New Fuel App (Seeking Testers) - Road Scout

AssociatedLOnlineOffline @ Funky Forge on 28/10/2025 - 10:46
Last edited 28/10/2025 - 11:06 by 1 other user

Hello fellow OzBargainers.

As a long time member (although surprisingly, I don't think I've ever posted a deal); I thought this would be a great place to see if anyone wouldn't mind giving my new app a bit of a test run. There is only so much testing I can do on my own, with my inherent user bias etc; so its time to open up to a wider audience to get some feedback (good and bad!).

The app is called 'Road Scout' and its currently only available on Android (going the Apple App Store route is something I do plan for the future…just not yet).

It finds petrol prices that are near you (or your route) and can deal with various discounts you might get at the servos. It has widgets and also supports Android Auto (although this is still a work in progress). Right now I only support QLD, NSW and TAS - before I go further and invest more time and effort into the app, I was hoping to gain some feedback, not only to decide whether its worth continuing with the app, things that are currently good/bad and maybe some ideas.

I also had some ideas for future additions, particularly a mode that focuses on major interstate routes and shows you rest areas etc coming up (this seems to be a pain point in my family with frantic searching for how far to the next rest stop with a toilet!!) - anything to reduce road trip stress!

Anyway - the app is available on Google Play store via an 'Open Test' (anyone can join the test and have a go at it) - I've decided to go this route rather than just releasing it (normally I'd just release it, but wanted to gain some actual user feedback).

You can join the test here (on your Android phone) : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.funkyforge…

Or on the Google Play web site: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.funkyforge.roadscou…

The app has the ability to submit feedback in it - but of course happy to have feedback any way possible.

Thanks!

Robin.

Free Software/Websites Fuel Software Testing

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Comments

  • Hybroid on 28/10/2025 - 11:03
    +10

    Not sure how I feel about rounding up to $1.70 instead of showing 169.9 like everyone else does. It shouldn't matter but it does.

    NSW has https://www.fuelcheck.nsw.gov.au/app so I don't think they'd be interested in a third-party app. Other states might though Petrol Spy exists.

    • Aldonis on 28/10/2025 - 12:37
      +1

      It finds petrol prices that are near you (or your route) and can deal with various discounts you might get at the servos.

      I'd say this is the big distinguisher from fuelcheck

      • surfingedge on 28/10/2025 - 13:39

        How does it deal with the discounts?

        For Ampol I have 4c off from toyota/nrma, 4c off from ww, 10x points from ww and pay with gift card bought for 5.5% off

        BP I have 6c off from agl and 5x qf points (one-use). Pay with hsbc 2% back.

        So how much cheaper does BP have to be before it beats Ampol and how much further is it worth driving to get 1c off?

        • AssociatedOnlineOffline @ Funky Forge on 28/10/2025 - 14:04

          Thanks for the feedback.

          At its basic level, each supplier (Ampol etc.) has a 'cents per litre' discount that you enter at the settings; i had thought about having the ability to also let the user enter their other discount methods (like %'s etc.) and automatically work out what those discounts would be (its in the backlog if i take it further).

          The distance feature you mention is also something i have on the backlog (but needs more user info to be meaningul like some basic car details) - it would then work out distances and decide whether or not the cost to get you the extra 5km to the cheap petrol was worth the effort - the challenge here being knowing whether you fill up (making it worth your while) or just half fill, making it less valuable - at this point I think there is a real diminsihing return - I don't know if even the hardest of card carrying OzB folks would go that far to bother.

          • surfingedge on 28/10/2025 - 15:55
            +1

            @OnlineOffline: Agreed - even though I'm stacking lots of discounts the actual amount saved is like $2-$3 per fill.

            btw, the NRMA app already shows the WW discount and their own discount.

            I tend to just go with gut feeling about the most efficient choice.

        • Member 0230 on 29/10/2025 - 10:33

          Wow, that's next level.

          For Ampol I can: stack 4c off (WW), 1c off (RACV), and discounted Woolies gift card (4% off) — how do you manage to get WW 10x points (effectively 5%) and 5.5% off gift card?

