Brilliant, I say!

I had this idea the other day: Gasoline Co-ops.

Think about this: currently, we buy gas as we need it, paying whatever the price may be at the time. This leads to interesting dilemmas, such as this: we all know when the price of gas is going to go up (say, Memorial Day weekend), so everyone tries to fill up right before hand. Thus, the lines at the pump are huge and some places run out of supply, etc.

What would happen if we bought gasoline in bulk, instead? I hear people saying, "Where are we going to keep it? We don't all have 100 gallon tanks in the back of our trucks! You have no idea what you're talking about!"

Not like that, silly. Sheesh. Take this example. I go into the co-op after I get paid on the 15th and say, hmm, I want 200 dollars worth of gas. They say, "Okay Mr. Scoresby, we'll put that on your account. Do you want regular or premium?"

"Oh, regular's fine for me."

"Okay, 200 dollars works out to 50.76 gallons. Can I see your card?" *swipe* "I've added it to your account, you can pump it anytime you choose. Remember, though, if you don't make any withdrawal for a month, we'll charge you a holding fee on the gas. It's got to stay fresh."

"Thanks for the reminder!" I'll reply as I head out to my car and pump out a tankload.

See what I did there? I just turned a gas station into a storage facility! I only need to buy the gas once a month, and I've already paid for all the gas I'll use for rest of the month (and hopefully, some of next month) in today's price. The system knows how much I have, and I can pump it until I need to buy more!

Obviously there need to be some rules: Minimum and maximum monthly purchase caps, what to do if there's a shortage or excess (I vote to sell the excess from the pump like a normal station- the profits go to fund the station's operation, maintenance, employee's salaries, etc.), what kinds of gas (regular,probably; premium, maybe; diesel? kinda iffy; E80 - bah, humbug).

Anyway, I think the general idea is sound.