tcaputo

Stop by Warren Rogers Booth #3609
at the PEI Show in Chicago, Oct. 5-8
Hello fuel and travel center operators nationwide.

We would like to personally invite you to meet face-to-face with us in Chicago, October 5-8, 2021, at PEI 2021 at the NACS Show.With proper safety precautions in place, we will be at McCormick Place so make sure to stop by booth 3609 and register for a chance to WIN a FREE YEti cooler.Would you like to schedule a meeting with our team? Contact us at 540-314-6210 or tcaputo@warrenrogers.com.

KNOW. PREVENT, SAVE. See the latest information on our innovative fuelWRAp application and ask about a FREE trial at the show!

Dowload the full Sigma IGM Article, Sept./Oct. 2021: WRA IGM Article Sept Oct 2021

The events of the past year been challenging and have placed unexpected demands on retail petroleum operators and their maintenance divisions. There have been widespread outages due to the freeze in Texas, the Colonial Pipeline shutdown, and the general shortage of transport drivers. Additionally, there is a shortage of skilled maintenance technicians that can respond to outages or to emergent equipment problems.  Further, supply chain issues have affected the supply of replacement parts.

Because of these realities, maintenance can no longer be conducted in an ad hoc manner. The key to a structured and efficient maintenance program is the collection of forecourt data from pump controllers and automatic tank gauges and the curation of this data to eliminate noise.

Clearly there is a need to make field maintenance activities more efficient. Optimization is needed to reduce service costs, enhance the customer experience, and maximize fuel sales. The broader challenge is to use forecourt data to get insights across the enterprise. With such granular data the fuel retailer will be able to adapt quickly to new challenges, identify and track emerging trends, and to know what processes are functioning properly and to be alerted when they are not.

How is maintenance done in the absence of forecourt data?

Typically, these maintenance activities are either routine or impromptu. Routine maintenance is scheduled according to a calendar regardless of need. Routine activities can be annual meter calibrations regular filter replacements or environmental inspections. Additionally, there were other impromptu activities that can be classified as targeted responses.  Such activities could be prompted by reports from the store GM, customer complaints, regulatory inspections, loss control, and issues raised by […]

We often see the convenience and travel center industry moving toward larger stores and forecourts, adding additional lanes and dispensers to new and existing builds, especially for peak sales periods. For those well-capitalized companies, this is a great initiative. Unfortunately, for smaller regional operators, the cost of forecourt upgrades can be daunting.

However, running FASTER and more-efficient forecourts and, for that matter, FASTER compliance, supply, and maintenance teams, is easily achievable for fuel operators, large or small.

Here are just a few ways to improve your forecourt without major capital investment:

Improve your dispenser fuel flow to the optimum range. The target goal should 10 gallons per minute for gasoline-based grades and 35-45 gallons per minute for truck diesel-based grades. Underperforming dispensers can drastically reduce your gallon throughput from 25 to 50%, slowing down your lanes and causing backups during peak demand. Innovative software is readily available to help track your transactions and flow rates and make recommendations regarding dispensing positions that are under-performing. Providers may also offer troubleshooting support to help maintenance teams diagnose the true cause of the slowdowns versus trial and error. As you speed up your fuel flow, customers can quickly fuel their vehicles, visit inside of the store, and move on with their day.

Quickly identify when a dispenser position is no longer transacting and could be out-of-service. Often, throughput can be dramatically diminished when a dispenser is out-of-order and repairs have not been performed. Innovative software is available to notify companies when a dispensing position has not generated sales transactions over a short period of time. This could help identify dispensers in need of investigation and repair. Some software suppliers can also estimate the impact of the downed fueling positions, […]

Every day, we see more and more announcements of mergers and acquisitions within the convenience store channel. Convenience Store Decisions, an industry trade publication, tracks c-store acquisition activity closely. Merger and acquisition activity has been especially-high in the last 3-4 years. You can read more about recent industry activity at: https://csnews.com/mergers-and-acquisitions?eiq_2_end=24.

Fortunately, many convenience store operators have been able to obtain lucrative prices for their wholesale and/or retail businesses. There are many reasons that operators sell. These decisions can include economic factors, a desire to retire or lack of successor planning/no interest to continue operations within the family, pending competitive activity, the high cost of regulatory upgrades or EMV, and the recent roller-coaster ride due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Managing through Covid-19 has also left many operators simply burned-out from the stress of ongoing business operations, trying to protect their associates and customers from the virus, dramatic revenue decreases, the EMV deadline, and the volatility of the fuel market overall. For those companies that have made their way through the fog, “growth” is often at the top of their list of future goals.

Whether you are on the selling or buying side, a major question is “How well is your company positioned for merger or acquisition?”  We have put together a few suggestions on operational areas to consider should you be getting ready to “grow” or plan to build up your business to obtain the highest price possible. In addition, with many regional operators run by family members over multiple generations, are you ensuring that you are leaving your faithful associates in a good place as they prepare to take on more responsibility or grow with the new ownership? This dilemma keeps many family-operators up at […]

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Tony Caputo

Warren Rogers Associates

800-972-7472, ext 853

tcaputo@warrenrogers.com

Media Contact: Lynn Butler RDW Group

401-553-5113 

lbutler@rdwgroup.com

Warren Rogers Introduces Enhanced Cloud-based fuelWRAp Application

MIDDLETOWN, R.I. — (March 3, 2021) Warren Rogers, a leading provider of precision fuel monitoring to convenience stores and other fuel retailers, introduces the latest version of their innovative and secure fuelWRAp application. Warren Rogers’ fuelWRAp is the most precise and efficient fuel management system available today. fuelWRAp uses real-time data and leverages the flexibility and smart analytics of the cloud to help fuel retailers continuously track every drop of precious fuel inventory — as it makes its way to their sites, enters the tank, flows through each fuel line, and reaches the meter — even at the most complex, high-throughput sites.

The latest edition of fuelWRAp features a new and intuitive User Dashboard, simplified menu options, detailed diagnostics, insightful performance metrics, and industry-leading exception-based reporting, all supported by analyst teams, directly assigned to each client. Using fuelWRAp, travel center and conventional convenience store support staff can minimize their time spent each day identifying and addressing issues such as dormant or down fueling positions, water in tank, active tank gauge alarms, meters out-of-variance, failed tank, sensor, and line testing, low inventory levels, lost communications, slowing fuel flow trends, and other abnormalities.

Today, many fuel operators count on the manual reporting of store equipment-related issues. fuelWRAp automates these tasks and provides critical information, 24/7, 365 days a year. Users can view their forecourt diagnostics across their enterprise on a consolidated and centralized online platform, enabled for desktop, mobile, and tablet. fuelWRAp will continue to provide customized auditing and operational reports along with the compliance documentation required to meet all state and federal regulations.

“Customers turn to us for CITLDs, […]