Over the last few decades, fuel tank systems have become increasingly complicated to monitor and manage, adding to the already significant load felt by fueling station managers. While much of this complexity can be attributed to the proliferation of double-walled tanks to comply with environmental regulations, it is further augmented by new industry standards for compliance and advanced technologies and solutions for monitoring them. The ensuing intricacy has provided the liquid fuel downstream industry with an ever-growing mountain of information to process.

As your inbox quickly fills up with alerts triggered by the many sensors placed in your fuel tanks, you may soon find yourself overwhelmed by overdue tasks and lose perspective of the health of your systems. Information is a powerful asset until you have far too much of it. Then it quickly becomes noise, lacking insights or ability to act.

There is no doubt that automated fuel tank monitoring is the smart way to ensure safety, compliance, and efficiency. But your monitoring system is just your first defense from critical safety, efficiency, and compliance issues. The second defense comes from managing your response to those alarms.

The problem of too much information

At Titan Cloud, we analyzed 30,000 tank systems at over 10,000 fueling facilities in an effort to understand the scope of problems that they were having. The sheer number of automated alarms generated by ATG systems doubled over our three-year analysis period and is set to surpass the 4 million mark this year.

But it turns out that not all of these alarms are worthy of dispatching a service call. In fact, most are not. Far too many are the result of misconfigured alarm systems, resulting in false alarms, testing activity, unnecessary maintenance trips, wasted hours, and a distorted view of your system. Even when you think your system is properly configured, you may find that your threshold settings were changed after a system outage or repair and no longer reflect the correct setting you intended for them. Without conducting a site-by-site audit of your system and sensors, how do you know which alarms require action?

For example, our assessment of one fueling chain comprising 700 sites showed that nearly 30,000 alarms were detected over the course of just 60 days. Our analysis of those alarms showed that only 17,000 were compliance-related issues, and of those, only about 2,000 were actionable issues. Of those, only about 350 required a field service dispatch. That’s only about 1% of all the alarms detected.

You may be wondering about the other 99 percent. Well, often, alarms can be sounded by a faulty sensor, fuel system testing, a wiring issue, or system connectivity issues. While important to address, these are the types of alarms that, once triggered, are prone to be repeatedly sent to one’s inbox until they get fixed. And, while they may not indicate a problem with the tank, they do add to the overall noise that a facilities manager has to deal with.

Cutting through the noise

Poorly configured systems lead to costly alarm overkill and wasted resources. An alert management system can help you cut through the noise and zero in on the issues that require immediate attention. By providing remote access to all your data and compliance records, and the ability to remotely monitor and troubleshoot alarms, you will have the tools for cutting through the noise and distinguishing between real emergencies and false alarms.

Titan Cloud offers solutions to sift through all these noisy distractions. Our AI-assisted tools can quickly analyze all of your alarms to give you a quick snapshot of your system that focuses on your most critical needs first. We have solutions for alarm management, remote ATG management, compliance documentation management, remote leak detection and more. And best of all, our tools are hardware agnostic, so they will work with the systems you already own.

Titan Cloud can also provide your company a personalized ATG system and alarm configuration assessment that will compare your alarm data to the latest industry standards and provide recommendations on how you can optimize your system for efficiency, compliance, and performance.

Sign up for your Personalized Alarm and Configuration Assessment with a Titan Cloud
Expert. In this one-hour session, you can expect:

• Overview of best-practice alarm management
• Benefits from Alarm AI and Configuration Management
• Current state vs. future state recommendations

Increased frequency of natural disasters means higher risk of downtime, but many operators are unprepared. Read more to ensure you are doing everything to better plan for and recover from extreme weather events.

Halfway through 2023, there have already been nine weather- or climate-related disasters with losses exceeding $1 billion each to affect the United States. Flooding, winter storms, and severe storm events were among these events, which also had a substantial economic impact on the affected regions.

If that were not enough, a dangerous heat wave recently created powerful tornadoes in Texas and Florida, where at least four people were killed this month in twisters that touched down in the nations’ panhandles. Heatwaves and electrical storms can easily damage sensitive equipment, while other more serious events like hurricanes and tornadoes can knock fuel locations offline for days or even weeks.

As a result, these storm events have a direct impact on fuel operations and supplies. Tulsa municipal authorities, for example, were hard at work this month to avoid a possible gas shortage after stations were damaged or lost power during the recent round of severe storms. Some fuel stations are still operating but getting to the pump required waiting in standstill traffic.

Take Measures to Ride Out the Storm

The costs of downtime can be staggering. Beyond the loss of services and availability, natural disasters can also cause a lot of damage to the physical infrastructure and fuel systems that keep businesses running. Fortunately, owner operators can take measures to ensure their fuel facilities are ready for difficult weather events — and recover more quickly from them.

Integrate Maintenance with Fuel Assets to Optimize Uptime
The most effective facility managers excel at preventing severe weather from wreaking havoc on their operations and customer experiences by prioritizing regular maintenance and updates to critical systems in their facilities. This is more easily and optimally managed on a single platform that provides centralized visibility. That’s why leaders in c-store and fleet work with Titan to unify their entire organization onto one platform. Get the tools you need to remotely fix your most pressing fuel equipment problems as well, which is essential during severe weather situations.

Storm-Specific Actions & Preventative Checklists
Prior to severe weather occurrences, teams can assess and record important issues at the site level using Titan’s Advanced Facility Inspection (AFI) solution and storm-specific preventative checklists. Corrective actions can be carried out with the tool’s automated workflows before any customer or site impacts have an influence on profitability. The AFI app also goes beyond fuel assets to address other critical applications such as refrigerated coolers, HVAC systems, and electrical inspections before and after storms.

Examples of storm-specific actions may include:

• Tank Top Equipment – Inspect any potential source of intrusion into the tank such as caps, gaskets, damaged grommets, and spare risers. Be sure to look for settling concrete that may cause damage to below ground components.
• Vent Lines – Inspect vent lines for signs of corrosion and damage. Vents that lean may have been struck, leading to below grade fractures and a subsequent source of water entry.

Water Trends Visibility
With remote connectivity to your location, track the entry of water above a given threshold using Titan’s Water Trends Reporting. Additionally, reports may be automatically sent to your teams at predetermined intervals. For instance, you set your water threshold at .25 inches. You have .25 inches of sludge already in the bottom of your tank. The report will flag any ingress of water into the tank so that you can work to stay ahead of phase separation, and you can set up specific alerts once the water level in the tank hits .50 inches of water. This would represent a .25-inch increase over the sludge in the bottom of the tank.

Make the Most of Your Technology
Are you currently leveraging your technology to the fullest during these severe weather events? With remote connectivity a reliable and comprehensive fuel management platform is critical in times of disaster to ensure data is safe and accessible during and after severe weather occurrences. Storms can strike at any time and from anywhere, and having a reliable software provider with contingencies in place can help minimize losses and respond with the best plan of action.

Learn how the team at Titan Cloud can help you capture and monitor critical data points that will help you deliver a proactive approach to preparing for these events, reduce risk, and minimize equipment down time.

Schedule a complimentary assessment with a solution expert today

Your environmental compliance team has been through a lot of change over the past few years. The 2005 Energy Policy Act is fully in place and that means increased UST regulations and added another layer of complexity for many high-performing environmental compliance teams. Turbulent economic challenges and a global pandemic also means some teams are under-staffed, having to accomplish more with fewer resources. As if that wasn’t enough, the pandemic also changed many inspectors’ habits, leading to more fines and raising the stakes for understaffed teams. 

Ultimately, this adds up to an industry facing new and increasing challenges. That’s left some environmental teams scrambling to stay up to date. But under these same challenging circumstances, some teams aren’t just surviving, they’re thriving. 

