How do major gasoline companies verify that branded service stations are selling their gasoline?

Can they analyze a fuel sample?

Not sure how they verify , but all the gas comes out of the same storage facility . Driver then adds however many buckets of additives for each brand ,,Exxon..etc... ,that they are delivering to.

The "brand" is using their credit cards, oils, promotions and signage. I wouldn't doubt they get a cut per gallon sold but wasn't privy to that info when I worked for one of the largest oil companies around this area.

Like said above, all stations in this area got from the same depot or from the company I worked for.

We have a large depot in Greensboro. Every tanker gets their gas from that depot.

Yup, the raw product comes from the same facility. Any additives are done afterward, mostly at the retail location.

A close friend of mine actually went to the only college in the US to get a degree in “petro ism” if that’s a word.. his grandfather and dad ran a oil distributor company for 75 years.. I asked him this very question.. his answer was.. each company has their one formal that is in their gas… when they place a order from the pipe line.. ( I’m hoping I’m telling this correctly as it’s been 30 years ago” a liquid slug of water is pumped into the pipe line directly behind someone else’s gas.. then behind the water slug, in comes say.. Texaco gas with its additives… they pump 500,000 gallons of Texaco.. then pump in another water slug and now here comes chevrons gas with their additives… they have some deal set up to filter all the water out of the gas.. as water and gas don’t mix anyway… personally I’ve never seen a gas station add anything to the underground tanks as far as additives go..

The driver doesn't add buckets of anything. Any additives are done at the refinery. Driver just gets loaded and unloads it. Stations don't add anything either.

So, can a Shell station receive the generic gas and NOT have top tier additives as it should?

How expensive are the detergent additives per gallon of gasoline?

I'm sure its possible. If caught they would lose their franchise. There likely are laws that would be broken beyond contract law. It's illegal to claim your selling one product but substituting something else. Those laws are rarely enforced. Bars do it with impunity. Lots of fake honey sold in grocery stores. Maple syrup is another.

All Top Tier gas supposedly has PEA added to it to clean the fuel system.

This came about decades ago when all the major vehicle manufacturers started having warranty trouble with fuel systems. Found out that the suppliers had discontinued the cleaning chemicals in the blend.

The Top Tier stations are the ones that have the cleaners included. However, they may not all use the same concentration of cleaners.

You can by fuel system cleaners that contain PEA at many stores selling similar products.

Techron and Royal Purple are considered to have the highest concentrations of PEA in their product. Just add some to your tank based on the directions on the bottle.

From what I understand, the avg. stations all get the same gas from the distributor, if the station is a Shell owned one, they get Shell gas separately. If the Shell station is a franchise owner, they are contracted to buy X gallons of their gas per month, BUT....if they run through that they will switch to the run of the mill gas everybody gets....

That's how it was explained to me "here"....