by John Keller | Jun 3, 2010 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
In today’s edition of the US Energy Information Administration’s “This Week In Petroleum” report, the US EIA reported a drop in US average fuel prices for the third consecutive week. The cumulative drop across the country for these three weeks is almost $.18 for regular unleaded, which now averages $2.72 per gallon.
This week regular unleaded fuel dropped $.06 on average, which is still priced $.20 per gallon higher than last year at this time. Prices dropped in all regions of the country, with the East Coast and Midwest dropping the most at $.07 per gallon. On the West Coast, fuel prices dropped $.03 bringing the average to $2.98. The last time averages were below $3.00 on the West Coast was back in March 2010. California averages also dropped $.03 but still remained above $3.00 with an average price of $3.02 per gallon.
by John Keller | May 26, 2010 | Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Technology, Industry News, PriceAdvantage
In the 5/26/2010 edition of the CSP Daily News, the NACStech Roundup report includes a summary of what Skyline Products is doing with the PriceAdvantage fuel pricing software. It describes how c-stores who upgrade hardware for PCI compliance get the additional benefit of fuel price management to the sign and POS.
“Skyline Products, Colorado Springs, Colo: Increasing, electronic capability at the c-store is allowing Skyline the ability to integrate and execute fuel pricing strategies, according to company officials. Aaron McHugh, division director, said PCI deadlines have forced many to upgrade registers and wide-area networks, which allows for the functionality necessary to better control and execute pricing changes.”
For years Skyline has touted the ability to hang fuel price signs off the VeriFone POS system, and allow the POS to change fuel prices at the sign. Now in 2010 Skyline’s PriceAdvantage fuel pricing software application provides the additional benefit of allowing the Fuel Manager to change fuel prices from headquarters, down to the VeriFone Sapphire POS, and out to the sign. Once the price is changed at the sign, confirmation is provided back to the PriceAdvantage fuel price software at headquarters, with a time/date stamp alerting the Fuel Manager when exactly the prices were changed at the sign and across the system. This closed loop integration has already improved speed to the street at customers such as Fikes (CEFCO convenience stores) based in Temple, TX.
by John Keller | May 26, 2010 | Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News
In the 5/26/2010 edition of “This Week in Petroleum” released by the US Energy Information Administration, the U.S. average price for regular gasoline this week dropped almost 8 cents to $2.79 per gallon. The national average price for diesel fuel fell 7 cents to $3.02 per gallon.
This drop in regular gasoline is the largest weekly decrease since July 13, 2009. The diesel weekly decrease is the largest since December 15, 2008.
Prices for both regular gasoline and diesel fell in all areas of the country; the largest drop occurred in the Midwest and the smallest drop was in the Rocky Mountains. On the East Coast the weekly drop was $.07 for both regular gas and diesel, and in California regular gas dropped $.07 while diesel dropped $.08.
The national average price for regular gasoline is $0.35 higher than last year at this time while diesel is $0.75 higher than last year.
by John Keller | May 20, 2010 | Fuel Price Management, Retail Fuel Margins
As reported in CSP News, the latest Lundberg survey of 5000 US gas stations determined that over the past two weeks, the average price of fuel decreased $.42 per gallon. With the price of crude oil increasing $.20 per barrel over that same time period, retail fuel margins shrank by 2.16 cents per gallon.
So far this year, the combined retail fuel margin of all three grades of gasoline stands at 11.51 cents per gallon, just one tenth of one cent below the retail fuel margins of 2009.
Such razor thin retail fuel margins continue to reinforce the urgency to manage fuel prices, volumes, and margins with a robust Fuel Pricing Software system. These systems provide the strategic capabilities and speed to the street beyond those provided by simple homegrown Excel systems built for fuel price management.
by John Keller | May 20, 2010 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News
The Associated Press continues to set consumer expectations that they can expect to pay less at the pump this summer then the summer of 2009.
Highlights of the article:
“Prices for heating oil, gasoline and Brent crude all dropped by at least 3 percent. “People are saying it’s time to get out,” said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research. Earlier this year, Lynch stood out from many of his peers by predicting that oil prices would fall. “The market has gotten way ahead of itself,” Lynch said. “People kept saying that soon demand will go up and inventories will go down. But that’s not happening.”
“Traders started getting nervous as the debt crisis unfolded in Europe. U.S. government data showing that Americans continue to have a relatively weak appetite for fuel have sunk energy prices even further.”
“If the world doesn’t start sopping up excess supplies, oil prices may fall into the $40-per-barrel range this year, Lynch said.”
“At the pump, retail gasoline prices dropped 1.2 cents overnight to a new national average of $2.84 a gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular unleaded is 1.9 cents cheaper than it was a month ago, but it’s 50.6 cents more expensive than a year ago. Experts say gas prices have likely peaked already this year, and it should cost less to fill up this summer than in the summer of 2009. That’s good news for the travel industry as Americans get ready to hit the highways over the Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of the summer driving season.
The full AP article can be read here.