So what separates high-performing environmental teams from their competitors? At Titan Cloud, we work with high-performing teams every day and we’ve noticed that the most successful teams have a few things in common. 

Here, we share the 4 most common practices that differentiates high-performing teams from the rest. Best of all, you can implement these tactics right away.

1. They are consistent and proactive when it comes to alerts.

Too often, operators are reactive to problems instead of proactive, but high-performing environmental teams stay ahead of major problems by fixing small ones.

With all the literal noise from beeping ATGs and other alerts, teams often jump from one emergency to the next without leaving any time or resources for non-emergent problems. However, high-performing teams are able to break this cycle and devote time and energy to fixing minor problems before they become major ones. They’re able to operate this efficiently because they’re consistent. They bake in time to perform visual inspections regularly, even if there isn’t an operator on site requiring it.

Become a high-performing team by proactively and consistently looking at release detection alerts, inventory variance trends, etc. to head off issues before they become headline-making problems.

2. Local operators are trained to respond to ATG alarms and they follow through.

ATGs constantly send alarms. Frequently these alarms are just informational and, as a result, local operators ignore them until ignoring an alarm becomes the standard operating procedure. 

Until a show-stopping event occurs, that is. Too often, crucial alarms get lost in the noise.

But high-performing teams do things differently. Their operators are trained to respond to ATG alarms and already have a plan in place for anything that requires corrective action. These operators know what to do, how to do it, and who to contact in their chain of command. 

When an event occurs that needs attention, high-performing environmental teams spot it and act on it right away, making a quick fix far more likely than if the problem had been allowed to progress. 

3. They keep meticulous electronic records.

High-performing environmental teams file notes electronically and follow-up quickly to get first-time fixes. They don’t waste valuable time hunting through filing cabinets, shoeboxes, or spreadsheets.

The information they need—operator classifications, warranties, records of action, NOVs, etc.—is available digitally to their internal teams and to operators and vendors. These files are often kept together in the same portal, with each component linking to the next. 

High-performing environmental teams don’t worry that the same problems will keep showing up during inspections, creating a paper-trail of inaction to be flagged by inspectors.

Instead, they have clear documentation from problem to solution that everyone can follow, be it an inspector, a boss, or vendors.

4. They’re in control of their vendors and their vendors’ records.

Speaking of vendors, many teams these days use 3rd party inspectors and wouldn’t be able to fulfill their obligations without them. Almost all 3rd party vendors use their individual app which can create more problems:  

• The apps don’t communicate with other apps or share data with other point solutions and other operators.
• You have to keep track of several different apps and remember what information is located where.
• Your operators are at the mercy of 3rd parties to meet compliance dates.
• Vendors have to send individual emails or summarize exceptions on a spreadsheet which then has to be manually transferred to internal systems.

These various apps and associated issues are a major headache. Some teams accept them as the price of doing business with 3rd party vendors, but not the high-performing teams. 

Instead of several point solutions with limited visibility, they opt for a single platform where everyone has access to the information they need. These teams are able to standardize their processes—and no, the processes don’t include shoeboxes or manually entering data you already have. Instead, technology populates that information for them.

Wrap up

Even with increasing regulations and decreasing resources, some environmental teams are performing better than ever. They’ve found an efficient solution that allows them to work smarter and save time and money: digitization. The above characteristics are easily accomplished with the right digital tools. 

Technology allows you to cut down on timely—not to mention error-prone—manual processes and start automating repetitive tasks. Too many teams still consider manual processes and paperwork problems unavoidable. An all-in-one platform, on the other hand, allows all of your teams and even your vendors to access the most important information from the same source.

You could be operating more efficiently. Your competitors might already be. If you’re interested in becoming a high-performing environmental team, contact us and our team will be ready to help.

Stranded business travelers. Airless buildings. Silenced elevators. Rush-hour chaos. From Detroit to Toronto to Manhattan and beyond, more than 50 million people across eight northeastern U.S. states and parts of Canada were without power. 

