WTI Magazine #36    2014 June, 25
Author : buonennotizie.it      Translation by:

Given the economic crisis our country is in, more and more Italians try to find ways to save money. Cars are one of the assets which has suffered more the current situation: in order to save money, many people sell their cars and opt for public transport.

To stop the ongoing crisis in this sector, national institutions are finding more and more solutions that can meet the citizens' needs. This time it was the Observatory for Prices and Rates of the Ministry for Economic Development to launch a new initiative: the "OsservaPrezzi carburanti", an app developed in collaboration with Unioncamere and Infocamere already downloadable on the Google Play store, and in a few days on iTunes too.

This new app, the first ever created by the Ministry for Economic Development, allows its users to view the analyzed data collected by the Centre, and as a result to find out which are the cheaper distributors of fuel, in addition to setting the fastest route to reach them.

The application was created in order to view a map and a search field where you can indicate what type of fuel you are looking for: from fuel to diesel to LPG.

Once entered the data, the display will show the distributors that meet the specified requirements within a radius of five kilometers. Highlighted with a green gas pump will be those with the lowest prices, and marked with a red petrol pump those with a higher price. The application also allows you to generate a list of gas stations sorted by price and you can also calculate your route to get to the one selected.
It was possible to collect these data because, thanks to a 2009 law, every petrol station has to communicate to the Ministry the single prices of the various fuels sold by their distributors: the first compelled to communicate the various data were the ones on the Italian highway network. Since the beginning of 2013, a gradual phase of extension of the system has started, before to the distributors on the local roads and then, in the same year, the ones over the rest of the road network, including the urban area.

Over 17 thousand installations (on a total of 24 thousand) are now registered to the OsservaPrezzi, according to data provided by the Ministry. Consumers are kindly invited to report anomalies if they find differences between advertised prices and those actually applied, and to do that they may apply to the competent authorities (theoretically the Mayor of the municipality where the violation occurs, or the local Police Department). Administrative penalties for "crafty" gas stations will be among 516 to 3,098 €.

The Undersecretary to the Economic development Simona Vicari stated that "This is an important initiative, not only because it is the first app the Ministry ever did, but mostly because we provide consumers with a useful tool with which they can easily access to various lists and choose the more convenient distributor ". She added that "this app is addressed not only to consumers, but also to companies and distributors. Not only we make prices and services more transparent, but at the same time we put the various businesses in direct competition with each other, encouraging them to offer their products at lower prices. The next step - she concluded - is the renewal of the site of the Observatory prices, with new ways to search data, for a more transparent and consumer-friendly public administration".