As a mystery shopper, you no doubt put many miles on your car over the course of a day or a week. These miles traveled for business purposes may be tax deductible, but the rising cost of gas may nonetheless be eating into your profits as a mystery shopper. Gas station mystery shopping assignments may be strategically put to use to make filling up your tank more affordable.
Free Gas
What mystery shopper would pass up on the opportunity to fill up his or her gas tank for free? In many parts of the country, a gallon of gas currently is over $4 per gallon. Even with a fuel efficient car like a compact or hybrid car, filling up your gas tank is getting increasingly expensive. Many gas station mystery shopping assignments provide you with an expense reimbursement on a gas purchase. Not every gas station assignment is this way, however, so you do want to read the fine print. Nobody wants to take on a mystery shopping assignment and then realize after the fact that store merchandise has to be purchased instead of gas.
A Weekly Affair
Whether you are a full-time mystery shopper or you only pick up a couple of assignments per week, you no doubt fill up your gas tank on a regular basis. Gas station assignments can be used to their maximum benefit when you complete them on a regular basis. It’s great to get $10 in free gas, but it’s even better to get $10 in free gas at four different gas stations over the course of a week. It’s best when you can repeat this on a regular basis by regularly picking up gas station assignments on a weekly basis. After all, if you have to buy it and your provider wants to compensate you for the purchase, why not take advantage of such a great offer?
En Route
In addition to getting free gas, one of the great things about a gas station mystery shopping assignment is that you can deduct your mileage to the gas station and back. These assignments can really make your time on the road more affordable. However, they are most effectively used when the location of the assignments are strategically chosen. After all, it is one thing to drive ten miles in one direction only to do a gas station assignment. It is far more beneficial to pick up that assignment while en route to another location.
Driving is getting more costly every day, but as a mystery shopper, you simply have to be on the road driving around in order to make money. Every mystery shopper who drives to mystery shopping assignments should take advantage of the free gas offered by some gas station assignments. More than that, however, mystery shoppers who really want to cut down on their mystery shopping overhead and take advantage of the benefits gas station assignments provide will plan to pick up gas station assignments on a regular basis. These assignments essentially can top your tank off for free!
The article is good advice, as far as it goes. Just make sure folks take shop details into consideration: Processing, naming, organizing photos and data input can be very time-consuming for many of these shops. Dealing with a one-page form and taking 4 photos to upload is a lot different than shuffling 3 pages of forms and taking 7 photos plus at least one photo for every NO response plus talking the attendant into signing your forms before you can leave.
It’s also often very helpful to develop your own checklist for what you need to accomplish on the shop. Using a form that makes sense to you will ensure that you don’t overlook anything and (oh surely not!) have to return to the site for report clarification.
I agree, I have also done gas stations thinking the same thing,but there are some to look for that pay bonuses,especially at the last week of the month. I picked up a shop that took 10 minutes and had a $48.00 bonus plus $10.00 to do shop. If you can get 3 of those in a route like I try to do once a month. Look how much you already have, for me that’s 2 tanks of gas and it covers all my shopping runs for the month. There you go!! But you have to look to see if they are available in your area you happen to be going.I have Schedulers frequently request for me to go 60 to 70 miles away to do a series of Apartment shops, so I plan these as well and it covers my gas costs for the whole trip. Of course, I have been doing this for 3 years full time now, live and learn so they say and plan in advance you will always get a 9 or 10 on your rating, therefore get more jobs. Believe me, I stay busy with reports and all.
Where the companies that do gas station shops?