Industries web page (http://www.northville.com/Lipipeline.aspx http://www.northville.com/Locations.aspx)
There were long gas lines on Long Island (some of which I had the misfortune to wait on) after Hurricane Sandy and the main reason for these lines was that there were even longer lines at the Northville terminal to fill up the tankers as the terminal had taken a hit from the Hurricane and a secondary reason was that all the NY City gas stations were coming to this terminal to fill up their tankers because NY City terminals were even worse hit.
The main point of this story is that brands have little to do with the tanker truck that shows up to fill up the tanks at the gas station and even less to do with the actual fuel refinery.
The NY Metro area uses about 28 million gallons of gas and diesel every day.
Partly true. I am sure if you asked the station operators they might disclose a bit more of their source, as it is going to vary across the country. If people locally know their brands, like here for Sam’s and Wal-Mart it will most likely be Murphy (I know Wal-Mart is Murphy for sure), then we can brand those stations as such.
My father delivers gas for a living. Each company, be it Phillips, Quik Trip, BP, all have their special blends they will use, hence branding is important. BP and Quik Trip are the most laden detergent fuels in this market. They have the most additives for their fuels, and are quite specific. But one caveat is that no one really grasps in the public, aside from BP and Shell here, all the gas stations share the same source for their fuels. Be it Phillips to 7-Eleven, even potentially Murphy. The pipeline feeds the the reservoirs here, when a load is needed, they take the base 87 octane or 91 octane, and they add their additives to the product to claim it as their own, be it Conoco, Phillips etc. They all have the same source of fuel. I said aside from BP and Shell because they do have their own pipeline in this area (they are more strict on their fuels), but all other fuel companies all use the same source, they just add their own additive.
So for a Costco, which it even says on their website,
[1] I guess unless you are locally tuned to what they are getting, it would be best served as unbranded.
But for the majority of Wal-Mart and Sam’s, Murphy states on their site they serve this area for the most part, it might be different in some other part of the country,
[2]
[3] The majority of these locations could presumably be Murphy.
What I’m trying to express is, the delivery truck isn’t going to justify what they have. A Star Transport truck doesn’t mean they are using Star oil, or a Groendyke truck doesn’t mean they are Groendyke oil. Groendyke operates many trucks that are Quik Trip named on the side through their delivery contracts. But Groendyke, like Star, delivers to any station that is needing fuel dropped. Casey’s runs a small fleet for their fuel, for the most part, they will deliver their fuel, except I have seen that Star and Groendyke fill in where needed. Casey’s has their own brand of fuel because of their blend, just like Quik Trip and Phillips. They all rely on the same pipelines that feed this area, they just get different mixes at the time of filling the delivery truck.
Shell and BP are more strict about their pipeline and deliveries, so you’ll see their own delivery vehicles, much like you’d see branded Love’s. I wouldn’t get to hastefully wanting to delete a brand without knowing a bit more about the source. For the case of Costco, after researching and reading their site, I can agree that we use unbranded except if there is local knowledge to the contrary. I just fear that some are going to edit the branding based on the delivery truck.
The one I am having difficulty figuring out around here at the moment is Road Star stations. All the others, aside from Costco, are pretty well laid out on their brands.
I was getting ready to post and skapur posted, and you’re right, they are all placed in reservoirs, but the company that sells the oil, in order to be a Phillips station or to be a 76 or to be 7-Eleven, etc, that brand, in order to sell it as such, they have to have oil that is meeting their franchising requirements, which would be, if it has x additive, they must sell it as that brand with x additive and detergents. The delivering company will do that at the time they fill the truck. So a Star transport truck or whoever shows up, is technically carrying a 7-Eleven approved gas based on the mix of detergents/additives, or whichever brand. BP has some 16 different detergents to be added at the time the truck is filled with the fuel. In order to sell as BP, that has to be met, no matter who delivers it. So a BP station will be branded BP because they are selling, BP approved fuel. The same with any other station, they are selling the approved fuel mix to the company standards.
[1] Costco Gasoline Q&A
[2] Murphy Marketing
[3] Murphy Oil Corp
Wow! Thanks, The1! I learned more than I ever thought there was to know about it. Especially about Murphy. I have a lot more respect for those guys.
However, whilst editing many stations in my area tonight I did come across the Costco in my area and the Brand listed was “Costco” … so I guess we don’t need to fret much about “Unbranded” stations. I did come across two or three local stations that didn’t have a brand auto-filled and as I know they aren’t affiliated with any major brand (or minor for that matter) I labeled them “Unbranded.”