          • Coops1 on 29/10/2025 - 11:08

            @Member 0230: Yeah, if i could stack points it would be a massive difference. Doubt you can though!

            • WookieMonster on 29/10/2025 - 11:20

              @Coops1: You definitely cannot when in Tasmania, because Ampol Foodary and EG Ampol in Tasmania are still excluded from Everyday Rewards. The Woolworths fuel discount is still 6c/L though, so yay? I suspect Ampol's proposed buyout of EG will change all of this.

              If you were on the mainland, you could stack bonus points offers with fuel discounts and gift cards at Ampol Foodary or EG Ampol.

          • surfingedge on 29/10/2025 - 11:28
            +1

            @Member 0230: 10x points is targeted, but there's usually an offer on one of my WW accounts. Sometimes it's only 3x or a fixed amount of points. However I don't drive that much so most of the time I can wait until there's an offer or it's the low point of the price cycle.

            Gift cards I bought from cashrewards and in person, but also frequently available from shopback https://www.ozbargain.com.au/product/ampolcash

            Ampolcash works at both Ampol and EG ampol, but I think the woolworths GCs only work at EG ampol

            Anyone can get 4c at nrma https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/913633

            Toyota is sometimes boosted to 6c or more https://www.ozbargain.com.au/deals/toyota.com.au my car is a toyota so I used real info, can't remember if it actually verifies anything

      • Dr Phil on 29/10/2025 - 12:18
        -2

        Fuelcheck can filter by Fuel brand
        So if you are looking to cash in your Coles 4c discount voucher you can select "Shell" only.

        But with FuelCheck you can select more than 1 brand
        So if you have discount vouchers for various brands you can check those to be included

  • Jaduqimon on 28/10/2025 - 11:04

    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.gov.nsw.one…

    stop immediately before wasting any more time on your app

    • pegaxs on 28/10/2025 - 11:12
      +2

      Handy if you are only in NSW… but most states have their own version of this app or allow 3rd party access to this data. Petrol Spy, RACQ, Fuelmap Australia, Servo Saver in Vic, Car savvy/Savii, Fuel Radar, the list goes on.

      I think OP is trying to wiggle into an already saturated market, and some pretty established competition, and unless they are bringing something out of the box, the established players will just drown them out.

      • Jaduqimon on 28/10/2025 - 11:13
        +2

        yes. any success the OP has, or any unique features that prove popular will be easily copied by the big players.

        • AssociatedOnlineOffline @ Funky Forge on 28/10/2025 - 14:07

          Thanks for the feedback; there are certainly already a number of apps in this space; the plan was to bring more to the app than just the petrol prices (which as you say could be replicated by others). The state based apps are definitely great for those who stick mostly to one state and PetrolSpy is great that you can also crowdsource pricing.

          The feedback is useful, I have wondered whether there is value in continuing before spending any more effort.

    • fantombloo on 28/10/2025 - 11:16
      +1

      Would be handy to hear from OP about any distinguishing factors from Petrol Spy, etc.
      Personally, not gonna install without some new carrot.

      • Yummy on 28/10/2025 - 11:50
        -1

        new carrot

        Meat pies and sausage rolls price checker.

      • jumpypotato53 on 28/10/2025 - 13:47

        Android Auto support is insteresting

  • MrThing on 28/10/2025 - 11:16

    nsw and qld both have apps already to cover fuel prices

  • Far Cough on 28/10/2025 - 11:19
    +1

    vic, nsw and qld have govt provided apps already

  • JimmyF on 28/10/2025 - 12:48
    +1

    New Fuel App

    Another one……

  • sumyungguy on 28/10/2025 - 13:47

    The way you could beat all the other competitors is to achieve zero latency on price changes. How does your app get a data feed on bowser prices?

    • AssociatedOnlineOffline @ Funky Forge on 28/10/2025 - 14:09
      +1

      Hi, unfortunately i'm limited by government providers a little; the servos generally have 30 minutes to submit a price (in reality, i suspect there is little enforecement in this space - lets face it, there are bigger fish to fry); I then acquire prices every 30 minutes, so at worst i could be out maybe 60 minutes on a price. I'd struggle to do more frequently without blowing the API limits on the government providers.

