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 | 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 | Mar 27, 2012 | Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Pricing Technology, Industry News
According to the most recent MasterCard SpendingPulse study, fuel consumption declined 3% over the past 52 weeks. That equates to 4.2 billion gallons.
According to John Gamel, who oversees MasterCard SpendingPulse’s weekly consumption report, part of the reason for the decline is that people have purchased vehicles with better gas mileage. Average gas mileage is now 24 miles per gallon, compared to 20 mpg in 2008.
Experts agree this trend of declining fuel consumption is bound to continue. From a fuel price management perspective, it’s clear that as convenience stores continue to fight for an ever shrinking fuel market, competition will continue to be tough. Only the c-store chains with the most effective fuel pricing technology will survive.
This information was reported by Convenience Store News in an article here.
by John Keller | Mar 20, 2012 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Management Solutions
We’re now in a time of survival of the fittest, where only the strongest c-store chains in the retail fuel business will survive. An article in Convenience Store News today references the sale of another c-store chain, this time one that had been in business for 27 years. The original owning family cites a completely business environment – gas prices and competition are up, but fuel margins are down.
From a fuel price management perspective, this sale is just one more indicator of how tough it is out there, and how much an effective fuel price management solution is needed. Without a complete fuel price management technology solution to effectively monitor and manage volumes, competitor and store pricing, and daily retail fuel margin, a chain simply can’t compete. It’s too tough of an environment to take too long to respond to competitor and cost changes, and to miss the retail fuel margin windows of opportunity.
While it’s one thing to come up with what the fuel prices should be at each of your stores, it’s completely different to know when the price changes actually took effect. What good is it to know what the prices should be, when the prices don’t hit the street until 5 to 7 hours later, and you’ve missed your window? Fuel price change confirmation is critical to the entire fuel price management cycle.
The Convenience Store News article may be found here.
by John Keller | Mar 6, 2012 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Management Solutions
The Governor of Massachusetts has directed state inspectors to intensify searches for fuel price gouging, according to the Boston Globe. Barbara Anthony, the Massachusetts undersecretary of consumer affairs and business regulation, said the state wants to make sure “no one’s even thinking about price-gouging.” Ms. Anthony has assigned more inspectors to audit gas stations.
The inspectors will also check for fuel price discrepancies between sign and pump, where signs are advertising a lower price.
From a fuel price management perspective, it’s critical for Massachusetts c-stores to make sure fuel price changes go through properly, pricing the sign in line with the pump, sign first when prices go up, pump first when prices go down. The PriceAdvantage fuel pricing software solution maintains the correct sequence for fuel price increases and decreases, in order to maintain legal pricing. The PriceAdvantage solution also provides a complete audit trail of retail store and competitor fuel prices, cost, and margin (both actual and replacement), on a daily basis. This makes it quick to respond to auditors who make accusations of fuel price gouging.
by John Keller | Mar 5, 2012 | Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Price Optimization
In the US Energy Information Administration “Today’s Gasoline Prices” report released today, unleaded fuel prices in the Rocky Mountain region rose $0.14 per gallon, the highest of any region in the country. In two weeks, that’s a $0.24 per gallon increase in fuel prices for the Rocky Mountains.
The next highest fuel price increase for the week was $0.12 per gallon in the Midwest. Third highest increase was $0.08 per gallon in the “West Coast less CA” region. Overall, the US average unleaded fuel price increased $0.07 to $3.793.
