British petrol stations will start introducing demand-based surge pricing within months, similar to the model used by taxi company Uber, according to media reports.
The move is being driven by the major supermarket chains, who control more than 1,000 petrol stations across the UK. The supermarkets are also looking at plans to apply demand-based pricing to all their stores, not just petrol stations.
The Telegraph reported last month that the supermarkets are in the final stages of their plans to roll out surge pricing across their stations, using technology developed by Danish company a2i Systems, and that it could be live within a matter of months.
As petrol stations have become more automated over the years, implementing this kind of technology is now relatively simple. Pricing information on signs and individual pumps can be updated in a matter of seconds, and can be changed up or down continuously throughout the day.
The technology, already commonly used in Europe and America, uses artificial intelligence to predict how consumers behave. Like Uber’s fare prices, it means petrol and diesel prices will rise during busy period and fall during quiet times.
It is likely that the system software will work in both predictive and reactive modes. That means it will not only react to high demand, but also predict when those busy times will come. The most obvious cases, as pointed out by the Telegraph, are that prices will skyrocket around holiday times and during the morning and afternoon school runs. But the software will also be able to log how many customers are visiting the station each hour and nudge prices up or down accordingly.
Share this:
