by John Keller | Dec 11, 2012 | Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
In their Short-Term Energy Outlook released today, the US Energy Information Administration reported that fuel demand in 2012 will be .3% lower than 2011. The agency also projected in the report that 2013 fuel demand will be unchanged from 2012.
In 2012, the .2% projected increase in highway travel was offset by the .5% increase in fleet-wide fuel efficiency, thus the net of a .3% decrease in fuel demand.
In 2013, the US EIA predicts that despite higher assumed growth in U.S. real disposable income and a projected decline in gasoline retail prices of 5.5 percent, forecast motor gasoline consumption will remain almost unchanged from 2012 because of continued slow growth in the driving-age population, improvements in the average fuel economy of new vehicles, and increased rates of retirement of older, less-fuel-efficient vehicles.
From a fuel price management perspective, if these projections prove to be accurate, retail fuel analysts will need to enlist the best fuel price optimization software available to win their share of the fuel volume pie.
The full report may be found here.
by John Keller | Dec 7, 2012 | Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
OPIS reported this week that average retail fuel margins reversed a four week trend and increased by $0.03 per gallon this week. Retail fuel margins are now at $0.198 per gallon.
The increase this week virtually offsets the loss in fuel margins last week, resetting margin levels to those of November 23.
This news is welcome relief to the fuel analyst as we enter into the final weeks of 2012.
by John Keller | Dec 6, 2012 | Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
Casey’s announced their retail fuel margins were $0.167 per gallon in Q2 of the 2013 fiscal year. That retail fuel margin is slightly ahead of their stated company goal of $0.140 per gallon. However, retail same store fuel gallons sold was down 2.9%, failing to meet the Casey’s corporate goal of increasing same store volume by 1%. This is the second consecutive quarter where same store retail fuel volume gallons sold was down by over 2.5%.
From a fuel price management perspective, these results indicate a classic case of pulling a lever to increase fuel margins to the point where volume results suffer.
Retail fuel margins for the same period last year were $0.149 per gallon.
by John Keller | Nov 30, 2012 | Retail Fuel Margins
In their weekly report released today, OPIS said retail fuel margins dropped for the fourth consecutive week. Retail fuel margins now stand at $0.167 per gallon.
Retail fuel margins lost a total of $0.20 per gallon over the month of November, erasing all October gains. Retail fuel margins are now at levels last seen on October 12, 2012.
From a fuel price management perspective, one can only hope the year can finish at these levels and the November trend will stop.
by John Keller | Nov 16, 2012 | Retail Fuel Margins
For the week ending November 16, 2012, OPIS reports that retail fuel margins dropped again. This is the second straight week of fuel margin declines.
Fuel margins now stand at $0.214 per gallon. That represents a decrease of $0.078 per gallon, resulting in a combined decrease over the past two weeks of over $0.15 per gallon.
Fuel margins are now back to levels last seen in mid-October, over four weeks ago.
by John Keller | Nov 6, 2012 | Retail Fuel Margins
In their Q3 fiscal results, TravelCenters of America announced their quarterly retail fuel margins were improved over last year, but retail fuel volumes were lower. Overall net income for the quarter was down $1.8 million.
For the three months ended September 30, 2012, retail fuel gross margins were up 2.4% from the same quarter last year. Total retail fuel volumes were down 6.8% year over year. Net income for the quarter was down $1.8 million compared to Q3 last year.
TravelCenters of America operates 192 company-owned stores which sold a total of 481 million gallons of fuel for the quarter. That equates to 2.5 million gallons of fuel per store for the quarter, or 835,000 gallons of fuel per store per month. The NACS annual store average is 124,000 gallons per month, so clearly TravelCenters continues to operate a high volume model.
