Shell Motorist App: Guardian angel of frazzled motorists

THIS APP has helped me, somehow, embrace technology (for convenience’s sake) to improve the quality of my everyday (motoring) living.

As a motorist, I log close to 300 km in a week, and as much as 600 km when I have to attend events outside  Metro Manila. A significant amount of that mileage is mostly via city driving within Metro Manila/National Capital Region and the nearby suburbs down south or sometimes to the east. But regardless of where I’ll be heading out to, there are always a number of common denominators to those trips: Edsa, Libis-C5, Ortigas, Shaw, Roxas Boulevard and Katipunan to name a few. These are some of the busiest, densely populated thoroughfares that traverse our megalopolis.

We all want to save on fuel/running costs, as well as time. But despite having the most fuel-efficient cars and the most advance driving techniques that promote fuel efficiency, we are still inefficient in face of traffic. A vehicle stuck in traffic, whether it be equipped with a miserly 600-cc triple cylinder or a 16-cylinder quad turbo 1 kilowatt engine, will always be inefficient because, well, it’s not moving. Throw in a cantankerous turbo inline six like my Supra and it will be an Armageddon just waiting to run amok.

So we turn to technology. Smartphone applications have helped us gather as much useful (and useless) information as we need, which help make life just a little bit easier for us.

Unfortunately, I’m not a very techie person. So while downloading Apps might not be a quantum leap for me, it still isn’t exactly something as natural as breathing. To make my motoring life easy, I’ve downloaded a news App, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority traffic App and a seven-day weather forecast App, plus a few free games and social media Apps to help  kill time while stuck in traffic.

Stumbling upon Shell Motorist App, I was intrigued. How different is this App from other more specialized Apps? Curious, I downloaded the App. It uses up less than 10 mb of space on an Android phone. An Apple version is also available of course.

Once I had the App downloaded, I started pressing on and opening up menus like a kid opening his/her presents on Christmas day and wishing for the gift/toy he/she really wants to have.

Directions at an ease

My favorite section has to be the Station Locator. Using GPS, it locates your current position relative to the entire area. Looking for landmarks, alternative routes in a heavily gridlocked area or simply finding your way if you’re lost will be a breeze for the Station Locator, essentially a map with all the Shell fuel stations outlined.

In the Greenhills/Ortigas area, there’s a surprisingly high concentration of Shell fuel stations. The menu marked “Nearest Shell Station” is extremely useful because it displays your current distance to the nearest Shell fuel station. As I write this, I’m about 996 meters from the nearest Shell fuel station, the new one with the pizza parlor on Edsa.

But the most useful menu in this App, which has long-term benefits, is the Motoring Reminders section. You can save all your different cars in the internal memory, and reminders for your next servicing/PMS  and renewing your car’s Land Transportation Office registration and insurance. While  doing this article, I’m also saving my Toyota Supra and Yaris in the vehicle database so I’ll know whenever they need to be serviced and registered.

Flexible to user’s needs

There’s also a make-your-own-alert section for a specific car-related notice/alert/update. In my case, I set the estimated day for when my Supra’s break-in period is done and we can have it serviced, but more importantly, dyno-tune it for my projected 500 wheel horsepower. It may seem pretty much useless for most people, but the flexibility that the make-your-own-alert section offers is very useful for the end user’s specific needs.

I plan to “save” on the App the cars of the rest of my siblings and parents. As the resident petrol-head of a large family with lots of cars, I’m expected somehow by everyone to know when their cars need to have their registration and insurance renewed, as well as to have periodic maintenance. Which is a daunting task, since I don’t spend that much time with my family and their cars anymore.

Perhaps the most important benefit is that this App can be used in a variety of countries all over the world, which makes the map function  even more useful. A quick glance shows that you can use the same App in the United States, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, Oman and South Africa, with more countries to be added soon—and all in English. I regularly go to motoring events abroad, particularly in Europe where sometimes we are left to our own devices with a tough 400-km drive on a single day. More than once I’ve flubbed the settings on the GPS/Satnav or the PR department inaverdently left the language  in anything  other than English. Getting lost in Manila is already quite tense. Getting lost abroad is downright scary!

There’s  also a news and updates section,    churning press releases on Shell’s activities  and its involvement in motor sports, primarily F1, plus information on Shell’s numerous fuels and lubricants lineup and a link for media and investor relations. The product information section is handy when you’re comparing fuels and/or lubricants between brands, helping you determine which of them best suits your vehicle’s needs.

So far, I’m enjoying tinkering with the Shell Motorist App. I hope that in the future, Shell can integrate live traffic updates to make the App even more useful and allow me to get rid of other Apps which have functions that are already covered by it. I rated Shell Motring App on the Google Play Store with four stars because despite it being really useful, there’s still room for improvement. But I have high hopes for this App. It has helped me, somehow, embrace technology (for convenience’s sake) to improve the quality of my  everyday (motoring) living.

Please e-mail the author at botchilah@yahoo.com