  • Jake D on 28/10/2025 - 18:13
    +1

    WA has fuel watch

  • megadeth on 28/10/2025 - 20:38
    +1

    How about adding EV charging prices? Don't think that there's an app for it yet. Have to just suck at wherever my EV takes me as part of its route planning.

    • pegaxs on 28/10/2025 - 22:25
      +1

      PlugShare exists, but it’s too hard to get up to date or accurate prices. I would like to see a “FuelWatch” type app that was just EV charger prices… not that they fluctuate with days of the week, but it would be nice before turning up to a 350kW charger that that my can’t utilise and that it’s going to be 80¢/kWh.

  • simplystu on 28/10/2025 - 22:51

    Atleast its not "another" shopping app …so good for you for looking at something different.

    But others have already highlighted areas where may have issues +++ other apps already on market

    +++ state based issues.

  • WookieMonster on 28/10/2025 - 23:15
    +5

    I was going to submit a bug report within the app, but that is limited to 500 characters, so I will leave a comment here instead. (Sorry.)

    • I would have the default for Price Unit Display set to cents, not dollars, as I see fuel prices displayed in cents when viewing prices on a service station's pylon, on a competing fuel app, or on terminal fuel gate price sheets. I think the only other place I have seen fuel prices in dollars is Google Maps.

    • When I search for service stations in many parts of Tasmania on the map, the app does not display the full range of service stations in a given radius. I do not have any service station brands filtered out in settings. For example, when I set the radius to 10km and search on Hobart, all I see is the EG Ampol in Glenorchy, the Ampol Foodary on Davey Street and the independent service station in Lindisfarne (which shows up on FuelCheck TAS as Ampol Lindisfarne.

    • Does your app actually support ACT service stations at the moment? Your post suggests it does not, yet I can see prices at all those service stations when searching in that region. I am assuming it is due to NSW FuelCheck also covering the ACT.

    • You need more differentiation between service stations selling Ampol-branded fuel. I see you have a separate service station brand for EG Ampol (which makes sense), but you need to create a separate service station brand for Ampol Foodary (which are owned/operated by Ampol themselves). NSW FuelCheck does this, and FuelCheck TAS goes further by splitting Ampol-branded service stations into Ampol Foodary, EG Ampol, Ampol Bennett's Petroleum, Ampol Mood Food and Ampol (as well as Bennett's Petroleum). The reason I would suggest will become clearer in another dot point…

    • Your app is not displaying any U-GO service stations, as far as I can tell. For example, I could not see the U-GOs in Moorebank, Bonnyrigg nor Canley Heights (in Sydney), Lindisfarne (Hobart) and Bracken Ridge (Brisbane).

    • Some of the OTR service stations are actually categorised as Shell service stations within your app (e.g. Shell OTR Prestons in Sydney). There is a service station brand for OTR on the app, so I think it would make more sense those OTR service stations to be recategorised as OTR (and therefore have the OTR logo on them on the map).

    • Is it possible to restrict suggested search results to ones only in Australia? For example, when I search for Perth (for the town in northern Tasmania), the first three results I see are that town, Perth in Western Australia, then Perth in Scotland. Additionally, when I search for Per (i.e. I have not completed typing Perth), the first three results are Peru, Perth in Tasmania, then Pernambuco.

    • If I rotate the map so that the top of the map no longer points north, can there be a button so that I can immediately have the top of the map return to pointing north?

