by John Keller | May 26, 2010 | Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Technology, Industry News, PriceAdvantage
In the 5/26/2010 edition of the CSP Daily News, the NACStech Roundup report includes a summary of what Skyline Products is doing with the PriceAdvantage fuel pricing software. It describes how c-stores who upgrade hardware for PCI compliance get the additional benefit of fuel price management to the sign and POS.
“Skyline Products, Colorado Springs, Colo: Increasing, electronic capability at the c-store is allowing Skyline the ability to integrate and execute fuel pricing strategies, according to company officials. Aaron McHugh, division director, said PCI deadlines have forced many to upgrade registers and wide-area networks, which allows for the functionality necessary to better control and execute pricing changes.”
For years Skyline has touted the ability to hang fuel price signs off the VeriFone POS system, and allow the POS to change fuel prices at the sign. Now in 2010 Skyline’s PriceAdvantage fuel pricing software application provides the additional benefit of allowing the Fuel Manager to change fuel prices from headquarters, down to the VeriFone Sapphire POS, and out to the sign. Once the price is changed at the sign, confirmation is provided back to the PriceAdvantage fuel price software at headquarters, with a time/date stamp alerting the Fuel Manager when exactly the prices were changed at the sign and across the system. This closed loop integration has already improved speed to the street at customers such as Fikes (CEFCO convenience stores) based in Temple, TX.
by John Keller | May 26, 2010 | Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News
In the 5/26/2010 edition of “This Week in Petroleum” released by the US Energy Information Administration, the U.S. average price for regular gasoline this week dropped almost 8 cents to $2.79 per gallon. The national average price for diesel fuel fell 7 cents to $3.02 per gallon.
This drop in regular gasoline is the largest weekly decrease since July 13, 2009. The diesel weekly decrease is the largest since December 15, 2008.
Prices for both regular gasoline and diesel fell in all areas of the country; the largest drop occurred in the Midwest and the smallest drop was in the Rocky Mountains. On the East Coast the weekly drop was $.07 for both regular gas and diesel, and in California regular gas dropped $.07 while diesel dropped $.08.
The national average price for regular gasoline is $0.35 higher than last year at this time while diesel is $0.75 higher than last year.
by John Keller | May 20, 2010 | Fuel Price Management, Retail Fuel Margins
As reported in CSP News, the latest Lundberg survey of 5000 US gas stations determined that over the past two weeks, the average price of fuel decreased $.42 per gallon. With the price of crude oil increasing $.20 per barrel over that same time period, retail fuel margins shrank by 2.16 cents per gallon.
So far this year, the combined retail fuel margin of all three grades of gasoline stands at 11.51 cents per gallon, just one tenth of one cent below the retail fuel margins of 2009.
Such razor thin retail fuel margins continue to reinforce the urgency to manage fuel prices, volumes, and margins with a robust Fuel Pricing Software system. These systems provide the strategic capabilities and speed to the street beyond those provided by simple homegrown Excel systems built for fuel price management.
by John Keller | May 20, 2010 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News
The Associated Press continues to set consumer expectations that they can expect to pay less at the pump this summer then the summer of 2009.
Highlights of the article:
“Prices for heating oil, gasoline and Brent crude all dropped by at least 3 percent. “People are saying it’s time to get out,” said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research. Earlier this year, Lynch stood out from many of his peers by predicting that oil prices would fall. “The market has gotten way ahead of itself,” Lynch said. “People kept saying that soon demand will go up and inventories will go down. But that’s not happening.”
“Traders started getting nervous as the debt crisis unfolded in Europe. U.S. government data showing that Americans continue to have a relatively weak appetite for fuel have sunk energy prices even further.”
“If the world doesn’t start sopping up excess supplies, oil prices may fall into the $40-per-barrel range this year, Lynch said.”
“At the pump, retail gasoline prices dropped 1.2 cents overnight to a new national average of $2.84 a gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular unleaded is 1.9 cents cheaper than it was a month ago, but it’s 50.6 cents more expensive than a year ago. Experts say gas prices have likely peaked already this year, and it should cost less to fill up this summer than in the summer of 2009. That’s good news for the travel industry as Americans get ready to hit the highways over the Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of the summer driving season.
