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.
by John Keller | Dec 5, 2011 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy
A federal antitrust complaint is alleging that QuikTrip is setting their fuel prices below cost. Parker’s is another c-store chain that is fighting to keep their fuel prices aggressive. These allegations are part of the fuel pricing game for those who are fighting at the low end of the fuel price market.
When c-stores find themselves in these suits, the key to minimizing legal costs is to have access to a fuel price management system that maintains a complete audit trail of fuel prices and cost over time, down to the daily and even hourly level on a store by store basis. To prove innocence, it may be required to report both replacement and actual cost.
With the PriceAdvantage fuel price management system, these lawsuits are nothing to be afraid of.
by John Keller | Oct 26, 2011 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Price Optimization
CEFCO Convenience Stores has grown by approximately 60% this year. According to Brett Giesick, Chief Retail Officer quoted in today’s article in Convenience Store News, the reason why Fikes is able to grow so successfully is because of “having the right infrastructure.” Specificallly, Giesick cites their operations, marketing, and support teams for allowing CEFCO to achieve their planned growth.
The PriceAdvantage Fuels Price Management Solution is a key part of the infrastructure at CEFCO. Giesick and his team of Territory Managers use PriceAdvantage to carefully monitor the fuels volume sales of each store according to the latest daily import from PDI, compare it to fuels volume targets in a view with the latest competitor pricing trends, and from the same view send new fuel prices to each store. This allows CEFCO to execute fuel price changes according to their fuel price strategies in a fraction of the time it used to take with the fuel pricing solutions they had before PriceAdvantage.
True fuel price optimization can only be achieved through well executed fuel price strategies across the entire enterprise. And with PriceAdvantage, CEFCO is able to optimize their fuel prices, optimize fuel profits, and achieve their growth plans.
by John Keller | Oct 25, 2011 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy
One of the components of fuel price management strategies is the public expectations of short term future trends in gas prices. Public expectations of gas prices are influenced by the most recent news articles. Today MSNBC.COM published an article setting expectations that gas prices will likely lower throughout the remaining months of the year. The article cites the US Energy Information Administration as saying gas prices should decrease through the beginning of the new year. Patrick DeHaan, Senior Petroleum Analyst at GasBuddy, is cited as saying he expects gas prices to possibly lower to $3.25 by the end of the year.
The article goes on to explain that fuel prices should lower due to decreased demand in the winter months, and the lower cost of winter fuel.
Obviously this article isn’t enough to base an entire fuel price management strategy on, but it is a key piece of information worthy of attention. Articles like these lead to drivers keeping an eye out for lower fuel prices, and to some degree asking what is taking so long for gas prices to lower.
by John Keller | Sep 21, 2011 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Price Optimization, Retail Fuel Margins
Rutter’s has been using PriceAdvantage as their fuel pricing solutions for four years. Rutter’s uses PriceAdvantage on a daily basis to analyze store volume and margin performance, along with competitor movement, to determine the optimized prices at each store. Then fuel managers initiate fuel price changes from their headquarters office. in conjunction with their Skyline electronic price signs and Radiant Point Of Sale systems, PriceAdvantage pushes the new prices to each store, and sends back a confirmation message to headquarters once the price change is complete at the POS, electronic price signs, and pumps.
As part of their upgrade to PriceAdvantage version 3.4, Rutter’s has extended their PriceAdvantage fuels solutions to GasBuddy OpenStore, allowing them to update the GasBuddy site with up-to-the-minute gas prices whenever the PriceAdvantage automated fuels pricing system confirms the price change as completed. With this GasBuddy integration, Rutter’s has essentially extended their retail fuel price marketing, allowing PriceAdvantage to command and control fuel prices beyond the physical electronic gas price signs, to virtual signs on the Web.
by John Keller | Jul 27, 2011 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Price Optimization, Retail Fuel Margins
Valero Energy in their quarterly report announced that US retail fuel margins for the past three months were $.204 per gallon. That’s an increase of nearly $.02 compared to the same time period last year.
For the six months ended June 30, retail fuel margins were $.142 per gallon, essentially unchanged compared to $.148 for the same six months the previous year.
For the three months ended June 30, Valero retail sales in the US were 5,094 gallons per day per site (154,518 gallons per month per site), down 2% from 5,196 gallons per day per site the previous year. For the six months ended June 30, Valero retail sales in the US were down 1.5% from the previous year, with 2011 sales reaching 4,995 gallons per day per site (151,515 gallons per month per site) compared to 5,070 gallons per day per site for the same period in 2010.
According to NACS, the average US c-store sells 121,000 gallons of fuel per month annually. That means over the past three months, Valero stores sold about 27% more than the US national monthly average.
According to Valero’s press release, “Valero’s retail segment continued its record-setting performance with $135 million in operating income, which was the best second quarter in Valero’s history. The increase in operating income was mainly due to higher retail fuel margins….”
Clearly Valero is tremendously successful with their retail fuel price management solutions.
Valero has nearly 1000 company operated stores in the US.