Preventive maintenance can save you money

By Paul Royall

When we think of preventive maintenance, we usually think of our cars and the required oil changes and tire rotations. But we should apply the same thought and care to our fuel dispensers.

There are 4 areas we should look at when we perform preventive maintenance.

·        Filters- Because fuel is transferred several times between its source and destination, there are many opportunities for it to become contaminated. Mainly, it can become contaminated with dirt and water. I recommend that you change the filter on each meter every 300,000 gallons or 6 months.

·        Hanging Hardware – Visually inspect the nozzles, hoses, swivels, and breakaways each month. This is an area of high risk, since consumers use this equipment to fuel their vehicles with various petroleum products. Many manufacturers recommend replacement schedules for the hanging hardware.

·        Cleanliness – The dispenser should be clean. All the required decals that may provide warnings, instructions, octane levels, and calibration certifications should present and easily visible.

·        Calibration – If your dispensers have traditional positive displacement meters, calibrate each meter at least once a year for proper operation. If a meter is out of tolerance it could cost you or your customers.

 
Here is an easy way to Calculate your lost profits:                                      
At $4.00 per gallon

      One Cubic Inch of Fuel = 1.7 cents

     100,000 Gallons per month = $346.32

     Approximate Annual Loss = $4,155.84

Double your giveaway if your meters are over delivering 2 cubic inches.

Triple your giveaway if your meters are over delivering 3 cubic inches.

Having a preventive maintenance program can extend the life of your dispenser, increase consumer confidence, and increase the owner’s return on investment. Most service companies offer some type of planned preventive maintenance on both aboveground and underground petroleum systems on new and existing systems. These programs are designed to reduce annual repair costs and down time.



Your first PCI audit may be over . . . but your journey is just beginning

By James Kelly

Over the last year, it’s been very interesting to watch as retailers transition from approval of their first PCI Audit to maintaining their overall PCI compliance.  Everyone was aware that PCI was a continual process, and that you are never really “finished” with PCI. But most appear to have underestimated the amount of work required to maintain compliance year after year.

While there are a lot of requirements around ongoing compliance, three areas in particular are creating unique challenges for the c-store environment, and should be carefully planned for.

·         Monitoring of Audit Logs

·         Penetration Testing

·         Vulnerability Scanning

Combine the fact that PCI has very specific requirements around each of these items with the variety of configurations and complexity of a c-store IT environment; and you end up with a very challenging problem. Often, it involves large amounts of time and potentially specific hardware and software to address.

Many retailers are attempting to manage their own compliance by standardizing their network configurations across their locations and adding or refocusing IT staff toward compliance.  Others are contracting out to one of the many PCI approved Service Providers that offer products to handle each of the items mentioned above.  Not surprisingly many retailers I have spoken with have already drastically altered their ongoing maintenance plans from what was originally submitted as part of their PCI audit, and continue to look for the right solution to fit their needs.

So, if you are one of those retailers that is just moving into that “maintenance mode” and find yourself throwing out your original plans, take comfort in the fact that you are not alone; and the right solution is out there, just waiting for you to find it.

Remote Monitoring and Control Trends: Technology is becoming more integrated . . . now what?

By Larry Tucker

It’s all around us… We are a connected world. From our refrigerators to our cars, more and more devices are becoming connection-enabled every day. Projections estimate there will be more than 50 BILLION connected devices by 2020. With everything being connected, we as customers want to feel empowered, without being overwhelmed, but that doesn’t seem to be how it’s working out.

Connectivity should make life easier, not harder! Right? This should be easy with all the gadgets that we have here and there. Even when all is connected, you come to find out it’s still very disjointed. Shouldn’t it all just ‘talk’ to each other and make beautiful music? Manufacturers focus on what they know – their equipment, creating silos of technology and uses for it. Once this happened with TV remotes, and then came the Universal remote. Now every TV comes with one.  Commercial equipment and the latest got-to-have item will get there too! Some are ready out-of-the-box, while others will have to be pushed a bit to go in that direction.  

