A 24-hour Deliveroo-style app that fills your car up with fuel while you sleep is coming to a street near you.
Drivers can order fuel via the Zebra Fuel app any time of day or night and have someone top up their tank within minutes.
Backed by the founders of Zoopla, Lastminute.com and Amazon Video’s predecessor LoveFilm, the brains behind the new idea aim to replace every petrol station in the country – despite not selling cigarettes, newspapers or snacks.
Similar to Deliveroo and UberEats, there is a delivery charge, which ranges from £2.99 off peak to £3.99 during busy periods.
The app only works in London and currently can only cater to diesel drivers – although engineers claim a petrol service will be ready soon.
A new Deliveroo-style app called Zebra Fuel can top up your tank with diesel anywhere within London’s Zone 4 any time of day or night – even while you sleep
Backed by the founders of Zoopla, Lastminute.com and Amazon Video’s predecessor LoveFilm, the brains behind the new idea (delivery van and driver pictured) aim to replace every petrol station in the country – despite not selling cigarettes, newspapers or snacks
Co-founder and CEO Reda Bennis said: ‘We’re like a Formula 1 pit stop for your car, van, truck or coach.
‘We can also do fuel deliveries through the night, so customers can wake up to a full car outside their house or a depot of fully-fuelled vehicles and not have to waste their own precious time.
The app (pictured) only works in London and currently can only cater to diesel drivers – although engineers claim a petrol service will soon be ready
‘Ultimately, our goal is to replace the petrol station and in doing so make filling up your car faster, cheaper, less harmful to the environment, and hassle-free.’
Mr Bennis and fellow founder Romain Saint Guilhem confirmed the company raised $2.5m (£1.8m) ahead of the service launch on Monday.
The start-up has been backed by big tech-hitters including Saul Klein, founder of Lovefilm, who has backed the company with his venture capital fund LocalGlobe.
Zoopla founder Alex Chesterman, Lastminute.com founder Brent Hoberman have also funnelled cash into the business.
Since the fuel start-up began many customers have praised the service online, as ‘handy and efficient’.
One said: ‘This is great, filled up my car while I was at work. Bye Bye petrol station.’
Another added: ‘Brilliant service, so handy and efficient, definitely will be using them again.’
But one unhappy user said: ‘Waste of time left over an hour to tell me that I am outside their delivery zone.
Similar to Deliveroo and UberEats, there is a delivery charge, which ranges from £2.99 off peak to £3.99 during busy periods. A search showed Zebra Fuel charged £1.21 a litre for diesel
‘System is flawed if it allows a postcode that is outside to place an order.
‘Don’t waste your time trying and just use a petrol station.’
Mr Reda, who came up with the idea after running out of fuel in central London in 2016, said: ‘We are also developing an exciting project with one of the major vehicle manufacturers to bring our service to all their car owners.
‘We aren’t able to reveal details yet, but it’s going to be very exciting: Think Blade Runner meets Formula 1.’
LocalGlobe partner Suzanne Ashman Blair added: ‘Not only are Reda, Romain and the team addressing the urgent and growing blight of congested and polluted cities, by delivering fuel directly to drivers, but at scale they can help transform the way cities work.
Fuel on demand: Drivers of diesel cars in London can now order fuel directly to their vehicles using a smartphone service that offers prices competitive with those offered at forecourts
Zebra Fuel co-founders Reda Bennis (left) and Romain Saint Guilhem (right) stood with one of their on-demand fuel fans
‘They can help London become the first global city to eliminate petrol stations altogether and create a virtuous circle whereby the more people they serve, the more unnecessary journeys to petrol stations they can eliminate and the more they can reduce CO2 emissions.
‘This is especially true with corporate customers, when an entire commercial fleet can be filled up in their depot, at night, with a single visit from one of Zebra’s refuelling vans.’
While the concept of having fuel delivered to your door – or your car’s fuel filler cap in this instance – might seem alien to Britons, it’s a business that has been going great guns in the US recently.
Firms including WeFuel, Filld and FuelMe have captured the market in America, with the trend for app-ordered diesel now becoming an option for motorists living in London.
Co-founder and CEO Reda Bennis said: ‘We’re like a Formula 1 pit stop for your car, van, truck or coach.’
Back in the UK, Zebra Fuel sources diesel from the same suppliers as traditional petrol stations but says it can keep prices down by cutting the cost of ‘sky-high rent’ retailers have to pay for premises in the capital.
The on-demand provider also suggested that vehicle owners will cut their fuel bills by not having to drive to petrol station forecourts and queue with the engine running – though many will argue that they only fill their vehicles at retailers on their existing routes and rarely have to wait to access a pump.
When This is Money checked the cost of fuel on the app – which is available to download in the Apple App Store or Google Play – on Monday, the price per litre of diesel was £1.21.
The provider also adds a delivery fee – similar to Uber Eats and Deliveroo when it brings your food to your front door – that fluctuates depending on the time of the day.
Off peak charges are £2.99 while deliveries during peak hours include an additional bill of £3.99 – more often than not that will offset the fuel savings you’ll make by not driving to the pumps yourself.
The start-up (pictured) has been backed by big tech-hitters including Saul Klein, founder of Lovefilm, who has backed the company with his venture capital fund LocalGlobe
Zoopla founder Alex Chesterman, Lastminute.com founder Brent Hoberman have also funnelled cash into the business (pictured)
That said, a quick check at PetrolPrices.com showed that the cost of fuel at petrol stations in Central London at the same time was around £1.20 per litre, making the fuel fees relatively competitive.
The company’s next product will be ZebraBio – Zebra-exclusive eco-friendly clean diesel, which it says ‘will help improve air quality’.
Bosses also confirmed that it will offer hydrogen when that technology becomes more widespread.
The latest injection of funds is proposed to cover the cost of increasing the fleet of delivery drivers and vehicles and expand the coverage of the service.
It also plans to launch in Paris later this year and operate in four major European capitals by 2020.
‘Additional products will be offered through the app making Zebra the Amazon for your car,’ Mr Bennis added.
Earlier this month, BP launched a BPme app to allow motorists to pay for the fuel they pump into their cars on their smartphones.
Similar to the Shell Fill Up & Go app launched with PayPal in 2015, the system notifies forecourt staff when you intend to pay using your phone and takes the payment from the card registered to the account meaning you don’t have to enter the premises and pay at the counter.
Car owners can order a fuel delivery in the same was as booking an Uber using their smartphone