Millions lived again with uncertainty during the largest blackout in North American history almost 20 years ago. At the time, the suspicion was that the blackout represented a cyberattack on the U.S. power grid.

Thankfully, the cause was much more benign. A cascading series of events: human error, software issues, and equipment failures caused what the media called the Northeast Blackout.

But human suffering and business losses were significant

Make no mistake. The threat of cyberattacks is real. U.S. support of Ukraine as it wards off Russian aggression has invoked hostilities toward NATO and especially the United States, according to evolving intelligence.

As Putin’s military invasion of Ukraine wears on, his back is against the wall, said President Joe Biden. He recently warned of Russian cyberattacks against the U.S. Putin’s frustration grows as his suppression of Ukraine falters; some speculate that a cyberattack could be the next step.

Brian Harrell, a former assistant secretary for infrastructure protection at DHS, said “the most logical enemy avenue approach is through vulnerable 3rd parties and the critical supply chain.”

This points directly at critical infrastructure and the U.S. retail fuel supply. The threat to web-connected fuel tanks is no small matter.

Tank Monitors Susceptible to Cyber Risk

The vulnerability of the gauges used to monitor gasoline tanks is the latest security issue challenging industrial devices which are increasingly being connected to the Internet of Things (IoT). Automated tank gauges (ATGs) are used by nearly every fueling station in the United States and tens of thousands of systems internationally. 

While ATGs are typically accessed to monitor fuel inventories, attackers could easily alter the settings. Imagine if hackers concentrated their efforts to make changes to hundreds of systems simultaneously, locking out access which would lead to a host of problems.

Frequent run outs and loss of alarm notifications could result in ATG alarms being missed. A security breach on ATGs could raise issues with fuel compliance, fuel theft, and even terrorism.

Many independent operators connect to the Internet with an off-the-shelf home router and use a public IP address. They haven’t given much thought to security or firewall protection. Tank monitors that are connected remotely using public IP addresses are highly susceptible to cyberattacks. 

As a leader in data security, we factor security into every decision we make. From our IoT hardware to our Web platform, we strive to optimize security and minimize the risks associated with sensitive data. Here’s what we recommend to protect your convenience store operation.

5 Ways to Guard Against Cyberattacks

1. Close the system

Unlike the TCP/IP method of monitoring automatic tank gauges, which leaves multiple ports exposed to third parties for manipulation, the Titan cellular-based system is closed and entirely proprietary. It has no physical or digital “open ports” that expose a client’s network to potential unknown attack vectors.

2. Limit application access

Canary’s system is the only application running on our hardware, limiting the number of potential security holes from third parties. A site connected via TCP/IP can be connected to many applications, increasing risk exposure.

3. Encrypt communications

All communications between our device and the cloud are encrypted to ensure confidentiality; APIs are accessible only via HTTPS and use a 2048-bit TLS certificate.

4. Leverage trusted partners

We exclusively use best-in-class hosting via established and trusted hosting companies like Amazon Web Services, using ISO 27001, 27010, and 27018 physical security and risk management.

5. Manage user access and security

Canary employs strong password requirements, and access control lists to prevent users from controlling applications or devices that are not theirs.

Wrap Up

Being proactive and cyber aware is the first line of defense for every owner/operator connected to the Web. Using a secure, encrypted cell modem like a Canary box is a guaranteed way to eliminate the risk of a cyberattack to your network via your tank gauge by taking it off-network. 

While cybercriminals exist, you can protect yourself from rogue agents. You can limit the applications you use, manage user access, encrypt communications, and work with partners you trust.

What are you doing to ensure your ATG, a vulnerable network endpoint, is properly secured from increasing online threats to fueling infrastructure?

Learn more about Titan Cloud’s Canary today.

