Decentralized refueling of compressed natural gas (CNG) fleet vehicles in Southern California

While some compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle fleets have a station at their base for central refueling, others lack refueling capability at their fleet depot and must rely on publicly available stations. To understand this kind of decentralized refueling behavior, we surveyed 133 drivers of CNG fleet vehicles at six public stations across the Los Angeles region. Nearly one-third of CNG fleet drivers were solely reliant upon public refueling for their operations. For each driver's refueling trip, we used GIS to compare the chosen station's proximity to the driver's fleet base and their deviation from the shortest path between their previous and next stops relative to all other stations they could have chosen. This revealed-preference approach shows that fleet drivers chose the station with the smallest deviation over the station closest to base by a 6:1 ratio, though this ratio varied by the driver's availability of central refueling and type of vehicle and route. Given that public stations remain essential to meeting decentralized refueling demand for other fleets as well as consumers, these findings have important implications for fleets that are both considering the adoption of CNG vehicles and the additional investment of hosting central refueling infrastructure at their base.