According to VSOT Portugal as at 1630 hrs 8th August, there is no fuel available at the Galp de Alfragide gas station in Lisbon (North-South direction), as is the Cova do Gato gas station in Alentejo. There are also 20 other stations in mainland that no longer have one of the fuels: gasoline, diesel and or LPG, according to the map created by VOST Portugal.
Of the 20 stations already without one of the fuels, there are eight without gasoline, ten without diesel and two without LPG. One of the stations without gasoline is the A2 station in Aljustrel (south-north direction).
The REPA (Strategic Network of Gas Stations are identified on the map) posts are intended to supply emergency vehicles and will only be active if the strike progresses and as soon as the Government decrees the state of energy emergency. Until then, they are normal filling stations.
According to Jorge Gomes, one of the founders of VOST Portugal – Digital Volunteers in Emergency Situations , the platform already existed at the time of the first strike in April – the fuel supply pump validation system was improved.
“We only report a [no fuel] post after at least ten individual submissions [informing that a particular pump has no fuel] and we also receive calls or private messages from our volunteers who are on site and are able to report no there is fuel”.
The new platform of VOST Portugal is more accessible to the user, has access to maps available for free by the company Mapbox, with the indication of existing stations throughout the continental territory. The map will display not only gasoline and diesel but also LPG data, and this time it will be easier to consult the map via smartphone – in April over 80% of accesses were made via mobile VOST reports.
The platform now has an automatic validation system – there were cases, in the first strike, when wrong information was sent about pumps that would already be out of fuel, which was not true, but a strategy of those who wanted to avoid floods at the pump where used to supply, according to Jorge Gomes, one of the founders of VOST Portugal.
The platform also has an application – the API – available to large distributors and official entities that can place information on the platform and will have priority.
Waze Portugal – which also has volunteer work – has joined VOST and will update the information on its platform via the API.