As connections continue to become more seamless and simple, businesses are finding that just having information creates more confusion. As product offerings expand, the need for a cohesive point of connectivity becomes the must have. No one solution, even a universal remote, is without its setup requirements to make it useful. Information and technology in and of themselves do not create competitive advantage. It’s what you do with them. Companies struggle to determine how to make all of this new information functional. There are a lot of directions you can go, but ultimately it’s what makes sense for the company’s business model and philosophy. 

So what is the priority? Is it customer service and loyalty -- using data to better know your customer and ensure your offers keep them coming back? Or, is it the experience of each and every customer and ensuring they get in and out as quickly as possible? Or, is it using a world class service organization to lower overhead and increase margins?

Whatever the motivation, it needs to stay at the forefront of the decision making process to ensure success can be realized when implementing a Remote Monitoring solution. This may mean added resources or underutilizing the capabilities of a really powerful technology. In the end it’s admitting that no matter how simple technology gets, it’s still never possible to find the ‘Easy’ button.

DEF and the Travel Plaza

By Chad Johnson

The topic of Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) has been on many minds since the EPA finalized their reduced NOx emission standards in 2004, with final implementation requirements after Jan 1, 2010. Many of the OEM truck manufacturers have chosen to meet the regulations using the Selective Catalytic Reduction method, which includes the after treatment dosage of DEF.

Through the first six months of 2011, truck makers sold 72,067 heavy-duty trucks in the United States, up 46.3% from the 49,257 in the first six months of 2010, WardsAuto.com said July 13.  Why is this important?  A vast majority of the OEM truck manufacturers are meeting the new regulations with SCR due to its proven reliability and improved fuel efficiency. As travel plazas plan for their drivers’ needs, filling up with diesel and DEF is becoming more common as the sale of new trucks continue.

DEF is being distributed in both small jug and bulk installs through specially designed dispenser systems for the unique challenges DEF presents. As travel plazas plan their forecourts, convenience and speed should be considered for both diesel and DEF fueling. Dispenser systems that combine both the diesel and the DEF at a single fueling position minimize the forecourt footprint and expedite the throughput of the fueling traffic. 
Projections for SCR-enabled trucks show over 75% of trucks will require DEF by 2015. Is your forecourt ready to handle the opportunity today and in the future?

http://www.ttnews.com/articles/printopt.aspx?storyid=27126

http://www.discoverdef.com/news/2011/6/23/new-1plus1-pumping-systems-installed-at-two-travelcenters-of-america-stores.aspx

http://www.discoverdef.com/news/2011/5/17/exclusive-pilot-to-install-def-pumps-in-1,000-filling-lanes-by-october-2011.aspx

http://www.discoverdef.com/news/2011/3/30/love's-picks-gilbarco-as-forecourt-technology-supplier.aspx

Are you complacent with your compliance?

By Mike Furst

You don’t have to look very hard to find reports of recent underground storage tank (UST) violations.  EPA fines range from tens of thousands of dollars to millions, depending on the scope and severity of the issue. It’s not just big oil companies that are at risk. Even small retailers are under more scrutiny by the public, media and government regulators. 

Last month a jury awarded the largest judgment ever for a UST leak.

Unless USTs and lines are maintained, monitored and periodically upgraded, you are at risk for leaks. Are you adequately protected? 

Here are some questions to consider:

1.       Do you have all your tanks registered with the state or county? 

2.       Do your employees know how to properly respond to an Automatic Tank Gauge alarm?

3.       Do you know when and how to file the permitting documents to renew your tanks? 

4.       Are you prepared for a surprise inspection from a federal or local regulator? 

5.       Do you have at least one year’s worth of monthly compliance reports and alarm history data? 

6.       Are you confident that your customers are not at risk from excessive water in your fuel?  Pumping water into a car can be costly for both you and the customer.

If you’re not comfortable with any of the questions above or want more information, consider working with a company that has the knowledge and resources to help you manage the risk and stay in compliance. These services are more affordable than most people think, costing less than $1,000 per year per site for a basic offering. Although the risk of an incident is low, the potential costs can be devastating to your business and the environment.