by John Keller | Feb 28, 2011 | Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
Retail fuel prices rose by $.20/gallon since last week, according to today’s US Energy Information Administration report. The US national average retail fuel price of unleaded gasoline spiked to $3.38/gallon, a gallon of midgrade rose to $3.49, and a gallon of premium rose to $3.62.
Fuel prices have risen 10 of the past 11 weeks, but the increase this week is four times any increases seen the previous 11 weeks. The fuel price increase this week is the largest since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, when the refinery output in the Gulf was disrupted.
The largest fuel price increases were in the Midwest, where the average gallon of unleaded gas rose 22 cents to $3.36/gallon. The smallest fuel price increases were in the Rocky Mountain region, where unleaded rose $.11 to $3.23/gallon. As for individual states, Ohio had the largest fuel price increase of the week, where prices rose $.30/gallon for unleaded, with an average price of $3.37/gallon.
In Los Angeles and San Francisco, a gallon of Unleaded is priced at $3.73 and $3.75 per gallon. In San Francisco, Premium is just short of $4.00 at $3.96/gallon.
by John Keller | Jan 7, 2011 | Fuel Price Optimization, Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
The US Energy Information Administration (US EIA) reported the U.S. average retail fuel price for a gallon of gasoline increased for the fifth straight week, advancing almost two cents versus last week to $3.07 per gallon.
That price is 41 cents more than the price a year ago, the EIA noted in the January 5 issue of “This Week in Petroleum.”
Fuel prices on the Gulf Coast jumped two and a half cents, the largest increase in the country, followed by the Rocky Mountain region, where prices were over two cents higher. The East Coast, West Coast, and Midwest all saw fuel prices rise under two cents, in line with the national average increase. Prices on the West Coast were the highest in the country at $3.24 per gallon, while prices in the Rocky Mountains were the lowest at $2.85 per gallon.
Diesel fuel prices also advanced for a fifth consecutive week, with the average retail diesel price increasing almost four cents per gallon, the EIA reported. The national average for a gallon of diesel is now $3.33 per gallon, 53 cents higher than last year at this time. As with gasoline, prices on the Gulf Coast led the way, gaining a nickel versus last week. East Coast prices were up more than four cents. Diesel was more than three cents higher on the West Coast. Rounding out the gains for the week, both the Midwest and Rocky Mountains increased about two cents. This marks the thirteenth increase in the last fourteen weeks for the Rocky Mountains.
This article appeared in National Petroleum News.
by John Keller | Sep 14, 2010 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Retail Fuel Margins
According to NACS Online, demand for Diesel fuel in the US is on the rise, while demand for E85 is on the decline.
While still not at its 2006 peak demand where it reached 4% of the fuel market, demand for Diesel this year is back up to 2.2% of the market, with a projected increase of 2.9% by 2013.
Meanwhile, E85 has fallen from its 2008 peak down to 1.4% market share this year. Supporters of E85 explain the decrease on what they see as a standard cyclical pattern of E85 fuel use, impacted by the relative price of gasoline.
While these statistical numbers are valid across the US as a whole, each Fuel Manager must carefully monitor trends of Diesel and E85 on a market by market basis. For example, the largest US branded retail chain of E85 is Cenex, and they report a 20% increase in E85 this year. In Minnesota, however, E85 is down 25% from its peak level in 2008.
Only by carefully monitoring trends in in each of his markets can the Fuel Manager be sure his Fuel Price Management strategies are being successful.
by John Keller | Sep 13, 2010 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Software, PriceAdvantage
CEFCO C-Stores has completed their rollout of PriceAdvantage to 100% of their stores as of September 10, 2010. CEFCO is now using PriceAdvantage fuel pricing software to optimize fuel prices at each of their 124 stores throughout Texas, Alabama and Mississippi. Total time for the rollout with field training was under three months, including configuration to automatically push prices from Headquarters to stores which use the VeriFone POS. Next up for CEFCO is configuring PriceAdvantage to automatically push prices to those stores which use the Gilbarco Passport POS.
by John Keller | Sep 7, 2010 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy
CSP Daily News reported today the findings of a new Nielsen online survey. The survey results directly speak to fuel price management strategies at c-stores:
- 45% of households are “diligently seeking” lower fuel prices
- 63% of households combat high fuel prices by combining errands and trips
- 85% of households buy their fuel from c-stores /gas stations
- 79% of customers who buy fuel from c-stores / gas stations do so because of lower fuel prices
- 67% of customers who buy fuel from c-stores / gas stations do so because of the convenient location
- 14% of customers who buy fuel from c-stores /gas stations do so because of shopper loyalty programs
These results may not reveal revolutionary new insights into the customer behavior of buying fuel, but they do reinforce key aspects of well-known fuel pricing strategies:
- Location matters – shoppers will fuel up at your location as part of a broader errand run, especially if it truly is at a convenient location
- People’s fuel buying habits have not switched out of recession mode – they’re still shopping around for the best fuel price
As retail businesses come and go, so do consumer traffic patterns. Fuel price optimization strategies must adjust to react to these traffic patterns. Sometimes Fuel Managers can even use lower fuel prices to proactively alter these traffic patterns. Successful Fuel Managers rely more than ever on fuel pricing software such as PriceAdvantage to reveal the relative success of their fuel price adjustments.
by John Keller | Sep 1, 2010 | Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Technology, PriceAdvantage
PriceAdvantage 3.3, the latest fuels pricing solution from Skyline Products, includes key new features in direct response to customer input.
A new reporting system enables fuel managers to gain insight into market pricing trends, store profitability, and price history. Version 3.3 provides the first set of 8 reports that will be added to with new versions.
The Roles and Privileges feature controls who has what access to each part of the fuels pricing solution. Version 3.3 ships with a set of predefined best practice roles and privilege sets to provide built-in system security.
With Variable Volume Targets, Fuel Managers can now set volume targets based on month of year and day of week. Version 3.3 can look at past date ranges and show historical variances across months and days of the week, providing insight into typical traffic flow differences throughout the week and year. These variances allow the Fuel Manager to better understand realistic volume performance targets at each location.
