After a two-year attempt at negotiating with the Pilot/Flying J truck stop conglomerate, Open Roads has given up. Open Roads is a fuel discount program catering to RVers and long-haul truck drivers. Members of the program typically see discounts of 30 to 40 cents off per gallon when they buy diesel fuel at designated truck stops. We’ll tell you how you can get in on the program at the end of this story.
Good Sam takes umbrage
Until early in 2022, Open Roads members could fill up their tanks at Pilot and Flying J stops and see a discount on their bill. As we wrote earlier, the discounts that Open Roads (then called the TSD RV Fuel Program) offered ran amok of the Good Sam Club. Apparently the Pilot/Flying J group had an agreement to provide discounts to Good Sam Club members—exclusively. When Good Sam heard that Open Roads members could get discounts, it wasn’t “Good News” to them.
Since the door slammed on the discounts, Open Roads members could still use their discount cards at Pilot/Flying J fuel pumps. No discount—the price paid was that shown on the pump, but some members found it a convenience. Not anymore. Open Roads has made the decision to disallow the use of their cards at Pilot/Flying J stations. Responses posted on the Open Roads social media page indicated some members were slighted by this, and most reasoned, “farewell and good riddance.” Many pointed out what should be obvious: If you need fuel at Pilot, just use your credit card.
Discount gas purchases coming soon
There’s more news from Open Roads land. While the current discount card is only good for diesel, the company says their card should soon be good for gasoline purchases as well. The current crop of participating DIESEL retailers includes Loves, TA/Petro, SAPP Brothers, Road Ranger, Kwik Star/Kwik Trip, Casey’s General Store, RaceTrac Travel Center, Thorntons, YesWay/Allsups, Stripes, Roadys, Speedway, Ambest, 24/7, and PWI.
Is the program worth it? On a recent road tour, our Open Roads card garnered us $35.17 savings on 84 gallons of fuel. That worked out to about 42 cents a gallon savings. The most we saved on the trip was a whopping 71 cents a gallon at a TA fuel stop. Wish we would’ve needed more fuel at that stop!
Learn more about the program and how you can get discounts by reading our story, This diesel fuel savings program is for real.
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After purchasing a new Ford F350 in June, I’ve used Open Roads for nearly all fuel purchases. I love the program. I’ve also seen a large discount disparity by some suppliers. As I type this, my “go to” local fuel stop, Speedway, has a discount of $.71 and the Love’s across the street is $.28. True, the transaction fee at Love’s is the lowest at $.40 vs $.65, but that is made up quickly. I fueled once this fall at Speedway at a discount of over $1.30! I’m looking forward to seeing how the gas works as well. I have noticed also over the past few months that Pilot/Flying J Good Sam’s discount has moved from $.05 to $.10.
An article in the Open Roads monthly newsletter from a couple of months ago stated that they were abandoning the pursuit of a gasoline discount programming for now. Do you know if Open Roads has changed its plans again, or is the information in this article outdated on that point?
Good question. I spoke with a representative of Open Roads at the Tampa RV Show in January 2022 and was told second quarter 2022 for gas. I will ask, if they are at the 2023 show, what the plans are.
Michael:
As of the end of December, Open Roads staff indicated they were working at the gas discount, and expected it to be “soon.”