If this exercize does one thing it drives up those editing points!!! :roll:
I think that the “Brand” field should relate to the Marketing/Signage as that is most visible. I don’t think users should see “Unbranded” in the client and pull up to the pumps that say “Gulf” or “Mobil”. I would prefer to use “Unbranded” for those independent stores that have only one (or a few local locations) who’s signage says things like “Gas” or “Bob’s Fuel”, etc.
There is also the issue of branded stations going unbranded due to disputes between the franchise & the franchisee - something going on here in CT. I’ll have to hunt for the link, although I thought I posted it here before…
Sorry, sometimes you got to hit me with a sledge hammer, but, is the name is all upper case, convert it or not?
Follow the guidelines posted.
Actually I am not clear of the original question, so I will repost the question I thought was being asked:
- Are we changing the all caps name to title case, or do we leave it all caps to track it was an imported landmark?
- If converting to title case, do we want to do anything to track it was imported?
- Yes, that is my understanding and what I’ve written in the guidelines post.
- I don’t know. But does it, in the end, matter? Just like ROTW, eventually, all gas station landmarks imported or added manually, will be available in the app for updating pricing.
Sorry, I missed that one… http://www.waze.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=129&t=46426 
I spend an incredible amount of time on Waze and I still can barely even touch the surface of all the threads in the forums. :?
FASTER! :mrgreen:
I think this is a simple and easy to follow rule. Just like any other street sign (or expressway exit sign…)
Waze editors are not gasoline quality control police and so should not try to enforce branding agreements by what brand truck goes to what brand gas station.
Please see my more detailed post here: http://www.waze.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=129&t=46426&start=10#p418782
It was suggested that I ask this here as there’s little movement in the NC forum. Which name is best to use for the gas stations? In one location nearby, there are 2 gas stations across the street from one another and both were imported. Both have a local name and a brand/franchise name. One station is labeled with their local name, but all signage at the location says Citgo. You can’t find the local name on any sign there. The other station has the local name on the signage, but the imported name is the franchise name. It’s my opinion that these should be listed by whatever is most prominent the signage. If the brand or franchise is the most visible name, then I think that should be used. If the local name is the most visible name, then I think that is the one that should be used. Basically, on a case-by-case basis. I wanted to get some advice from others before deciding to do that, though.
Btw, just as a side note in case anyone hasn’t noticed yet. If an imported gas station was imported at the wrong location (for example, one of the 2 I mentioned was imported about 1/4 mile or so away from the correct location), the update gas price feature from the client will not find it when you’re at the station even if you have corrected the placement of the landmark. You’ll have to drive to where it was imported in order to update the price. I’m guessing it’s using the imported GPS coordinates instead of the coordinates of the landmark. I’m sure they will correct that once the gas feature is completed, but it’s something to keep in mind.
You guys are waaay over thinking this naming scheme. Do what GasBuddy and YP and everyone else does: use the brand name on the sign. If no brand name, use the station’s name. If that isn’t obvious, say Unbranded.
It is completely irrelevant to the users whether Costco gets their gas from BP or Conoco or Marathon. It’s a Costco gas station and it should be labelled as such. Walmart stations are all Murphy USA unless they’re not on-property, then they’re Murphy Express. Sam’s Club is Sam’s Club. We should follow the same rules other gas price sites use for the sake of clarity.
In my area, we have a lot of Tom Thumb stations (the Kroger one, not the one in the midwest) and they all use CITGO. CITGO even has their logo on some of the pumps, but everyone knows it as Tom Thumb. So that’s how they’re labelled. Only the non-Tom Thumb CITGOs are called CITGOs around here.
Just in case you were replying to me rather than the previous posts, I’m referring to the Name field, not the Brand field. 
Don’t use Unbranded unless there is absolutely zero branding on the station, pumps, and store. Leave the Brand drop-down blank (top option) if the station is generic.
I like to put the name of the store in the Name field and the gas station in the Brand field when both are obvious. For example, there are a lot of Exxon / Circle K combos around, so I’ll put “Circle K” in the name field and set the brand as “Exxon”. I think it’d be good to establish this as a standard.
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I don’t see how anything other than the most prevalent sign you see by the side of the road is relevant here. Just my $0.02 
Exxon Circle K has a huge Exxon logo and a huge Circle K logo on their signs. Some other places do this too (like the Cracker Barrel Store chain).
It also gives us guidance for instances where both are available in the Brand field, like Exxon and Circle K, or Shell and Cracker Barrel (IIRC). There are stations which are only Circle K, or only Cracker Barrel, but when it’s both, we should put the “more gassy” brand in the Brand part.