[mithun]

Nowadays Reliance is opening bunch of petrol pumps in every nook & corner; especially the rural areas where the Govt. owned oil cos were not being able to meet the rural demands. Kudos to Reliance for taking up such a initiative...

After filling up the petrol/diesel from the Reliance pumps it's being heard that most of the people are getting better FE when compared to the other cos. So one of my friends also tried his luck at Reliance pumps for his car. He also told me that it's true to some extent.

But I didn't believe his words since I already knew the Reliance corporate history and how they have minted money to reach this current position. So I made up my mind to test the authenticity of this high FE.

I walked to a recently opened Reliance pump with a 2L heat resistant can and bought 1L of diesel. After reaching my home, I measured it with a measuring vessel to find out any manipulations in the case of quantity. To my surprise it was found to be 1100 ML (1.1 L) !!!!!!!!!

Hope everyone have got the crux of the matter !! To get good word-of-the-mouth publicity they are giving about 100 ML free !! I can't imagine what will be the state of affairs at the Reliance pumps after they have acquired a good reputation among the folks.

I don't know about the case with Reliance petrol since I'm quite satisfied with HP Power for my Pulsar and Xtra Premium for my car.

[jkdas]

nook and corner?

There are just 3 pumps on the way frm TVM to Cochin

[DRC]

Ever wonder why there is no station inside Bangalore city. But there are some out side the city on highways... BTW I have not seen any in any city limits..

[garvit2002]

dont know about the number of pumps but the fuel which they give is very pure. and if they 100ml free with every litre of fuel Reliance must have been bankrupted till now

[haryan]

enjoy free petrol till stocks last ....

[2L8uLoose]

Um.... this is probably the first time I have heard of someone complaining coz they got MORE than what they paid for... )..have you tried going there again and getting more fuel... maybe it was an oversite of the attendant.. or maybe your heat resistant can had something in it before you got to the pump..and what measuring vessel did you use.. was it approved of by the department of weight's and measure's... lol

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by garvit2002

dont know about the number of pumps but the fuel which they give is very pure. and if they 100ml free with every litre of fuel Reliance must have been bankrupted till now

Yes and No. No because you cant put any shady trick past Reliance. Perhaps his measuring jar at home was wrongly calibrated, too.

Now the interesting part which I heard (and I havent confirmed this) is that the billing for all the Reliance Pumps is done centrally and the franchisee is nothing more than a cashier (who also has about 50 cents of land to give them). Therefore the franchisee allegedly has no interest in adultration since any income from adultrating fuel (by adding additives cheaper than the fuel) will go to Reliance and not to him.

If this is true, then this is a beautiful example of internal controls working where the person who has custody of whats being sold has not ownership of the stock or the money. This perhaps explains why people claim to get better mileage at Reliance pumps.

As a corollary, any adultration that is being done would be done by Reliance themselves and not by the franchisee. Knowing their reputation that may well be possible in the future, but right now they're trying to build their brand image.

[bigman]

No exactly fraud if you are getting more than you paid for. If they were giving you less then that would be fraudelent.

The fuel is better quality then those state fuel pumps. I have alos noticed on using Reliance that the average goes up. The same also for one of the the pumps (I think Essar). Might be worth repeating the 1 litre experiment at an Essar pump.

[RX135]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Now the interesting part which I heard (and I havent confirmed this) is that the billing for all the Reliance Pumps is done centrally and the franchisee is nothing more than a cashier (who also has about 50 cents of land to give them). Therefore the franchisee allegedly has no interest in adultration since any income from adultrating fuel (by adding additives cheaper than the fuel) will go to Reliance and not to him.

Yes and No again

The franchisee can still cheat by removing petrol from tank, adulterating it with cheaper fuel, paying for same to Reliance (central billing as we are thinking) while selling removed petrol in black market. Only thing is that, it would be difficult since franchisee can't sell it through the petrol vending machine which is linked with central Reliance billing system. But it is still possible!

[Digital Vampire]

I felt Reliance Diesel is better when compared to even Premium diesels like Hi-Speed, Turbojet, Extramile on my Indigo...The Engine feels more smoother, silent and responsive with Reliance Diesel. Also I'm repeatedly experiencing ~40-45 kms more mileage over a 30 litre fill.

The main reason I feel is accurate quantity and quality of Reliance fuel since they are newcomers and trying to gain market share.

On the other side, it is very clear that almost all the fuel bunks (non-reliance) in Hyderabad have rigged meters along with heavy fuel adulteration.

