Inspectors Make Sure Drivers Get Their Fair Share at the Pumps

Most of us deal with gasoline by the gallon or the tankful--or given the recent sticker shock at California pumps, large wads of cold, hard cash. But when Philip Livesey considers fuel, he does so by the ounce.

Livesey is chief of the device division of the Los Angeles County Department of Agricultural Commissioner/Weights and Measures. In that role, he supervises a staff of investigators who monitor the accuracy of nearly 52,000 gas and diesel pumps throughout the county and check consumer complaints of suspected inaccurate pumps. Their job: to make sure that a gallon of fuel is really a full gallon of fuel.

After 31 years on the job, Livesey can predict the kinds of complaints that are likely to reach his office in South Gate: A motorist always fills up the tank when it gets down to one-quarter full, and it takes 12 gallons; today, however, it took 13. Another calls to report that when she put the nozzle back onto its holder, the gas pump’s display of gallons and charges kept going--and adding to the final bill.

With California gasoline prices only recently starting to recover from a run-up that peaked at $1.62 a gallon in April, being overcharged even a little can be aggravating.

Livesey says his office logs about 600 calls a year about gas pumps or gas stations. His 25 inspectors also monitor grocery scales, taxi meters and rental car and tow truck odometers, among other devices that affect consumers.

Their counterparts in Orange County receive about 150 consumer calls a year about suspected gas dispensing problems, says Steve Hahn, one of two weights and measures program supervisors for the county agricultural commissioner/sealer of weights and measures, part of the Public Facilities and Resources Department.

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Sometimes, consumers suspect a scam. And while that is rare, county weights and measures officials are probably more aware than ever of the possibility after a lengthy investigation of Mepco Oil Inc. of Santa Fe Springs led to criminal charges.

The case dates to 1995, when consumers started complaining that they had been cheated at Mepco-owned stations in Los Angeles and Orange counties that sell Arco, Shell and other brands. In response, Los Angeles weights and measures inspectors visited the stations and conducted their standard tests, pumping five or 10 gallons of gas into specially calibrated measuring devices. Everything checked out fine, and yet the complaints continued.

After months of undercover work and additional testing, county authorities accused four men, including two Mepco employees, of illegally reprogramming the computer chips that regulated the dispensing of gas in 140 pumps at 12 stations.

Investigators discovered that the pumps would be accurate at the standard test amounts, five and 10 gallons, says Dana Aratani, a Los Angeles deputy district attorney. But when investigators pumped random amounts, he says, they found that the pumps were dispensing 7% to 25% less gas than indicated on the pump display.

Three of the four defendants, charged with conspiracy, grand theft and various misdemeanors, are scheduled to be arraigned today in Los Angeles Superior Court; the fourth was arraigned Friday. A civil suit brought by the district attorney’s office against Mepco and its president was settled in October for $640,000 in penalties and investigation costs, Aratani says.

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In the wake of the Mepco case--which, according to the district attorney’s office, cheated Southern California motorists out of an estimated $1 million--weights and measures officials say they are putting renewed emphasis on routine and undercover inspections.

In Los Angeles County, the goal is to inspect each of 2,291 stations (and their 52,000 individual pumps) once a year, Livesey says. Realistically, because of staff shortages and other factors, an inspection is done about every 14 months, he says.

In Orange County, the goal is to inspect each of 675 stations (and about 15,000 pumps) yearly, Hahn says. But, again, because of staff shortages, every other year is more realistic; stations with good track records are usually put on the two-year list for inspection.

Al Famili, an inspector with Los Angeles County, recently demonstrated how a routine inspection is done. He drove a test vehicle--a pickup truck with stainless-steel measuring devices mounted on the bed--to a gas station. He pumped five gallons of gas, as measured by the pump, into a calibrated five-gallon receptacle to determine if the pump’s accuracy was within accepted tolerance limits.

The tolerance limit is small. For five gallons of gas, it’s about 0.5%, or three ounces, whether to the customer’s benefit or that of the station owner.

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If a problem is detected, the station owner receives a notice of violation. Pumps found to be defective are red-flagged and taken out of service. Most station owners respond quickly to fix the problems, Hahn says.

Orange County residents who call the weights and measures office are mailed a complaint form that asks them to describe the problem, identify the gas station involved and include a receipt from the transaction. Within a few days, Hahn says, an inspector is dispatched or other action is taken. The consumer should learn the outcome of the investigation within two weeks.

Los Angeles County consumers are asked to describe their concerns by phone so that the information can be entered onto a computer complaint form, Livesey says. Consumers usually can expect to receive feedback within a week.

In cases in which a motorist says the pump display continues to register gas being dispensed after the nozzle is put back, the problem often involves a malfunction of the hose or the nozzle itself, Livesey says.

When a motorist says the tank couldn’t have taken as many gallons as registered by the display, Livesey says, the discrepancy is sometimes due to the inexactitude of gas gauges--that just because it registers one-quarter full doesn’t mean it will hold the same number of gallons every time.

In the end, if the consumer is owed money, weights and measures officials aren’t empowered to help collect.

“We’re an enforcement agency,” Livesey says, not a collection agency. Just the umpires, if you will.

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* Consumers can direct concerns about fuel pumps to their local weights and measures offices: in Los Angeles County, (562) 940-8916; in Orange County, (714) 447-7100.

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Good Carma is a guide to automotive-related health and consumer issues. Kathleen Doheny can be reached at kdoheny@compuserve.com.