OTTAWA — File this in the “things that bug you but you probably can’t do anything about” category.

Retail fuel pumps make mistakes and in most cases, when they do, you lose.

Measurement Canada — the federal department in charge of making sure (among other things) that butcher scales and the like are calibrated correctly — tracks fuel-dispensing devices; a.k.a. diesel pumps.

And guess what? The agency says that there’s an allowable error factor for the devices. No surprises here, but when the wrong total is dispensed, the consumer ends up short 73 percent of the time, as opposed to the retailer.

For regular customers at regular gas stations, the allowable factor is 0.5 percent fluctuation, according to a report cited by the Ottawa Citizen.

We at todaystrucking.com are happy to report that for truckers the tolerance is even smaller than that. It’s just 0.25 percent.

Still, that means if you happen to fill up at a pump that’s running at the worst end of the tolerable fluctuation, you could wind up coughing up an extra $6.50 to fill an average class 8 truck tank.

Audits find that 10% of fuel pumps spit out the wrong
price. And 73% of the time it’s not in the consumer’s favor.

Furthermore, Measurement Canada says about 10 percent of truck refuellers inspected last year revealed measurement errors. And heavy-duty equipment skewed sharply against the buyers.

David Bradley CEO of the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) and president of the Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) told the Citizen that he hasn’t really considered the accuracy of the pumps.

“It is probably not the sort of thing that people give a lot of thought to,” he said. “They assume it is being addressed and there is the appropriate amount of regulatory oversight.

“With any business you would expect them to be practising due diligence and ensuring their customers are getting full value for their dollar,” says Bradley.