Free or fee? Air pump tiff at tollway
State, Exxon at odds over 75-cent charge listed on machines
Jon Hilkevitch | Getting Around
December 3, 2007
The Illinois tollway has Exxon Mobil Corp. over a barrel for charging drivers 75 cents to add air to their tires at oases gas stations.
The giant oil company recently installed coin-operated compressed-air machines at its 14 tollway gas stations, in violation of the contract with the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, tollway officials said.
The tollway acknowledges the machines went unnoticed for months, until the Tribune's Getting Around column contacted the toll authority about a week ago. Getting Around got a tip from a motorist, Paul Kasley of Hillside, who drives the tollway every day but who said he quit patronizing the oases since the change.
"The signage says air is free for customers," said Kasley, 54, an electronics engineer at Fermilab. "I have no need for snacks and other edible junk. In fact, I now have one less reason to even consider stopping at an oasis."
If drivers are being charged for air, what's next? Pay toilets and coin-operated hand-dryers in the restrooms of the newly redesigned oases?
Now, tollway officials are pumped up with indignation.
The toll authority's 25-year lease agreement with Exxon Mobil and Wilton Partners, signed in 2002, requires the oil company to "provide air and water (for radiators and batteries) free of charge, which shall be easily accessible to system patrons."
"Our legal department sent a letter to Exxon Mobil asking that they change their air machines so free air is once again available to our customers," said tollway spokeswoman Joelle McGinnis.
"It's something that people pay attention to and makes or breaks their decision about whether the oases are a convenient place to stop," she said.
Exxon Mobil has not responded to the tollway's letter, McGinnis said Friday.
The lawyers at the Texas-based oil company apparently think the tollway's lawyers are full of hot air. An Exxon Mobil spokeswoman told Getting Around the company is in compliance with the contract.
Exxon Mobil customers can still get free air by going inside the gas station and asking the attendant to unlock the air machine, the company said.
The smaller print on the coin-operated air machines says: "Complimentary air for customers. See cashier." The larger type to the right says "75 cents. Quarters only."
Tollway officials said they object to the appearance that drivers must pay for air and the hassle of motorists having to ask an attendant to turn on the air machine.
Across the country, many gas stations-turned-mini-marts have gotten rid of free-air hoses. Tire-inflation machines, with prices ranging from 25 cents to $1 for a few minutes of air, replaced the free air supply starting in the early 1980s.
After plunking quarters into the coin slot, a motorist faces the irritating challenge of running around his or her car filling all four tires before the time expires and more money is needed to finish the job.
But free air has been a policy of the tollway ever since premium gas was called "Ethel" and the first toll-road filling stations, then operated by Standard Oil of Indiana, opened in 1959, officials said.
They said free air is a courtesy to drivers who are already paying to use the toll highway, and it promotes safety by helping to facilitate proper air pressure in vehicles.
Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Prem Nair said that "free air has been and continues to be available for our tollway customers. We are in compliance with the agreement."
She did not answer a question about whether air is free to all tollway users, as stipulated in the lease agreement, or only to Exxon Mobil customers.
The oil company plans to meet with toll authority officials "to discuss ways to make the instructions on the [air machine] decal more clear," Nair said.
Tollway officials said that won't solve the problem.
Before, drivers needing air could simply press the "start" button on the compressor. Requiring drivers to leave their cars, walk across a busy gas station and request that an attendant inside the store turn on the air supply does not meet the lease agreement's language that air be easily accessible, McGinnis said.
"Nothing has changed in regard to Exxon Mobil's response to you," McGinnis told Getting Around. "If a customer has children in the car, are they supposed to leave them alone while looking for an attendant to turn the air switch on? That's not easily accessible."
"We told Exxon Mobil we disagree with the decision and asked them to reverse it," she said. "Customer service extends from the roadway to the oases."