Recently the Hess gas stations in my area were bought out by a company called Speedway. I’d never heard of Speedway before, but they kept their prices comparable to the Hess before them (Hess having been one of the cheapest stations in my immediate area), and other than the signage changes there didn’t seem to be any other significant changes.
We bought alot of our kerosene at Hess, and then Speedway. Although our primary heating source is wood we do have a kerosene burning furnace in the house, and it kicks on during overnights and when Husband and I aren’t home for extended periods (such as during the work week). We can get kerosene delivered from the fuel company, but they charge quite a bit more per gallon, a “rural delivery fee”, than if we bought it by the gallon at the pump. So instead Husband and I will occasionally toss the kerosene cans into the back of one of the cars and on our way home from work stop off at Hess/Speedway to fill them to add to the tank.
We’d been a bit lax about keeping up the practice this fall, the warm weather had us being lazy since the furnace was barely running. But the cold snap kicked us into gear.
And then we discovered that Speedway is now recording all kerosene sales. They have a “signature sheet”, which records name/address/gallons purchased/signature, where your signature says you agree that the kerosene purchased will be used for residential heating and not for vehicles (which is supposed to be taxed).
Now we’re using it for residential heating, no problem there. And they’re not checking ID or anything, infact they’re handing the sheet to you to fill out and then stuff it back under the counter without even looking at it. But I find myself not liking it. I’m not a HUGE privacy conspiracist, but at the same time I feel like I’m already getting tracked for everything everywhere and now they’re tracking my heating fuel purchases too??
I hit the internet, and a quick search didn’t turn up anything about legal requirements for this record keeping. Does anyone know of any such that I couldn’t find?
If it’s not a legal requirement I find myself in a bit of a bind. First off, if we were buying it from the fuel delivery folks they’d certainly be recording it. Second, Speedway is the only station that we pass by on any kind of a regular basis that sells kerosene. There are others in the area who sell it, but none of them are convenient. And the last time I did go to buy kerosene from one of the others I found their price to be almost as high as the fuel companies prices. I suppose I could just fill in bogus info on the sheet, since the clerk isn’t checking it when I fill it out. But that seems like a bigger risk, since if someone DOES go back to actually check the info for some reason the bogus info would likely stand out.
Choices choices……
