by John Keller | Mar 15, 2013 | Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Price Optimization, Retail Fuel Margins
In the weekly OPIS report, average US retail fuel margins showed a drop of $0.043 per gallon. That’s a reverse in the trend across the previous two weeks where retail fuel margins increased nearly $0.16 per gallon.
Retail fuel margins now stand at $0.218 per gallon across the US, the second highest of the year, and at levels last seen in November 2012.
So far this year the average US retail fuel margin for all commodities is $0.151 per gallon. This provides a good comparison baseline when we review upcoming quarterly financial announcements from the large c-store chains.
by John Keller | Mar 12, 2013 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Fuel Pricing Technology, Retail Fuel Margins
In their Short-Term Energy Outlook report released today, the US Energy Information Administration issued a revised lower forecast for US gasoline consumption over the next two years. The report includes predictions for US gasoline consumption across each quarter in 2013 and 2014, and in every quarter the revised forecast is .2% to .8% lower than the US EIA predictions from their previous Short-Term Energy Outlook report.
The US EIA reports that fuel volume totals for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 will remain essentially unchanged, explaining that increased travel will be offset by increased fuel efficiency.
From a fuel price management perspective, the news is not as bad as it could be; while fuel volumes have been in a steady decline for the past eight years, at least total anticipated fuel volumes are not expected to decline over this year and next.
The fuel pricing strategy and fuel price optimization game intensifies each year as c-stores battle for an ever-shrinking fuel volume pie. PriceAdvantage fuel pricing software is the key to optimizing both volumes and margins in this battle.
by John Keller | Mar 11, 2013 | Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Pricing Software
Back in 2001, Ford had a record year of selling natural gas vehicles when Ford sold 5491 vehicles. That record was shattered in 2012 when Ford sold 11,600 vehicles. And the Ford sales number in 2012 is more than three times what Ford sold in 2010.
Compare that to the Chevy Volt 2012 sales number of 23,461 vehicles, which was three times the Volt sales number of 2011.
Pike Research estimates that 20,381 natural gas vehicles were sold across the US in 2012.
While these natural gas vehicle numbers are still less than 1% of the overall standard fuel vehicle sales count in the US, they do point to a visible growth trend in mindshare for natural gas as a viable alternative fuel for consumers. In the right markets, fuel managers would be wise to take advantage of natural gas fuel margins in volumes that can quickly yield a return on their infrastructure investment. This is especially true in markets where the traditional fuels volume continues to shrink dramatically.
by John Keller | Mar 11, 2013 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Fuel Pricing Technology
The PriceAdvantage team would like to congratulate The Spinx Company on their successful acquisition of three more c-stores, bringing their total store count to 69.
The Spinx Company has been a PriceAdvantage customer since 2011, with a complete fuel price management solution that encompasses their Gilbarco and VeriFone point of sale systems, Skyline electronic price signs, as well as their PDI ERP system. The fuel managers at The Spinx Company use PriceAdvantage to measure the performance of each store and every market as per the volumes and margins imported from PDI. Fuel managers monitor every competitive price move via the data feed imports from OPIS Radius reports. Fuel managers initiate price changes from the iPad, with PriceAdvantage managing the closed loop fuel price change process, complete with confirmation time stamps recording when each price change is complete.
Says Stewart Spinks, Founder of The Spinx Company and member of the Convenience Store News Hall of Fame, “We couldn’t be happier that PriceAdvantage has replaced our previous fuel pricing solution. It is a superior tool in that it gives us the ability to pull historical data easily, manage multiple price changes per day, and provide a userfriendly interface at the headquarters and store level.”
Congratulations, The Spinx Company. We look forward to our continued long-term partnership for years to come.
by John Keller | Mar 8, 2013 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Strategy
Congratulations to Scott Hartman for his induction into the PCATS Hall of Fame, from all of us at the PriceAdvantage team. Scott has always been a thought leader in the c-store industry, and his visionary guidance has made a big impact on making PriceAdvantage the industry-leading fuel pricing software that it is today.
Scott’s leadership enabled Rutter’s to first roll out PriceAdvantage to all their stores beginning in early 2011. The Rutter’s implementation of PriceAdvantage included a complete command and control solution that included their Radiant (now under the NCR corporate umbrella) POS systems, as well as their Skyline electronic price signs.
Then in the latter half of 2011, Scott’s vision extended the Rutter’s PriceAdvantage implementation to include a GasBuddy integration. Scott recognized that the world of retail fuel price management includes virtual as well as physical signage. Scott led Rutter’s to incorporate their retail fuel price marketing into their overall retail fuel price management strategy by having PriceAdvantage automatically push fuel price updates to GasBuddy once PriceAdvantage finished the fuel price changes. This solution insures Rutter’s always has the most accurate and up-to-date prices on the GasBuddy sites.
What’s next for Scott’s vision for PriceAdvantage? Now that PriceAdvantage can push fuel price updates to OPIS, just like to GasBuddy, Rutter’s will be able to make sure all sites receiving fuel pricing information from OPIS will also have the latest and most accurate Rutter’s fuel prices. With the PriceAdvantage integration to OPIS, Rutter’s will be able to automatically push prices out to AAA, Garmin, and MapQuest, as well as a growing number of sites partnering with OPIS.
Thanks again, Scott. We couldn’t have done it without you. And we look forward to a continued strong partnership with Rutter’s for years to come.
by John Keller | Mar 8, 2013 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Retail Fuel Margins
An NBC News article published in their Online Business section discusses the addition of Propane to the list of alternative fuels being considered for vehicle retrofitting.
The home satellite provider DISH Network Corp has announced they will run 200 of their trucks on Propane. The DISH Network Corp expects a 55 percent reduction in fuel costs for the Ford E-250 cargo vans that will run on propane – amounting to a saving of about $2,500 per vehicle per year. There are more than 13 million vehicles using Propane worldwide but Propane is a niche product in the United States.
But over the past 3-4 years, the wholesale cost of Propane has dropped in half, and Propane production has increased nearly 50%. The cost of adding a Propane fueling station is less than $50,000 and takes less than one day. That makes it much less of a commitment than adding CNG or LPG fueling stations.
According to the US EIA map of the alternative fuel stations in the lower 48 United States, the number of Propane stations is second only to Electric, and just ahead of E85 stations. But while Electric stations are concentrated in the urban areas on the coasts and Great Lakes, Propane stations are more widely distributed across the whole US, including Texas and the Mid-west.
As we monitor the growth of alternative fuels in the retail fuel management industry, retail fuel pricing managers would be wise to consider adding Propane to their product portfolio as a market differentiator, and an opportunity for high fuel margins.