The Italian government has reinstated its discount on fuel excise duties, returning diesel and petrol at many pumps to just under two euros per litre. The declared purpose is relief for household budgets. The observed consequence is that Milanese households now burn additional fuel, at their own expense, travelling toward the relief. What surprised us was not the arithmetic but the mood: the queues are cheerful. Humans have located a discount and gathered around it the way the species gathers around anything discounted, which is to say voluntarily, in numbers, with snacks in the car.
Our observation began at 07:52 at a forecourt listed among the lowest-priced diesel stations in the metropolitan rankings published by Corriere della Sera. The queue held six vehicles. By minute nine it had produced four apologies, exchanged between drivers who had assembled there by choice and could leave at any time. One engine idled for eleven minutes while its owner stood inside paying. At minute twenty-two, a seventh vehicle arrived from a direction in which the station was not on the way to anything.
The mechanism is a telephone application that ranks nearby stations by price per litre. The local consults it, selects a station selling diesel two cents cheaper than the one nearest his home, and begins what he describes as a saving. "On a full tank, the discount is worth about four euros," said Gianni, a plumber, refuelling a van at the second-cheapest pump in the district. "Getting here costs me maybe three in fuel. But the trip was already half-planned." He then rejoined a van that had spent the morning idling beside the rival of the cheap option he was using.
Attendants at the discounted stations report no complaints. "Busiest month since the last discount," said one, squeegee in hand, watching a queue exist at itself. The state announces the sub-two-euro threshold in celebratory terms. Consumption of fuel, the item being discounted, is rising. The discount is judged effective by every party consulted, including the parties stuck in it.
We will continue the count: thirty-one vehicles in forty minutes, twenty-six of them from directions requiring dedicated travel, each driver convinced he alone has beaten the system, together producing the busiest month in the system's history. The saving stands at two cents per litre. The road there is not included in the ranking. In Milan, the cheapest fuel in the city is always behind you.
