We the Italians June 27, 2014 - 36 | Page 22

Italian Good News: Save money on fuel, the app from the Italian Ministry for Economic Development

Given the economic crisis our country is in, more and more Italians try to find ways to save money. Carsare one of the assets which has suffered more the current situation: in order to save money, many people sell their cars and opt for public transport.

To stop the ongoing crisis in this sector, national institutions are finding more and more solutions that can meet the citizens’ needs. This time it was the Observatory for Prices and Rates of the Ministry for Economic Development to launch a new initiative: the “Osserva Prezzi carburanti”, an app developed in collaboration with Unioncamere and Infocamere already downloadable on the Google Play store, and in a few days on iTunes too.

for Economic Development to launch a new initiative: the “Osserva Prezzi carburanti”, an app developed in collaboration with Unioncamere and Infocamere already downloadable on the Google Play store, and in a few days on iTunes too.

This new app, the first ever created by the Ministry for Economic Development, allows its users to view the analyzed data collected by the Centre, and as a result to find out which are the cheaper distributors of fuel,in addition to setting the fastest route to reach them.

The application was created in order to view a map and a search field where you can indicate what type of fuel you are looking for: from fuel to diesel to LPG.

Once entered the data, the display will show the distributors that meet the specified requirements within a radius of five kilometers. Highlighted with a green gas pump will be those with the lowest prices, and marked with a red petrol pump those with a higher price. The application also allows you to generate a list of gas stations sorted by price and you can also calculate your route to get to the one selected.

It was possible to collect these data because, thanks to a 2009 law, every petrol station has to communicate to the Ministry the single prices of the various fuels sold by their distributors: the first compelled to communicate the various data were the ones on the Italian highway network. Since the beginning of 2013, a gradual phase of extension of the system has started, before to the distributors on the local roads and then, in the same year, the ones over the rest of the road network, including the urban area.

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