When I was introduced to the Booster App a couple years ago, the company had just started off. They were founded in 2015 and had come off several rounds of funding. I was given a promo code that gave me $10 in free gas, so I figured I would use it one time, get the free gas, and abandon the app. Fast forward to today and I still use the app to fill up gas.
I’ll be honest though; I don’t use Booster for gas every single time. Why is that? The main reason is price. The price was competitive in the beginning, but I noticed that the price has become less so over time. Here’s my experience and what you might want to know about using the Booster App to gas up your vehicle.
What is Booster?
Booster Fuels essentially allows you to use an app on your phone, to schedule for a Booster gas truck to refuel your vehicle on-site. You don’t need to be present for the “boost” to take place. Just park your car, open the fuel tank door, and input your location on the app, and the service vehicle will come by to refuel your tank.
The allure of using Booster are plentiful:
- Save money and time by not having to drive to and from gas stations in order to fill up.
- Be safer by not having to fill up in unfamiliar or unsafe areas.
- A more convenient experience that will also save time for the commuter.
- Contribute to some emissions reduction minimizing cars driving to be fueled up, and instead having the fuel truck come to the cars.
Booster is available on both from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. In my review, I use an iPhone but I’d expect a similar experience with an Android phone.
App Interface and Usability
The app interface is simple and intuitive. The app front end is very simple with the main screen showing you the prices on gas for your location. With a few taps and drags, I can select which octane fuel I’d like, show the location of my vehicle, and select what time frame I would like to refueling to occur.
There are some new services that are offered along with the refueling service. These are largely extra services that car owners would typically be able to handle themselves, but it seems they are really catering towards those who just don’t have any time to spare.
Tank Door Cover: a fabric cover that goes over your tank door is provided to you for free, which helps the service pros to find your vehicle. It also helps keep others from closing your tank door. Using this will earn you 1¢ off per gallon on all future purchases. I wish this would be 5¢ versus just 1¢, but I guess it doesn’t affect the Booster user much for these savings.
Clean Front Windshield: provided for $2.00, but honestly I think I can handle cleaning my own front windshield thank you very much. I might consider it if I went mud-crawling before coming to work, and I simply don’t have the ability to clean it before coming back to my car to drive home again.
Tire Check and Inflation: offered for $8.99; yet another easy to handle maintenance item that I don’t think is worth $8.99. Perhaps worth it if your tire is seriously low on air and there is no way for you to get to a gas station to fill it up before driving.
Rain-X Wiper Replacement: available for a whopping $49.99. I guess if you really need new wipers and don’t have any plans for replacing your own windshield wipers, then sure. I’m not sure how much Rain-X wipers are for my car, but I’d consider it if they cost close to 50 bucks. Otherwise, this is a simple replacement that you can do by yourself for the sole price of the wiper itself.
Booster Rewards Program
You are able to earn stars that count towards a Booster Rewards status. Each gallon of gas earns you 100 stars. The rewards are counted for the earnings in the past 3 months, so you’ll need to be a regular user in order to reap the rewards of the program. You also will need to have referred at least one person in order to get to the Trailblazer status.
| Member Status | Stars Needed | Additional Perks |
|---|---|---|
| Member | Where you start | |
| Explorer | 4,000 | 10% off add-on services 10% off express delivery |
| Trailblazer | 8,000 | 20% off add-on services 20% off express delivery 1 superboost each month |
| Superstar | 16,000 | 20% off add-on services 20% off express delivery 2 superboosts each month |
*Superboosts allow you to choose one of the 3 following perks: free windshield cleaning, free express delivery, or 10¢ discount per gallon (up to 15 gallons).
In my opinion, the Booster Rewards Program is a bit pathetic. I mean, these “perks” hardly seem like they are rewarding their dedicated members.
User Experience
This is where I’d say Booster Fuels really shines. It doesn’t get much easier than this. After you schedule your boost, you make sure your gas tank door is open and the Booster truck comes around and fills up your vehicle. After the your car is fueled up, you’ll get a text message from Booster indicating that your car has been refueled.
There are some restrictions with Booster as they only operate in the San Francisco Bay Area and Dallas-Fort Worth locations. And within those two geographic areas, the fuel deliveries are further restricted to certain places usually located around business parks. Obviously this makes business sense for Booster and as they grow it is possible for them to expand into other outlying areas. Luckily for me, Booster delivers to the business park that I work at.
Another constraint that users might run into is the time you can request a boost. You will always need to order the boost before a certain time and the refueling will be guaranteed by a certain time. For me in particular, I usually see the option to order anytime before 1:30pm in order to get fuel by 4:30pm. This likely varies depending on their availability and your location as I have seen this option change over time. My experience however is that no matter what time I’ve ordered gas, 75% of the time the truck refuels my car within an hour. After the cut-off time, you’re out of luck for getting gas that day from Booster.
Why Booster Works For Me
To sum it up, Booster works for me because it is easy, convenient, and I don’t have to make a stop at a gas station which would add considerable time to my already long commute. Furthermore, I do try to find the most economical gas stations and at times those places can be a bit dubious. And sometimes, I just can’t make it to a particular gas station with the remaining gas I have in my tank, so I simply need to be refueled at work.
I used Booster quite regularly before, but less-so in the past year. I’ve noticed that their prices were pretty comparable to the local Costco and Arco gas stations. Booster would typically be a tad more expensive, but the convenience simply made it a no-brainer for me. However, over the past year I’ve noticed the prices getting higher and higher. This is a Booster-specific price increase as other gas stations still stayed at their everyday lower prices. It seems Booster may have under-inflated their prices in order to build their customer base. But now that they have more users, they don’t need to sell their fuel and refueling service at a lower price anymore.
So yes, getting your car refueled is more expensive now than it was before. But there is a time and a place for me to use Booster. So I’ll continue to refuel at the much lower-priced Costco or Arco, and when I really need to, I’ll use Booster.
If you’re interested in signing up for Booster, I would appreciate if you would use my referral link or enter code ’98SCOTT’ when you sign up. You will also receive $20 in free gas (in the form of $5 off your first four boosts). Thanks!
