When you pull up to the gas pump, the Warren County Department of Weights and Measures wants you to be confident you’re getting all the gas that you pay for.

The Department has a new, specially-designed truck to use as it tests the gas pumps at the 73 gas stations located in the county, employing it for the first time on August 7 to check the pumps at the new Wawa convenience store on Roseberry Street in Phillipsburg the day before the station’s grand opening.

“It’s absolutely imperative that the consumer has faith and confidence in their purchases,” said Freeholder Richard D. Gardner, who is the freeholder board liaison to the Department of Weights and Measures.

“It’s important for the merchandiser and the consumer,” Gardner added, explaining the County wants to make sure businesses are getting paid correctly so they can stay in business, and that customers are treated fairly as well.

“This way they can compete on a level playing field,” said Weights and Measures Superintendent Michael Santos, who gave Gardner a tour of the new truck during its first use.

The vehicle is a mobile fuel test unit, also called a gas “prover,” built on the chassis of a 2008 Ford Extra Duty truck. Santos worked with a fabricator on the $119,000 vehicle to make sure it had the necessary features to ensure he and his staff can check gas pumps quickly, with safety and accuracy. The truck also is designed to pull right up to the pump to minimize the impact on the gas station being tested, and so that all the gas drawn for the tests – five gallons per test, times as many pumps and fuel grades are available – can be returned to the station’s storage tanks.

“I am impressed. He also did a super job designing it,” Gardner said of Santos.

Santos said the truck could last 20 years, noting, “It could outlive gasoline.”

The County’s old gas prover is going into the annual auction of surplus items, which will be held on Saturday, Sept. 6, at the Warren County Road Department Garage on Route 519 in White Township. Santos thinks the old unit would be valuable for a business that repairs pumps and wants the ability to test them.

The new truck is set up to test gasoline dispensers, with four five-gallon test measures, plus there is a 100-gallon test measure to verify the accuracy of the high-volume diesel pumps found at truck stops. And with some gas stations having dozens of pumps, it has holding tanks of 115 gallons for each fuel grade, so 23 tests can be made before the holding tanks are emptied, Santos said.

Gas stations don’t lose anything on the tests, Santos explained, because “you draw it out, and then you put it right back in.”

When testing at a gas station, the Weights and Measures department tests for more than pump accuracy, Santos said. “We’ll check for water in the fuel, we’ll check for octane, we’ll make sure all the price signs agree, we’ll make sure a hose doesn’t leak or have a problem,” he noted.