What if stations round up from 9/10?

How much will it cost to cancel the 9/10 on gas prices?

The following article is a little long, but interesting - so I'll give a quick summary:

• The initial hard dollar cost to get rid on the 9/10 on signs and pumps = $100 to $200 million

  
  

• Since the 9/10 generates about $1.2 Billion each year that represents a one-time cost of only about 60 days revenue, or between 8% and 15% of the one year total.

  
  

• If they round up the companies will gain about $140 million every year - that should be and easy decision.

  
  

• If the oil companies round up to a whole cent it would cost a typical driver very little each for the entire year:

  • Hybrid = $0.27

  • Average gas car = $0.48

  • Large truck = $ 0.75

    
    

• How quickly can it be done? An AI estimate is that it woud take between 12 and 18 months to make the change to all the signs and pumps. But don't despair -Cancel910gas campaign is in for the long haul - with your help. Subscribe now and share this.

  
  

The bottom line is simple: 

No, transitioning away from fractional pricing won’t happen overnight, and no, eliminating it won't suddenly save your family hundreds of dollars at the pump. But this isn't about pocket change—it’s about principle. Forcing gas stations to drop the 9/10 fraction forces an entire industry to finally adopt a truth-in-pricing model. It is time to retire one of the most outdated, ridiculous marketing gimmicks in retail history.

===============================================================

Complete article

If big oil decided to remove the 9/10 price from their signs and pumps, going to even amount pricing, how long would it take and what would it cost?

Also how much would the cost compare to the amount of money the companies get based on their 9/10 additional price?

Eliminating the fractional 9/10 cent pricing structure from retail gasoline sales in favor of standard whole-penny pricing involves two major factors: the mechanical and digital logistics of a nationwide transition, and the monumental shift in annual revenue.

1. Timeline & Costs for Implementation

If major energy corporations and independent retail networks collectively decided to transition to whole-penny pricing, the process would take 12 to 18 months to fully implement across the United States.

The logistical rollout involves three distinct operational layers, totaling an estimated $150 million to $200 million nationwide:

Software & Point-of-Sale (POS) Upgrades (~$20M – $30M)

Modern fuel dispensers and back-office accounting platforms are inherently built around three-decimal precision. Updating central enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, station-level POS systems, and pump firmware requires coordinated software patches. Because these systems handle high-volume financial transactions and inventory tracking, updates must undergo rigorous compliance testing to ensure accurate data flow across state lines.

Physical Pump Adjustments (~$30M – $50M)

While the computing units inside newer smart pumps can be updated digitally to display a zero or truncate the third decimal, older rolling mechanical wheels or fixed-segment digital displays require manual technician intervention. Dispatched contractors must recalibrate, recode, or replace components on roughly 1 to 1.2 million individual fueling positions across the country.

Exterior Signage and Pylon Retrofitting (~$100M – $120M)

This represents the largest physical expense. There are roughly 145,000 fueling stations in the US.

• Digital LED Signs: Many modern electronic pricing pylons feature a permanently hard-wired, smaller "9/10" section next to the main digits. Retrofitting these signs to display blank spaces, a standard ".00" format, or full-sized digits requires replacement LED panels. Retrofit kits typically run $2,000 to $3,500 per sign structure.

• Manual Rolling/Flip Signs: Older or rural locations utilizing physical flip numbers or manual plastic track letters would require new printed sets and manual labor to physically update the street-facing branding.

2. Industry Revenue Loss vs. Implementation Cost

When evaluating the financial impact, the one-time implementation cost pale in comparison to the structural revenue generated by that fraction of a cent.

Annual Revenue Generated by the 9/10 Cent

Because the US consumes roughly 135 to 140 billion gallons of gasoline annually (alongside roughly 40 billion gallons of diesel), that tiny $0.009 per gallon slice translates to an immense pool of pure margin:

Annual Revenue = 140,000,000,000  gallons times  $0.009 = $1.26 billion per year.

Across the entire domestic landscape, the 9/10 fraction yields between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion annually in collective revenue. For a single high-volume location pumping 300,000 gallons of fuel a month, that fraction quietly brings in $32,400 per year in pure margin.

The Direct Comparison

Financial Metric	Estimated Cost / Revenue	Impact Type
Nationwide Transition Cost	$150 Million – $200 Million	One-time capital expenditure
9/10 Fraction Revenue	$1.2 Billion – $1.5 Billion	Recurrent annual revenue

The Takeaway: The entire cost to permanently update every sign, pump, and software system in America ($150M–$200M) represents less than 60 days' worth of the revenue that the 9/10 pricing structure generates every single year.

Because retail fuel margins are notoriously razor-thin—typically fluctuating between $0.10 and $0.15 per gallon after factoring in credit card swipe fees, distribution, and overhead—the $0.009 fraction can account for up to 7% to 9% of a station's total net margin on fuel.

If the industry transitioned to flat pricing, companies would not simply absorb a $1.3 billion annual hit. To protect those margins, the final digit would almost certainly be rounded up to the nearest whole cent rather than dropped, altering consumer psychology at the pump while keeping corporate revenue neutral.

==============================================================

How does his affect the consumer?

How much would the change cost the typical consumer for each gallon or per fill or  year if the price is rounded up?

If the fuel industry handles the elimination of the 9/10 fraction by rounding up to the next whole cent—for example, shifting a price of $3.59⁹ up to $3.60—the immediate change to a consumer's wallet is a micro-increase of exactly $0.001 (1/10 of a cent) per gallon.

Here is exactly how that breaks down across a single gallon, an average fill-up, and an entire year of driving:

The Consumer Cost Breakdown

1. Cost Per Gallon

• The Math: $0.01 -$0.009 = $0.001

• Impact: An increase of one-tenth of a penny per gallon.

  
  

2. Cost Per Fill-Up

The exact impact depends entirely on the size of the vehicle's fuel tank:

• Compact Sedan (12-gallon tank): An extra 1.2 cents per full tank.

• Standard SUV / Crossover (16-gallon tank): An extra 1.6 cents per full tank.

• Large Pickup Truck (26-gallon tank): An extra 2.6 cents per full tank.

  
  

3. Cost Per Year

Assuming a typical driver travels the national average of roughly 13,500 miles per year, the annual cost remains remarkably negligible on an individual basis:

Vehicle Efficiency	Annual Fuel Used	Extra Cost Per Year
Efficient Hybrid (50 MPG)	~270 gallons	$0.27 (27 cents)
Average Passenger Car (28 MPG)	~482 gallons	$0.48 (48 cents)
Large Truck / Older SUV (18 MPG)	~750 gallons	$0.75 (75 cents)

The Macro View: Micro-Costs vs. Macro-Revenue

For the individual household, a maximum of 50 to 75 cents a year is completely imperceptible—it is a fraction of the cost of dropping a single shiny quarter between the seats.

However, because there are more than 240 million licensed drivers in the United States collectively burning through roughly 140 billion gallons of gasoline annually, that microscopic $0.001 rounding difference scales up dramatically for the fuel industry:

Total Nationwide Consumer Impact = 140,000,000,000  gallons  times $0.001 = $140million per year

The Reality: By rounding up to the nearest whole penny, the oil industry would not only seamlessly protect their existing $1.26 billion in fractional revenue, but they would collectively gain an extra $140 million per year out of consumer pockets.

This extra $140 million in annual nationwide revenue would effectively pay for the entire physical and digital cost of changing the signs and pumps ($150M – $200M) in less than 18 months. From that point forward, the industry would pocket an extra $140 million in pure margin every single year, all while displaying clean, honest numbers on the sign.