The full AP article can be read here.
by John Keller | May 14, 2010 | Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
In today’s Short-term Energy Outlook published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the independent statistics and analysis organization predicted the Unleaded fuel price annual average will hit $2.86 per gallon for 2010. That’s slightly more than 22% over the 2009 average of $2.35. The report predicts the annual average will rise again in 2011 to $2.98 per gallon.
The report does not blame the Louisiana oil spill for this rise in fuel prices, though it does say there may be a longer term impact on energy supplies, prices, and infrastructure in the region.
As Fuel Managers navigate the gradual rise in fuel prices over the next few years, it’s critical to leverage a fuel pricing software application to make the best strategic decisions from a volume and profit standpoint, day by day.
by John Keller | May 4, 2010 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Technology, PriceAdvantage
PriceAdvantage 3.2, the latest fuels pricing solution from Skyline Products is now available. This latest release includes key new features based on customer request.
PriceAdvantage adds the Gilbarco Passport to its list of supported POS integrations. Other already supported POS systems include Radiant and VeriFone. All PriceAdvantage POS integrations allow fuel price managers to directly post prices to the street from headquarters. Each POS integration enables a fully integrated price change process which saves time at all levels, creating a more streamlined operation, and maintaining more control.
PriceAdvantage 3.2 adds real-time sign intelligence, giving technicians more insight into exactly what is going with signs at the store level. Sign issues can be brought to attention more quickly allowing them to be resolved before they become a problem.
Version 3.2 also adds support for PDI Enterprise imports. Now fuel managers can see daily, up-to-date PDI Enterprise information on volume and cost. It is this insight from PDI Enterprise that allows fuel managers to make the best price optimization decisions.
by John Keller | May 3, 2010 | Fuel Price Optimization, Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
On April 14, 2010, the National Association of Convenience Stores presented a summary of 2009 performance statistics at their annual State of the Industy Summit. Key statistical takeways:
- Motor fuel sales represent 68.4% of all convenience store sales dollars. That’s despite a 28% drop in fuel prices and a corresponding 26.9% drop in fuel revenue during 2009.
- Total gallons of fuel sold rose 1.3% over 2008.
- Motor fuels retail fuel margins were at 13.8 cents per gallon.
- Motor fuels contribution to the industry’s profit dollars was 27.3%, where in-store sales contributed 72.7% to store profits.
Once again these statistics reinforce the importance of two things:
1. Monitoring fuel volume and retail fuel margins require diligence on the part of Fuel Managers, who are responsible for an enormous amount of revenue, at razor thin margins.
2. While fuel sales contributions to c-store profits may only be one-third of overall in-store profits, there’s no question that effective fuel strategies drive business to that critical profitabilty gained from in-store sales.
by John Keller | Apr 27, 2010 | Fuel Price Optimization, Retail Fuel Margins
As reported in CSP News, the latest Lundberg survey of 5000 US gas stations determined that over the past two weeks, the average price of fuel decreased $.42 per gallon. With the price of crude oil increasing $.20 per barrel over that same time period, retail fuel margins shrank by 2.16 cents per gallon.
So far this year, the combined retail fuel margin of all three grades of gasoline stands at 11.51 cents per gallon, just one tenth of one cent below the margins of 2009.
Such razor thin retail fuel margins continue to reinforce the urgency to manage fuel prices, volumes, and margins with a robust Fuel Pricing Software system. These systems provide the strategic capabilities and speed to the street beyond those provided by simple homegrown Excel systems.
by John Keller | Apr 15, 2010 | Fuel Price Optimization, Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
In a statement that sets consumer expectations for fuel to top out at $3/gallon this year, the Troy Messenger reported today that an expert with AAA doesn’t expect fuel prices to go much above $3/gallon if even that.
“This is just the time of year where we see prices increase because our demand naturally increases,” said Clay Ingram, public relations and marketing manager for Alabama AAA.
Ingram said the trend occurs every year around spring after drivers have recovered financially from the holidays and have begun to get out and enjoy the weather. “It’s not unexpected by any means,” he said.