    • In theory, I like the idea of having a discounts setting assigned to a specific service station brand, but this assumes that every single service station under that brand will accept the discount inputted in the app settings. Here are some examples to consider:

    If I had access to the Toyota fuel discount (a 4c/L discount that can be claimed in-store at Ampol Foodary and the Ampol at Exmouth, WA), for the current version of the app, I would need to enter 4 against the Ampol brand in the app settings. However, that would apply a 4c/L discount in your app against nearly 700 Ampol-branded service stations across Australia that actually do not accept the Toyota fuel discount. The way around this is to have Ampol Foodary service stations under an Ampol Foodary brand.1

    Around 37% of Ampol Foodary service stations across Australia accept the Woolworths fuel discount (4c/L on mainland Australia, 6c/L in Tasmania) and allow you to stack that with one Ampol fuel discount offer (e.g. Toyota, My NRMA, Lexus) when purchasing fuel in-store. That means that if I want to use a Toyota discount and Woolworths disocunt and then enter 8 or 10 as the discount for the Ampol Foodary brand (assuming you create that), there is a very good chance the next Ampol Foodary I turn up to will not accept the Woolworths fuel discount and therefore your app showed the wrong discount. Unfortunately for you, there is no easy way around this issue, as you have to refer to the store locator on the Ampol website/app to see the correct list of Ampol Foodary service stations accepting the Woolworths fuel discount.

    Around 59% of Shell service stations across Australia accept Viva Energy fuel discount offers (e.g. Budget Direct, AFL, G'DAY Rewards). Most of these are Reddy Express-branded service stations, but only 250 independently-operated Shell service stations choose to accept such offers. I think you can see where I am going with this.

    I will be honest, I am not seeing anything in your app so far that would make me want to stop using PetrolSpy, NSW FuelCheck, FuelCheck TAS, My NRMA app, etc. The discount feature is intriguing, but I am happy to stick to doing quick mental arithmetic to figure out the discounted price when looking at PetrolSpy (for example), especially since I already know which service stations in my area accepts the discounts I have access to.

    1. I would leave Ampol in Exmouth in the generic Ampol brand, as that Ampol does not use Foodary branding. Ampol themselves appears to have taken over operating that service station about two years ago from an Ampol franchisee. ↩

  • RoadZilla on 29/10/2025 - 10:35
    +2

    Vic govt has inbuild realtime servo report within the Service Victoria App. All servo operators are to lock in rate and report to app. Plus petrol spy is pretty good. Not discouraging your but do you think its worth the effort?

  • Breddo on 29/10/2025 - 14:43

    Sounds like something I’d use. The ability to have it on the car dash and pick servos near my route would be good. As others have said there’s already a lot of apps but not sure others have those features or maybe I just haven’t looked hard enough.

    Would test it out but an all Apple household sorry. Keen to see if you keep going with it

  • doctordv8 on 29/10/2025 - 15:52

    Downloading now and will give it a good run.

    It will be a relief to find a working App compared the every other fuel Price App that is a fail - unless it includes EVERY possible Fuel supplier/Servo, it is prone to be a fail.

  • singingwolf on 29/10/2025 - 22:20

    What are the smart home widgets?

  • belongsinforums on 29/10/2025 - 23:35

    pivot to (cheap) food. rely on users/businesses to keep prices updated. basically a 'google maps "cheap eats near me"' but in an instagram layout

  • abr83 on 30/10/2025 - 00:34

    To add to what Wookiemonster said above, I'd split the Ampol and Shell brands to their most commonly known Retail brands.

    For Ampol, that's:
    * EG Ampol (Former Woolworths Petrol / Woolworths Caltex).
    * Ampol Foodary (the wholly owned Ampol Retail Pty Ltd subsidiary operated by Ampol Australia themselves) and
    * Those branded as Ampol (suburb/town name) - Those Ampol sites are generally either family run franchisees and/or independent convenience retailers such as Sunrise, Foodworks, Urbanista, Mood Food, etc.

    For Shell
    * Shell Reddy Express (Former Coles Express)
    * Shell OTR
    * Shell (suburb/town name) - Those Shell sites are also generally either family run franchisees and/or independent convenience retailers such as Nightowl, Sunrise, Fast & Ezy, etc.

  • doctordv8 on 30/10/2025 - 12:02

    First test search… a bust.

    Nil of the 7 Eleven Sunshine Coast sites showed.

    And with the Linkt and Wilson's discounts, 7-11 is a must have for often the lowest price.

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