BTW I also use System-D regularly

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by RX135

The franchisee can still cheat by removing petrol from tank, adulterating it with cheaper fuel, paying for same to Reliance (central billing as we are thinking) while selling removed petrol in black market.

If Reliance have invested in a centralized billing system, I'm sure they have also invested in lockable fuel bunkers with two sets of keys - one with the franchisee and one with the fuel delivery truck or even the regional sales officer (since they have few pumps). This is a shot in the air and purely a product of my imagination, but I'm sure a company investing a few thousand crore into its petroleum business has also thought about that scenario and put similar controls in place over the stock itself.

To add to what others have to say - my experiences with Reliance Fuel Stations have been good so far, with vehicles returning better than normal averages on at least two occasions.

[SLK]

Say Reliance is giving extra fuel!..... THEN consider this
I use Xtra Premium... fill up the tank.... use it all up... Then go to reliance pump.. to fill up.... their meter shows they filled less than the consumed quantity.

So I end up calculating my FE on Xtra Premium.... as more than what it actually was!.. then how is Reliance fuel efficient for anyone experimenting on it?.

[rkg]

the fuel which reliance sells in south, most of north, east india is procured form state owned refinaries , not from it's jam nagar refinary.
the higher milage may be due to more stricter quality control management at the bunk level comapred to state owned companies , where the adulteration is at the bunk level( just think of the IOC IIM officer manjunath)
i beleive reliance is trying to build its brand image . so enjoy it as long as it is possible

[Zappo]

Ok... a few things... first of all rkg, you got it the other way round. In fact most state owned oil companies procure a good part of their requirements from Reliance. Reliance has the largest grassroot refinery in the world. They not only meet the demands within the country but also export their products. In fact a few days back there was a tussle going on between IndianOil and Reliance with regards to some agreement they have regarding the amount of fuel IOL is supposed to pick and what they were actually picking up. Rest assured all that sells at Reliance pumps is their own product.

About Reliance giving more quantity than asked for and hence turning in bankrupt (as someone said), first and foremost, a company of the size of Reliance can always foot major promotional expenses like these. Secondly, if you get more for the same buck you can not complain fraud. So legally they are not commiting a crime.

Now let me tell you something. Do you ppl know what is the margin for Reliance per barrel refined? It is as high as $9-10. Are you aware what is the world avaerage in this regard? It is around $3 per barrel. Go figure... In fact Reliance model of refining is being closely studied by several Singapore and china based petro groups. Dhirubhai turned the whole logic of refining on its head when he went against the worldwide accepted models... You can read about it all at rediff!!! In fact Government has already asked state owned oil companies to study the reliance model and increase their refining margins. So you see? They won't go bankrupt even if they give you a little more because even at current rates (which state owned cos. say is loss making) they are earning 3 times the profit than the state cos.

Question that comes up is why is then Reliance not selling at a lesser cost and hence get more visibility rather than giving you more fuel surreptiously? Well, they tried... however they are tied down by some arcane rule that says the government decides the price at which you sell the fuel. If reliance were to start selling it cheap they would have faced enormous heat from the PetMin directly and indirectly as well. So it could very well be possible that they took this route.

One thing I can vouch for though is that wherever you may buy it from, as long as it is Reliance pump the FE automatically works out better. This has been my experience after trying out Reliance in Hyderabad as well as remote parts of Eastern India.

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by Zappo

Ok... a few things... first of all rkg, you got it the other way round. In fact most state owned oil companies procure a good part of their requirements from Reliance.

Zappo I seriously doubt if Reliance is transporting fuel all the way from Jamnagar to Kolkata, Jammu and Trivandrum to its own outlets. They would sell part of their produce to the state oil firms in the western region and in return pick up fuel from refineries around the country for their requirements in those parts.

Else the logistics dont make sense - if you notice the state oil firm's prices vary depending on the distance from the nearest refinery to account for the difference in transport costs. If IOC's fuel costs about Re1 more in Coimbatore than in Cochin (because the fuel comes from the Cochin Refinery), imagine how much more Reliance's fuel would cost to get to Coimbatore from Jamnager?

I think you're mistaken there - if you arent, then I'd like to see their costing sheet.

AND FINALLY - ITS TIME TO CHANGE THE TITLE OF THIS THREAD WHICH IS UNNECESSARILY MISLEADING. If they are actually giving you more fuel that you wanted, you cant call them frauds.