A shift towards SaaS 

There are vendors that will help companies do just about everything these days. From compliance management and fuel reconciliation to ATG alarm management and tank monitoring, retailers around the world are outsourcing services to third-party vendors to streamline their processes. But what if there’s a more efficient way to manage these services without having to relinquish control over your data? 

That’s where Software as a Service, or SaaS, platforms come in. These solutions allow retailers to manage their work in the cloud, access it anywhere, and receive regular software updates. We’re seeing a huge industry shift to these solutions from third-party managed services as companies automate processes that used to require large teams of experts. Moving onto one SaaS platform isn’t just more efficient, but it also gives greater data visibility, reduces costs, and provides more security. 

One single source of truth 

As convenience retailers have invested more heavily in technology, many have found themselves with multiple vendors per project or business function. Not only is it tedious to have multiple platforms, but many managed services platforms don’t speak to each other, keeping your data siloed. With comprehensive SaaS solutions, retailers can integrate their internal systems for company-wide visibility into data and processes. With all your data in one place, it’s easy to identify inefficiencies or warning signs that were once concealed between gaps in service platforms and providers. With all the consolidation happening, it’s more important now than ever to maximize technology efficiencies by streamlining your services on one single source of truth.  

Stretch your budget 

Large retailers cite many reasons for moving from managed services to SaaS solutions, but cost efficiency is always one of them. Managed services can cost more than $100 per site per month, and if you have multiple vendors and hundreds of sites…well you get the picture. While the original intent might have been to outsource services to save on staffing costs, the truth is that consolidation of services to one platform is often the most cost-effective option.  

If you’re a smaller retailer with fewer sites, then managed services may be the cheaper option, but you should run the numbers for yourself. Hiring someone to head up the services in-house may still be cheaper than outsourcing your services, especially if you move to a SaaS platform with support teams available that can alleviate work for internal teams. Regardless, smaller retailers will have to decide which choice is most cost effective for their company, and if a lower price for managed services is worth the risks.  

Be Prepared 

Everyone’s heard about the recent cyber-attacks on businesses large and small, including breaches at Colonial Pipeline and JBS. No one is immune from these hacking attempts (not even the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard) so once-cautious retailers are being urged by internal IT departments to adopt more secure platforms for their data. As cyberattacks become more prevalent, retailers are eager to eliminate any vulnerabilities in their processes starting with availability of their data. 

By moving to SaaS solutions, retailers can eliminate multiple logins by third parties, which introduces a higher risk for human error. Removing any unnecessary vulnerabilities such as this can increase security over customer and payment systems data. When it comes to cybersecurity, the best way to mitigate risk is by consolidating the number of platforms and companies that have access to your data. 

Going the distance 

When faced with a lack of forecourt visibility, cost inefficiencies, and the threat of a cybersecurity attack, retailers need to make changes to how they manage their sites and forecourt data. By switching to a SaaS platform, you can take control of your data, allowing you to streamline your processes and save money too. And if you work with a company like Titan Cloud, you won’t have to make these changes alone and can get the support you need to make a seamless transition.  

Interested in learning more about SaaS solutions? 

Contact us.

Searching for Complete Visibility 

It’s safe to say technology adoption is having a major moment in the retail and commercial petroleum industry as retailers and logistics experts search for ways to streamline their current processes. Large retailers in particular are leading the shift from managed services to SaaS platforms in an effort to automate their processes while still maintaining control over their data.  

Companies that outsource their services or have multiple platforms for each workflow are finding that these platforms don’t speak to each other, leaving their data siloed. Unintegrated data and platforms can create gaps in information and even hide inefficiencies and warning signs. While consolidating multiple solutions onto one platform can give greater data visibility, many managers find themselves wondering what gaps they should be looking for. So what do you do when you don’t know what you don’t know? You conduct a gap analysis.  

