A good station report costs you a few seconds and can save the next driver a long, anxious detour. Here is what you can report on Refuelia, how the map turns your note into something other drivers can trust, and why honesty and timing matter more than volume. Browsing the map is always free; you only sign in (once, with Google) when you want to contribute.
How Refuelia knows what it knows
Refuelia is built on two layers. The base map, where stations and chargers physically are, plus their names, brands and road access, comes from OpenStreetMap, the open, community-maintained map of the world. That tells you a location exists and roughly what it is.
What OpenStreetMap cannot tell you is whether that station has diesel right now, whether the forecourt is empty, or whether the fast charger by the entrance is throwing an error. That live picture comes from the second layer: reports left by drivers who are actually there, and, where available, official data feeds. Until a fresh report or feed arrives, a station's live status is simply shown as Unknown. Refuelia would rather tell you honestly that nobody has checked in a while than pretend to know something it does not.
What you can report
When you are standing at a station or charger, you can share exactly what you see. The most useful things to report are:
- Fuel availability, which grades are in stock or run dry, per fuel type (petrol, diesel, LPG and so on).
- Price: what you actually paid, tied to the specific grade you bought.
- Queue length: none, short or long, so others can judge whether to stop or push on.
- Opening hours: a confirmation that the posted times are right, or a flag that they have changed or the site is closed.
- EV charger status: whether a unit worked, the real charging speed you got, or that a connector is out of service.
- Corrections: anything that no longer matches reality, from a renamed brand to a decommissioned pump.
You do not have to fill in everything. One accurate field ("diesel in stock, no queue") is genuinely useful on its own.
Why the timestamp is the whole point
Every report you leave is stamped with the moment you made it. That timestamp is not decoration; it is the single most important thing about your report. A note that diesel is flowing means something very different at 8am today than it did three days ago.
On the map, freshness is visible. Recent, confirmed reports appear bright and confident, while older ones visibly fade as time passes, signalling that the information is ageing and may no longer hold. If enough time goes by without anyone checking in, the status quietly returns to Unknown. This is deliberate: a stale "in stock" that misleads a driver into a detour is worse than an honest blank.
Why confirmations matter as much as new reports
You do not need to spot something new to be helpful. If you arrive and the existing report already matches what you see, tapping to confirm it is one of the most valuable things you can do. A single claim from one driver is a hint; a claim that a second and third driver have confirmed is close to a fact.
Each confirmation refreshes the timestamp and adds weight, so a well-confirmed report stays bright longer and earns more trust. Over time this builds a track record for a station and for the community around it, helping the map show the next driver how much to rely on what they are looking at.
Confirming counts. Tapping "still accurate" on a report that matches what you see keeps the map honest and current: no new observation required.
How to write a report the next driver can use
A good report is specific, timely and honest. A few habits make yours far more useful:
- Report what you saw, not what you assume. "Four cars queuing at the diesel pumps" is worth more than "looked busy."
- Do it while you are there. A report filed at the forecourt is fresh and accurate; one written from memory that evening is neither.
- Flag problems plainly. A dead card reader, a bagged-off pump or a charger stuck on an error screen is exactly what others need to know before they commit.
- Be honest about uncertainty. If you only checked one fuel type or one charger, report just that. Do not guess at the rest.
Accuracy is a courtesy to strangers. Every report you leave is something another driver will act on, so it is worth getting right rather than getting fast.
A real-world example
Imagine you pull into a motorway station on a busy holiday weekend. The forecourt looks calm, diesel is flowing, and you pay and leave in a couple of minutes. On your way back to the car you open Refuelia and confirm "diesel in stock, no queue." That single tap is now timestamped and live.
Half an hour later, another driver a few junctions back is watching their range drop and weighing whether to risk the next exit or turn off now. They see your fresh, confirmed report glowing on the map and decide to keep going to your station instead of gambling. If, later that afternoon, the diesel does run low, the driver who discovers it can report that too, and the map flips to reflect the new reality within seconds. No static directory can do that; only drivers on the ground can.
Free to browse, sign in to contribute
Looking at the map, checking a station's current status, opening hours or last-known price, and planning your stop are all completely free and need no account. You only sign in (a one-time step with Google) when you want to give something back: filing a report, confirming someone else's, correcting a detail or leaving a comment. That light sign-in keeps reports accountable and cuts down on spam, without walling off drivers who just need information.
The map is only ever as good as its freshest reports, and those reports come from people exactly like you. Open the live map, find where you are, and add what you know.
Ready to use it? Open the live map to find real stations and chargers near you, check their current status, and add what you see for the next driver.