The Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) has issued a stark warning to citizens and companies against utilising unlicensed mobile fuel deliveries, branding the increasingly popular practice as both unlawful and dangerously unsafe.
The alert was prompted by a noticeable surge in individuals and enterprises promoting so-called ‘doorstep’ diesel and petrol deliveries through social media platforms and press advertisements. The energy watchdog has moved swiftly to clarify that no such licensing framework exists for this kind of operation.
In an official communiqué, ZERA stated,
“Stakeholders and the public are advised that ZERA does not have a license category for mobile fuel dispensing, nor does it license trucks to do retail filling of fuel to consumers at their homes or doorsteps, nor at any other undesignated places.”
ZERA Warns Against Illegal Door-To-Door Fuel Deliveries
The Authority was unequivocal in its instructions, outlining that the legal and safe method for dispensing fuel is strictly into vehicle tanks at officially licensed service stations. The alternative is delivery into large, professionally designed and approved storage tanks located at the premises of major commercial consumers.
ZERA explicitly condemned the informal ‘hand-to-mouth’ (hand-to-mouth) model, where small, often dangerous, quantities of fuel are decanted directly into vehicles or machinery at unauthorised locations.
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“For safety reasons, fuel is only dispensed into vehicle fuel tanks from licensed fuel retail stations or into suitably designed, constructed and licensed storage tanks at large consumers’ premises,” the statement read,
They noted that local fire brigades are tasked with approving any site intended for fuel handling. These door-to-door deliveries do not have approval from the fire brigade, and so this puts clients of the illegal businesses at risk of fires.
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