Finding Your Blind Spots 

A gap analysis helps companies and department managers identify holes in their processes and establish a plan to solve for those blind spots. By engaging with a partner such as Titan Cloud to conduct a gap analysis, companies get an outside perspective, which helps spot inefficiencies or concerning trends more easily than managers who are closest to the projects. Titan’s Professional Services team has conducted numerous gap analyses for our customers, ranging from release detection to fuel management projects. Partnering with Titan gives our customers confidence in their processes and results, so they know for sure that nothing is slipping through the cracks.  

A Timeline for Success 

When customers come to us with specific projects or problems they need help solving, our Professional Services team immediately begins working with them to gather information and coordinate an action plan. Every customer receives an Account Manager (or two depending on the scope of the project) who will act as your point person throughout the process. We give our customers the flexibility to choose their level of involvement, so they can be as hands-on as they want. Typically, customers begin with weekly calls with their Account Manager, which can taper off to semimonthly or monthly as time progresses.  

The gap analysis itself takes around one month to complete, giving the Professional Services team time to identify issues, determine scope, and create a plan to solve the problem. By the second or third month our customers start seeing their gaps close and improvements in their processes and department.  

For example, one of the U.S.’s leading fleet and logistics companies was experiencing problems with facility inspections but couldn’t identify the root cause of the issues. They came to us looking for answers, so our Professional Services team worked with their third-party vendors to pinpoint the issue, gather missing information, and bring resolution within a few months. Overall, the gap analysis approach is a much faster and easier path to positive results than if customers tried to solve the problems on their own. 

Move Forward with Confidence 

As retailers consolidate their tech platforms and shift towards SaaS solutions, they may miss critical gaps in their processes.

“Many managers do a fantastic job of keeping up with changes, but some things do fall through the cracks. A gap analysis can uncover some things you just didn’t think of,” stated Jon Marinas, Titan’s SVP of Compliance Services. 

That’s why Titan Cloud is proud to offer Professional Services that help our customers find solutions to problems, so they can run more efficient, profitable businesses.

Interested in Getting a Gap Analysis for Your Company? 

Get in touch with your account manager and one of our specialists will reach out to discuss how we can help.

The most unlikely catalyst 

Digital transformation has changed almost every aspect of our lives, from smart homes and appliances to virtual conferences and mobile apps. But the convenience store industry has historically been much slower to adopt these new technologies, until now. The onset of the pandemic made retailers reevaluate how to best serve customers who needed their services but were cautious about interacting with other people. This left many owners and operators grasping for ways to create efficiencies in their forecourts and operational systems, with many turning to digital solutions for help. In fact, Nielsen calls COVID-19 “the unexpected catalyst for technology adoption”, evidence of which can be seen in c-stores across the country in the form of new self-checkout stations and online ordering.  

The pandemic may have kickstarted technology integration, but replacing manual processes with new technologies doesn’t mean you have to use a different platform for each solution. That’s why Titan Cloud Software offers just one powerful platform, so you can manage all your site operations in one place. 

Titan Cloud’s platform offers three distinct solutions: environmental compliance, facility maintenance, and wetstock management; all of which integrate easily with your existing equipment and vendors. Data from ATGs, testing vendors, service providers, and back-office systems are all aggregated into the Titan platform, so you can see all your insights in one streamlined dashboard, saving users time and money.   

Environmental compliance for the modern era 

Managing compliance with spreadsheets and filing cabinets is like trying to run a store without a cash register: disorganized and vulnerable to mistakes. Titan’s environmental compliance software has round-the-clock tank monitoring and remote ATG management, so you can respond to leaks more quickly and minimize the damage to your site. The platform also houses all your compliance documentation and tracks important dates, so you never miss a deadline and have access to required documents in a moment’s notice. 

Fuel data at your fingertips 

Owners and operators have been discussing how to optimize their forecourts for years but organizing and analyzing large amounts of data was a time-consuming task, until Titan Cloud introduced their advanced fuel management software. With 24/7 remote access to your fuel system, organized forecourt data is just one click away, so you can monitor flow rates, nozzle availability, and inventory levels without interruption. Real-time inventory information and updated forecasts can then be sent to carriers and internal systems resulting in fewer runouts and more fuel sales.  

