Cameron England, Business Editor, The Advertiser
September 10, 2020
The Telegraph
The promise of fuel delivered to you at your home or office has faltered with start-up HaloGo entering administration.
A fuel delivery service co-founded by Adelaide businessman Rob Porcaro and backed by prominent South Australian investors has been placed in administration.
HaloGo, which launched late last year, promised an on-demand fuel delivery service bringing petrol to your door for an $8.50 delivery fee.
The price of the fuel was to be determined by the average cost at the eight nearest petrol stations.
The company, also co-founded by Sydney businesswoman Brigid Shute, had Seppeltsfield owner Warren Randall and prominent company director Roseanne Healy on its board.
Mr Randall was the company’s largest single shareholder followed by the founders.
A creditors report into the financial state of the company is yet to be lodged, with Duncan Powell appointed as administrators on September 3.
Mr Powell said the business, which launched in Melbourne before a planned Sydney rollout, had been hit hard by the COVID pandemic. A first meeting of creditors, who are owed about $500,000, will be held next week.
Mr Powell said it was too early to say whether it would be able to continue to operate.
The company’s services were called on when Caltex closed the only service station in Apollo Bay, Victoria, for upgrade work for 12-14 weeks in June, with HaloGo to provide a “pop-up” service.
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It is still operating that service, Mr Powell said.
ASIC documents indicate $2.57 million in total had been invested into the company.
Ms Shute told The Advertiser when the company launched that one of the motivations for setting up the company was to provide a service for people with young children who found it hard – or even illegal – to fill up with young kids in the car.
“There’s a genuine concern about leaving kids in a car unattended,” she said.
“The law says you can, provided it’s reasonable and you can still observe them, but it’s still a stressful decision for parents.
“If they’re asleep, you have to decide whether to wake them up and take them in to pay or crack a window and leave them by themselves.”
The Melbourne launch involved delivery to corporate offices and then expanding to select Secure Parking locations.
“HaloGo will then increase its operations to other states, with the goal for on-demand fuel to consumers anywhere, anytime via an easy to use app, by the end of next year,’’ the company’s marketing material says.
The company was delivering Caltex fuel exclusively. Its website indicates that the service was yet to launch for individual use.
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