Editorial: Gas on the go

The “new” economy continues to give government regulators fits, leaving them struggling to catch up to innovative, consumer-friendly trends. Obvious examples include Uber or Airbnb, which have upended entrenched interests in transportation and lodging, respectively.

Is the gas station business next?

USA Today reported Wednesday that a new smartphone app Filld debuted last week in San Francisco. It allows people to fill up their tanks wherever and whenever they like. No more searching for a gas station as the fuel gauge drifts closer to “E.”

Customers “set the exact locations of their car, choose a delivery window and release their gas flap,” the paper reports. “A driver arrives in a small truck, pops open the gas tank and fills it with regular or premium unleaded.”

And Filld is not the only “gas app.” A half dozen other similar firms are operating in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and other major cities, USA Today noted.

At this point, gas station owners have yet to mount an organized effort to protect the $300 billion U.S. gasoline market from delivery services. But if history is any indication, opposition is inevitable.

Indeed, a spokesman for the San Francisco Fire Department raised concerns with USA Today about the safety of moving thousands of gallons of gasoline around town in pickups. A Filld spokesman responds that the company complies with all relevant regulations and hires drivers with hazmat training.

In the end, consumers will decide whether the gas delivery business prospers or evaporates. But policymakers can also do their part by welcoming and encouraging economic ingenuity rather than stifling creative enterprises under a blizzard of protective edicts designed primarily to shield established interests from competition.