In addition to providing the tools you need to analyze your data, Titan’s platform also includes Perfect Gallon, the next generation solution for wetstock management. Perfect Gallon focuses on three critical areas for a greater ROI: inventory variance, frictionless fueling experiences, and fuel deliveries. Perfect Gallon uses a more accurate tank chart and corrects for meter drift, temperature, vapor loss, and fuel density to give you the lowest inventory variance possible. At the same time, it monitors and prevents slow flow, nozzle unavailability, and tank shutdowns, so you can improve your customer experience and increase fuel sales overall. Perfect Gallon also calculates fuel deliveries in real time, so you can reconcile them against Bills of Lading to eliminate short deliveries for good. Managing your wetstock has never been easier or more impactful to your bottom line than it is with Perfect Gallon. 

Site maintenance, streamlined 

You don’t make money when your assets aren’t working, which is why an efficient maintenance program is key to a successful c-store. Titan’s facility maintenance software was created with retailers in mind, so it has customizable features for purchase orders, work orders, and vendor management. It also allows you to manage your assets from inside the platform, so you can attach work orders to specific pieces of equipment and track comments, dispatch history, and even warranty information.  All of this can easily be compiled into a variety of reports for better decision making and a more streamlined, profitable business. 

A single source of truth 

Maintaining several software platforms with individual workflows can leave gaps in your processes and cause mistakes that are costly to correct. Unifying your solutions on one platform gives you the flexibility to manage all your site operations from anywhere. Titan Cloud customers have seen incredible returns on their software investment, from reducing environmental fines by 80% and increasing fuel sales by 6% to 40% fewer fuel runouts and annual savings of $3M from reducing variance. Results like these just go to show that using Titan’s compliance, maintenance, and fuel solutions together give retailers the largest boost in profits.   

Looking ahead 

Ongoing challenges related to the pandemic coupled with changing customer expectations mean digital solutions are here to stay. As these new technologies are implemented, retailers should ensure that they keep their technology stack as streamlined as possible by looking for software that integrates easily with their existing platforms or offers multiple solutions on one platform. Investing in these solutions upfront will help retailers avoid operational gaps and stay ahead in this highly competitive industry.  

Interested in saving time and money with Titan solutions? 

Once upon a time, many years ago, Love’s Travel Stops executives were having trouble managing environmental compliance at all of their sites. So they began searching for a solution that could store all their compliance and connectivity data and also provide a one-stop-shop to streamline their processes. After evaluating a variety of solutions and even considering an in-house option, Love’s selected Titan Cloud’s industry-leading software to help them manage all aspects of their environmental compliance.  

The Love’s team started using Titan’s mobile inspection app to collaborate with 3rd party vendors on issues and remediation tracking. Communicating with external teams through the app allows Love’s users to ensure quick resolutions every time. In addition to the mobile app, the Service Channel integration feeds Love’s activities and workflows from Titan’s platform directly into Love’s maintenance portal to eliminate double entries and mistyped information.  

With Titan’s environmental compliance software proving to be such a success, Love’s deepened their relationship with Titan Cloud to include Alarm and ATG Configuration Management solutions. The Love’s team immediately saw results with the alarm management system, alerting them to alarms they previously wouldn’t have seen and allowing them to dive deeper into recurring alarms through Titan’s root-cause analysis. The new detailed information on alarm types, groups, causes, and frequencies allows Love’s users to see how alarms are affecting a specific location and troubleshoot what’s triggering alarms in the first place.  

On streamlining their compliance and ATG processes, Love’s Senior Environmental Manager Kevin Nickell said, “the greatest return we’ve seen has been in time saved, and in this industry, time is money.” Titan solutions are used at more than 730 Love’s stores across the U.S. As Love’s continues their rapid site expansion, the Love’s and Titan Cloud teams will continue working together to identify retailer pain points and create innovative solutions to overcome those challenges.  

