by John Keller | Sep 26, 2012 | Retail Fuel Margins
Retail fuel margins are finally recovering this season according to the most recent Lundberg Survey. From September 7 to September 21, the average retail margin on regular unleaded jumped from $0.099 to $0.172 per gallon.
The Lundberg Survey reports year to date retail fuel margins are between the levels of 2010 (when they were $0.163 per gallon according to NACS) and 2011 (when they were $0.185 per gallon according to NACS).
Fuel price management software is critical for fuel price optimization and to maximize retail fuel margins for these last three months of the year.
by John Keller | Sep 25, 2012 | Fuel Pricing Software, PriceAdvantage
As we build each screen for our PriceAdvantage fuel pricing software, we view it through the eyes of the people who will be interacting with that screen, and focus on what they are trying to accomplish using the information presented to them. As we do this, we apply a concise set of words to describe each user interface we build.
In the broadest categories, PriceAdvantage is made up of the Headquarters interface and the Store interface.
The primary user of the Headquarters interface is the fuel pricing manager. The set of words we use for the overall set of Headquarters screens are these:
- centralized information
- rich analysis
- fast pricing
The primary user of the Store software is the store manager. The set of words we use for the overall set of Store screens are these:
- drop-dead simple
- generate trust
The recurring feedback we receive from our customers and prospects is that PriceAdvantage is very easy to understand and easy to use. As we build new versions of PriceAdvantage, we will continue to build more robust capabilities, but we will apply these best practices to make sure we never allow the user interface to grow confusingly complex.
by John Keller | Sep 25, 2012 | Fuel Pricing Technology, Industry News
There is general consensus from NACS and fuel management analysts that for the next 20 years, liquid petroleum fuels will continue to be the predominant energy source for how consumers power their vehicles. And though electric vehicles have yet to put a big dent in the number of vehicles sold, the electric vehicle company Tesla today made an announcement that could have a significant impact on how quickly electric vehicles are embraced in California and the rest of the US.
Today Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that Tesla is building Supercharging stations that charge twice as fast as any chargers now in use. Mr. Musk announced that these Supercharging stations will be installed at highway rest stops. Six are already installed in California, allowing drivers to make it from Los Angeles to San Francisco and from Los Angeles to Sacramento. Tesla plans to have over 100 of these stations throughout the US over the next three years.
The new Supercharging stations are intended to allow drivers to fill up their battery while they take a bathroom break and have a fast meal, similar to the standard practice of taking a road trip pit stop today.
Will demand for these Supercharging stations be overwhelming for travelers and make it inconvenient because people need to wait in line to use one? Perhaps, but certainly that is a problem Tesla would love to have, since it means there must be enough electric cars on the road to cause such demand.
One thing we can count on: the trend of decreasing gasoline consumption is going to continue, as gasoline and diesel fuel vehicles become increasingly fuel efficient, and the electric vehicle market share continues to grow. From a fuel price management perspective, that means a more competitive marketplace, where c-stores are competing for an ever-shrinking part of the liquid fuel pie, and only the most savvy c-store chains running robust fuel pricing software will survive.
by John Keller | Sep 20, 2012 | Industry News, PriceAdvantage
Both Valero and Susser have decided to go through a spinoff of part of their business, each with the same goal in mind.
Sam Susser, the CEO of Susser Holdings Corp. said in an earnings call last month that the value of the wholesale division has not been fully recognized, and the intention was to spin it off as a separate division.
Valero in their September 2012 investor presentation said their board had authorized management to pursue a separation of their retail business because investors and analysts have ignored the higher potential value of their retail segment, and to unlock value to their shareholders. This was the same earnings announcement when Valero’s retail segment achieved their highest quarter operating income on record. On a side note, Valero is using PriceAdvantage as their fuel price management solution at all of their company stores.
On September 20, Susser took their spun off wholesale division public at $20 per share, trading as SUSP on the New York Stock Exchange, and as of September 24, the stock is holding steady at $23/share. That successful IPO generated $195 million for the company.
That’s an interesting benchmark to use as we watch Valero’s move to increase their shareholder value as well. Reuters sources reported the retail business spinoff could generate $3.5 billion to Valero.
by John Keller | Sep 10, 2012 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Strategy
When we build a new feature into our PriceAdvantage fuel pricing software, we always have a use case in mind. The use case includes two aspects: the persona, that is the primary business person who will take advantage of the feature; and the story, which is the way the business user will use the feature and the business problem solved. For each new feature, we write a user story as per the Scrum software development way, and we write it in this format: “As a [persona], I would like to [interact with the software in a specific way] in order to [solve this business problem]”. For example, “As a fuel manager, I would like to see each of my store locations plotted as colored push pins on a map, with color representing how well the store is performing volume compared to target”. This is a real world example of a feature we included in PriceAdvantage 3.8.
What is interesting about releasing a new feature like this, is that despite all the market research we do to come up with the feature definition, once customers see it, they see additional benefit beyond what we expected. When we showed this color coded push pin map feature to a fuel manager customer, the first thing she said was “not only will this feature be great for me when managing fuel pricing strategies, but this will be great for our team who decides where to build new store locations, because it clearly shows the stores who are performing well and where they are located, as well as which stores are struggling.” She came up with a whole other persona and use case we hadn’t even considered. It is this customer insight that allows our software to continue to extend into solving more and more business problems in the fuel price management c-store business.
