An Enhanced BRAZ (E-BRAZ) Android App for Monitoring PMS in Gas Stations

Abstract

The usefulness of mobile devices has increased greatly in recent years allowing users to perform more tasks in a mobile context. This increase in usefulness has come at the expense of the usability of these devices in many areas of application. However, there are little or no user apps targeted towards improving users’ experience in accessing information about Premium Motor Spirit (PMS). Generally, consumers of petroleum products have been experiencing a huge challenge in accessing information about the availability of the product, most especially, during intense scarcity. Access to this information has proved to be vital due to instability in the availability of petroleum products and volatility of its prices which is being experienced throughout Nigeria. These problems have caused consumers a hard time in managing and organizing their resources (time, motor able space and money). To solve this problem, we proposed in our previous work BRAZ, named after the authors, an application which can assist petroleum users to get real-time information about the happenings at gas stations. Our previous work was limited to Minna province of Niger State, Nigeria. Thus, in this paper, an improved version is presented herewith. Extension to the previous work include an increase in coverage area to include the 36 states in Nigeria, integration of USSD option for users without internet access, integration of Google map to guide visitors, who are not familiar with the environment, to the closest gas station. An advance BRAZ app is also proposed to provide real-time information, which is independent of petrol station admin, to users.