Natural Disasters and Fuel Management

Natural Disasters and Fuel Management

• Jun 29, 2012
• John Keller
• 1

I write this blog from the PriceAdvantage office in Colorado Springs, on the Friday of the week where our city suffered the worst fire in its history. Over 300 homes were destroyed as well as many businesses. At the time of this writing there are reports of one human life lost, and fewer than 10 people missing. Thankfully, of the 1000 firefighters engaged there are no reports of injury or fatality. Considering the magnitude of the fire, those numbers are remarkable.

Beyond the personal side of this story, there is a business side as well. We have PriceAdvantage customers who operate c-stores in the impacted areas, where their streets were evacuated, and who serve customers living in the evacuated areas. Needless to say, in Colorado Springs this week will go down in history as one like no other.

From a fuel price management perspective, it is critical moving forward to record the specifics of where and when fuel volumes were impacted by this event. That way next year and in the years to follow, when store and market performance is measured, the fuel manager can quickly remember the specifics of this week.

In PriceAdvantage, we make it easy to annotate details of a specific date in time, and we display those notes when viewing volume performance. Hover over the volume chart for a specific date and see the note mentioning the impact of the fire, for example.

As the city of Colorado Springs recovers, and our customers return to business as usual, PriceAdvantage will allow fuel managers to make sense of the business impact of this natural disaster.