by John Keller | Mar 28, 2013 | Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Software
In a recent issue of Advertising Age, I came across an interesting insert from a company named Collective about reaching people across all their multiple devices. It was written from the perspective of breaking down silos between devices when building an advertising campaign, so people will get the same message while watching TV, as they get while browsing the Web from their smart phone, tablet, or PC.
One of the parts of the document discussed the prevalence of people owning multiple devices, the most common time of day people use each device, and the nature of the tasks they perform while on each device.
From a fuel price management perspective, this discussion caught my attention because fuel analysts must be highly attentive to the dynamic market in which they compete, including while travelling, after hours during the business week, and on weekends. In order to still have a personal life, fuel analysts are turning to their mobile devices to monitor changes, and to respond to those changes quickly. For example, it is now possible using PriceAdvantage from a tablet or smart phone to review a set of proposed price changes triggered by competitor price movements, and strategy business rules built to respond to those competitor price movements. Using PriceAdvantage on a mobile device, fuel analysts can review store and market performance to make an informed decision about what the new optimized price should be. And from that tablet or smart phone the fuel analyst can use PriceAdvantage to initiate the price change and track the status of the price change, paying special attention when price changes are deemed late.
The beauty of all this is that fuel analysts can quickly take care of business from the field during half time of their kids’ soccer game, or from the couch during March Madness. Fuel analysts have these devices with them all the time anyway, so allowing these devices to increase fuel pricing efficiencies only makes sense. In the case of one territory manager of a Skyline customer, PriceAdvantage was the tipping point to convince him to buy a smart mobile device just so he could take care of business while away from the desk.
Even if you don’t own a mobile device, having PriceAdvantage at your finger tips is a logical replacement to the headaches of the homegrown Excel-based fuel price management solution because it improves efficiencies while on business travel. One customer told us of the nightmares of being away from the office in the days before PriceAdvantage. He would have the office assistant email all the spreadsheets he needed, but since he didn’t have access to a printer, he would try to make sense of it all on a tiny laptop screen. Because it was such a handicap to be away from the office, he would only take care of pricing a subset of stores and hope for the best with the others when he was on business travel. Now that PriceAdvantage is in place, he allows the assistant at the home office to accept the proposed prices at those stores where the strategy pricing rules have generated proposed prices where all the strategy criteria is met, so he can focus on the remaining exceptions. And with his laptop and a VPN connection, he can access the entire fuel price management system and have access to all the rich analysis and optimization capabilities it provides. Being away on business is no longer a hindrance, and he doesn’t even miss a beat while on the road.
Whether you’re checking email on the smart phone first thing in the morning or last thing at night, or using the tablet while refueling at Starbucks, or in a hotel between store visits, PriceAdvantage allows you to always be in touch, and always operate at peak efficiency.
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, 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 | Jun 4, 2012 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Price Optimization
The US Energy Information Administration reported today that US retail fuel prices dropped again, making it an eight week decline since peaking on April 9. Fuel prices for unleaded regular are now at $3.518 across the US, down from $3.575 last week, and down from $3.73 the same week last year.
Across the different regional PADDs, fuel price declines were found across the board, ranging from $.05 in the Atlantic, East Coast, and New England regions, to $.02 per gallon in the Rocky Mountain and West Coast regions.
by John Keller | May 29, 2012 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization
According to the US EIA, US Regular Fuel Prices fell for the 7th straight week, this time down $0.045 per gallon from last week. US Regular fuel prices are now $.12 per gallon below this time last year. The biggest drops were in the Lower Atlantic region and the Gulf Coast, where fuel prices lowered just under $.07 per gallon. The Rocky Mountain and West Coast regions were down a little over a penny.