Ingram said economic factors may be currently influencing fuel prices, as well. “There seems to be a little optimism on the Wall Street side of things that the economy might be turning around,” he said. That confidence drives up the price of commodities as investors rush to buy crude oil.
Still, Ingram said that at $83 per barrel, the price of oil is where it should be, and while demand is rising as expected, it is still relatively low. “Our demand right now comparatively, is really mild,” he said. For that reason, Ingram explained consumers shouldn’t worry about any dramatic increases in fuel prices like what was seen two years ago.
“That will be why we won’t see our fuel prices go up a dollar per gallon in a month,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll see anything that extreme this year.”
Ingram said that high inventories and favorable refining capacities are also factors that will likely prevent sudden fuel price increases since they would allow for the accommodation of a sudden spike in demand.
In fact, Ingram said fuel prices could be near a high-mark for the year. “I’m not even sure we’ll go over $3 a gallon this year. If we do, it won’t be by much,” he said.
by John Keller | Apr 14, 2010 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Technology, Industry News, PriceAdvantage, Retail Fuel Margins
Skyline Products announced today that they have launched a new separate division to focus solely on their patent-pending PriceAdvantage™ software that is literally changing the way the convenience store industry manages fuel pricing.
The industry has taken notice. “Customers like Sheetz, Royal Farms, Fikes Wholesale, Spinx and others are faster, more efficient, fully automated way to run their fuel business,” says Aaron McHugh, who is leading the charge for the new PriceAdvantage software division.
Sheetz saw $141,000 cost savings, Fikes Wholesale, Spinx and Rutter’s are now controlling price changes from headquarters to their pumps, POS and electronic signs. “With the tactical elements fully automated, our customers can better focus on their strategy,” says McHugh. The return on investment for PriceAdvantage is often less than 12 months making this one of the most effective and efficient tools in the industry.
Seven years ago, this long-time hardware and software company saw an opportunity to dramatically increase their customers’ fuel profits by providing fuel managers with critical competitive information, making it simple and quick to implement price changes. PriceAdvantage puts the optimal price at the fuel manager’s fingertips and allows them to command every price change from headquarters. This maximizes fuel profitability by guaranteeing that the right price is the price is posted.
Greg Stadjuhar, Skyline Vice President of Sales says, “With our long time involvement in the petroleum industry, we recognized an opportunity to leverage the ingenuity and success we’d experienced with command and control software in the transportation industry for the last twenty years. It became clear very quickly that we had the right formula. Almost immediately, PriceAdvantage became a tremendous success for Skyline and our customers.”
Skyline has been so successful with PriceAdvantage they are launching a new division dedicated solely to its continued development and success. “The market has been in need of this for a while. If we can put a man on the moon, why do fuel price managers still have to manually hunt down competitive and market data, and call every store for a price change?” says McHugh. “We’ve solved that problem, and we are the only company doing it. The time is right, the market is ready, and we are delivering.”
Underscoring their commitment, they have hired software industry veterans to help implement a strong infrastructure and accelerate their success. Joining McHugh’s team are John Keller and Quentin Goin, each bringing more than 13 years of business-to-business software industry experience.
Sr. Product Manager, John Keller, says, “This is an exciting and compelling opportunity for me. I thrive on taking customer and market input, and helping create a solution that they don’t know how they ever lived without. Skyline’s PriceAdvantage software began something that will allow us to literally revolutionize the way fuel prices are managed. This is only the beginning of an industry-wide shift and we are on the forefront making it happen.”
A perfect compliment to Keller’s skills, Quentin Goin, Sales and Implementation Engineer, works side-by-side with customers and implements a configured PriceAdvantage solution to match their needs. Passionate about his work, an animated Goin says, “I have been helping customers solve problems with technology since 1997, and I have never seen such a rapid and considerable return on investment as Skyline customers get with PriceAdvantage.”
Says McHugh, “Skyline’s innovation and commitment to solving these problems is driving expansion and growth even in a tough economy. The contribution of these two accomplished software industry experts has already increased the speed at which we are delivering high quality solutions to our customers.”
