by John Keller | Jul 3, 2012 | Fuel Price Management, Industry News
According to NACS, there have been accusations of fuel price gouging in the aftermath of last week’s storms and the declaration that West Virginia is in a state of emergency.
According to West Virginia Assistant Attorney General Douglas Davis, state law says “you take the date of the emergency declaration, go back 10 days, and whatever the price was then, you can raise it 10% before we get interested.”
In Virginia, price-gouging laws are in effect through July 30, after the Governor declared a state of emergency June 29. The law in Virginia states that businesses can be charged with price gouging if they charge a price that is “unconscionable” when compared to the average price of the same product during the emergency declaration. The term “unconscionable” is not defined.
In times of these accusations, Fuel Price Management software solutions such as PriceAdvantage can shorten a fuels price audit from days needed to track down stacks of spreadsheets, to a few minutes needed to run a built-in fuel pricing history report.
by John Keller | Jun 27, 2012 | Fuel Price Management, Industry News
The national motorist association AAA is predicting the highest number of travelers for the Fourth of July holiday in the past 10 years, thanks in part to falling gasoline fuel prices. In some states, AAA is seeing gas prices drop a penny a day. The average price in South Carolina is already at $2.98 per gallon, with Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama averaging just over $3 per gallon. AAA sees fuel price drops accelerating, and predicts several of these states may soon join South Carolina under the $3 per gallon level.
AAA predicts 42.3 million travelers on the road for the Fourth of July holiday. That is nearly 5% more than last year. Besides falling gasoline fuel prices, having the holiday on a Wednesday provides a substantial boost because of the weekend on either end.
From a fuel price management perspective, expect higher fuel volumes for this holiday over last year.
by John Keller | Jun 22, 2012 | Fuel Price Management, Industry News
OPIS suggests fuel prices may drop to $3 by Halloween
Tom Kloza, Chief Oil Analyst at OPIS says there are multiple indications that gas prices could hit $3 per gallon by Halloween “and certainly by Thanksgiving”. Slumping wholesale gasoline contracts for fall delivery, oil inventories at 21 year highs, and low consumer demand are the key indicators cited.
From a fuel price management perspective, this may be what the industry needs to recoup the poor margins seen throughout the early part of the calendar year.
by John Keller | Jun 21, 2012 | Fuel Price Management, Industry News
EPA allows model 2001 and newer vehicles to use E15
The Environmental Protection Agency announces final approval for 2001 and newer passenger vehicles can use E15.
Numerous agencies, including the consumer advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, has expressed concern about warranties being voided when consumers use this fuel in cars that are not suited to it. Consumer Reports also questions the fuel economy that this fuel will provide.
Fuel Pricing managers now need to track the pricing of this new fuels option and decide on a market by market basis whether or not to add E15 to their fuels portfolio.
by John Keller | Jun 18, 2012 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Technology
We’ve heard a lot about cloud computing lately. There’s even a Microsoft commercial on tv where at the end of the ad, the woman of the couple says “yay cloud”.
With the launch of PriceAdvantage Express, there is now a robust fuel price management solution in the cloud. The point of this new product is that c-stores can now rapidly have access to fuel pricing software without any software to install or servers to support. While PriceAdvantage Express does not integrate to POS systems, it does provide a quick way to improve the process of collecting store surveys, review the relationship of my price vs. competitor price in graphs and charts without sifting through a series of spreadsheets, and quickly send the optimized fuel price to each location.
PriceAdvantage customers have spoken highly of the fact that this new offering provides a simple, easy, and rapid way to get a fuel price management solution up and running. And since it can be accessed from mobile devices such as the iPad, iPhone, or Droid, it is available from anywhere, freeing up the fuel manager to get the business of changing fuel prices done quickly so he can get back to other strategic, or more fun activities.
by John Keller | Jun 15, 2012 | Fuel Price Management, Industry News
According to a report by OPIS, fuel consumption is down 4.5% for the four week period ending June 8 compared to the same period last year.
In addition, OPIS reports the growth of ethanol fuel consumption has stalled, with the number of gallons in 2011 virtually unchanged from 2010.
From a fuel price management perspective, that means fuel volume comparisons should be expected to be less than last year, and ethanol fuel gallons are likely to be flat.
