ORLANDO, Fla. -- Some outraged motorists have scrawled warning messages and curse words on gas pumps after paying up to $4.50 for a gallon for gasoline at a station near Orlando International Airport.I can't really blame the gas station owner for taking advantage of market conditions that favor him. He's greedy, granted, but he's working within the law. In California they have to post price signs you can see before you enter the station, but if Florida doesn't have that law, the motorists are at the mercy of the stations. If you want to blame anybody for high prices near an airport blame the rental car companies and the renters who don't use their heads.
Residents and tourists said they were shocked to see the gas prices at the Landing Strip gas station located on Semoran Boulevard, just north of the airport.
"I didn't even look until I pulled up and I went, 'Holy cow,'" driver Julie Melser said.
There are no signs advertising the high prices at the station. ...
WKMG asked station manager Bob Barnes how he can get away with charging the prices when other gas stations are charging $2.60 or $2.70 a gallon.
"Well, mainly it is volume," Barnes said. "As you can see, the pumps are practically full. Everybody knows what the price is because they have to hit the little lever and they see the price above the lever. And that is how you get away with it."
The Landing Strip is the closest gas station to Hertz and Thrifty car rental returns and the last pumps before the airport.
"It seems like corporate greed," motorist Mark Ferguson said. "Wow, this is just a classic rip-off."
The high prices are not illegal since the state says businesses can charge whatever the market bears for gasoline, unless the governor has declared an emergency.
And, gas stations are not required to erect gas signs showing how much customers will pay, the report said.
Rental car contracts require you to return the cars "full" of gas or face penalties, meaning the gas gauge shows full (they don't actually check the tanks). Consequently, many renters wait to fill up until right before they get to the airport, setting this gas station owner up perfectly. However, there are ways around filling up at the last moment.
From years of rental experience I know that if you fill a car up completely full the guage will continue to read full for many miles - more than you think. Several times I've rented locally and filled up by my house before drivingg 15 miles to the airport to turn in the car. The guage still shows full when I get there.
My personal record - 50 miles. Last June I filled up the rented minivan in Rohnert Park, CA and then drove 50 miles to the Oakland Airport. When I got to the airport the guage still showed full and the lot attendant didn't say a thing.
It's all in the planning.
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