Monday, March 31, 2003

Regulatory Services Data - Add Value to Customers The Deseret News is providing a good example of a service that the state should make available online.  The Regulatory Services division (Weights and Measures) of the Department of Agriculture performs regular inspections of service stations to verify that they are not skimping their customers on the amount of fuel they are selling.  This is a very important function, because relatively small variances can add up quickly.  The Deseret News has obtained records of those inspections and made them available online.  For example, I just checked a station where I regularly buy fuel and found out that in 2001, they were shorting customers on fuel and had water in their tanks (that's not good, we once had about a dozen state vehicles stall out after purchasing fuel with a lot of water in the tank).  On the other hand, some stations are giving gas away. Do you ever go to the grocery store and have a price ring up different than what it is labeled on the counter?  Regulatory Services also monitors that with UPC inspections.  Here's an example of some failed inspections at WalMart in American Fork.  The newspaper has performed an interesting service by making this data available.  The State should examine making this data available on an ongoing basis. 8:31:01 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 David Fletcher.