Fuel Me Once, Fuel Me Twice

The retail petroleum industry powers far more than passenger vehicles and long-haul trucks.

More than a half century ago most petroleum retailers had a pretty small footprint. You only needed a fraction of a block to build a small building and forecourt; repair bays were definitely an optional deal.

There weren’t any truck stops in the beginning, either. Long-haul truck drivers (in rigs considerably smaller than today’s) relied on these typically small, family-owned gas stations, forever linking the concept of retail petroleum to passenger vehicles and trucks.

Flash forward to today, and practically every aspect of the retail petroleum industry has transformed into something those mom-and-pop pioneers might not recognize. Besides the rather striking average increase in building and lot size, there’s the prominence and versatility and variety of the c-store concepts that have replaced automobile mechanical service.

The spotlight on the industry’s evolution often lands on food and in-store merchandise—and rightly so. But petroleum-based fuel, the other key part of the operator’s business, has changed, too, in terms of the variety of vehicles into which it is dispensed. Most of them didn’t even exist in the industry’s formative years, and go far beyond passenger cars and long-haul trucks.[1] Variations on your friendly neighborhood c-store keep these fuel burning options going, often in wide-ranging rural areas.

Water Craft. Fans of water sports like speed boating and jet skiing remain reliant upon fuel, and the industry provides it. Not all solutions are as singular as Coal Harbour’s floating Chevron station. Many resemble the city of Sacramento’s Fuel Dock and C-Store, positioned on a Sacramento River marina. The slightly more glamorous c-store and fuel dock at Pirate Cove Resort on the Colorado River is another example.

Agricultural Vehicles, Landscaping Euipment. Tractors and harvesters often use diesel engines to function efficiently in the field. And landscaping equipment, like riding mowers and leaf blowers, need their own kinds of fuel. For added customer convenience, some c-stores, like SSCS customer Battle Lake Standard in Minnesota, rent the equipment as well as sell fuel, creating a one-stop-shop.

Farmers who need to fuel their equipment at a local supplier often will drive to the site with a Portable Gas Tank in the back of their pickup truck to make transporting gas to and from the farm a lot faster than say, using a tractor. In addition, a gas station that functions as a fuel marketer or fuel wholesaler may have its own small truck fleet for delivering fuel to a network of other regional outlets.

Small Aircraft. Small aircraft rely on aviation fuel (avgas). Avgas comes in two forms, the petroleum-based 100LL (low lead), and a fuel called Jet A or Jet A-1 which requires (petroleum-based) kerosine. The latter is used in turbine engines.

How the fuel is delivered to the aircraft varies. Most small plane owners buy gas on the runway from fixed base operators (FBOs), service providers found at airports which often utilize drive up fuel trucks. Unmanned fuel stations also dispense avgas, allowing pilots to independently buy it using a credit card or fuel card issued by the FBO.

ATVs and Snowmobiles. Recreational vehicles both for winter and summer fun, are frequently seen fueling up at c-stores. ATVs are constantly in the forecourt of SSCS customer Pine Canyon Store in unincorporated Central California. There are plenty of retailers that do the same for snowmobiles. Some, like Three Lakes Shell Station, sell snowmobile parts, too.

No matter what kind of vehicle your pumps dispense into, SSCS Technology makes fuel sales and volume management faster and more accurate. You’ll can track every fuel delivery, tank inventory reading and fuel sale. Fuel has always been at the heart of the Computerized Daily Book back office, and our approach to the software that manages it has been refined consistently to keep up with industry changes. We’ll go over more specifics, if you’d like, when you give us a call at (800) 972-7727.

[1] Long-haul trucking has gone through its own massive transformation and driven the creation of the truck stop as a convenience channel subtype. Truck stops, though, are ultimately blending into the rest of the convenience channel, incorporating c-store concepts like franchise pairings, diverse food options, travel retail, and the utilization of mobile apps for navigation and services.