The End. 

Beep. Your employee looks up from his work. Beep. He walks to the back of the convenience store to check the UST alarms. Beep. He looks confused and silences the alarm. And then…he does nothing.  

We get it. For forecourt owners and operators this is the stuff of nightmares. Managers are always concerned about prioritizing and responding to UST alarms correctly and effectively and don’t want an important alarm to fall through the cracks. This constant worry about alarms would keep anyone up at night, especially if you’re relying on on-site personnel to correctly identify an alarm and begin the resolution process on their own. Not to mention that if one of the ignored alarms happens to be a leak detection, then any delay in response could end up costing thousands in remediation and environmental fines.  

Managing thousands of alarms is time-consuming and inefficient, but fortunately there are solutions that can help. Titan Cloud’s alarm management software, Alarm AI, is powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to filter, prioritize, and resolve UST alarms, so users can rest assured their alarms are being addressed properly. While Alarm AI 1.0 filtered out “noise” with unparalleled accuracy, Alarm AI 2.0 goes far beyond filters and conditional logic to prioritize and escalate alarms from one centralized platform. With Alarm AI 2.0, users have access to the tools, diagnostics, and insights necessary not only to manage alarms, but also to determine the root cause of the problem.  

Titan’s solution completely automates the alarm management process by using new algorithms to classify true positives, prioritize alarms, and create detailed work orders for the maintenance team. From there, Alarm AI can dispatch to primary and secondary vendors for a quick resolution, every time. The ability to set site-specific protocols and integrate with existing ATG equipment means Alarm AI saves owners and operators more than 50% on alarm dispatch costs.  

With Alarm AI 2.0 up and running, convenience store professionals won’t hear anything going bump in the night anymore. But if they do, here’s a hint: Don’t look under the bed. 

Want to know how you can save money with Alarm AI 2.0? 

Contact us. 

Leaders in the convenience store industry have always turned to technology that helps maximize revenue. But in a year like 2020, software solutions that provide high returns are vital to continuing operations. That’s why Titan Cloud focuses on creating software that helps users manage their business more efficiently for a greater return on their software investment. Titan offers a range of solutions for environmental compliance, wetstock management and facility maintenance, but the shortest and easiest path to a great ROI is with Titan’s tank shutdown analytics.  

While flow rate, nozzle downs, and inventory management are all important, if a tank is shut down, it’s not pumping fuel. If the tank isn’t pumping fuel, then there are zero fuel sales and your customer leaves the site. Minimizing tank shutdown events requires a focus on reducing both the duration and frequency of shutdowns. Reducing the frequency, in particular, has an enormous impact. We have learned from our customers that sub-optimal ATG configuration drives most preventable shutdown events. Fortunately, Titan has the most advanced ATG configuration tools on the market. 

One primary example of the negative impact of tank shutdowns comes from a customer who implemented Titan Cloud software because their tanks were frequently shut down due to groundwater alarms. Even though the alarms were only for the diesel pump, it was shutting down all the tanks for the entire facility and not allowing any fuel movement. Across all of their facilities, this meant this retailer lost sales of about $550,000 on more than 240,000 gallons of fuel per month. 

Right away, Titan identified the configuration issues and corrected the gauge programming so that only the pumps that were impacted would shut down and so that other fuel sales could continue. In just one month of using Titan solutions, our customer went from losing fuel sales of more than 240,000 gallons to less than 60,000 gallons, and after four months had reduced their average loss by more than 83%.  

It can be easy for owners and operators to think their ATG programming is “good enough,” but without optimizing ATG and alarm configurations, convenience stores can lose out on thousands or even millions of dollars in sales. That’s why Titan Cloud’s software help users identify inefficiencies and streamline store processes, so owners and operators can become more profitable and get a greater return on their software investment. While there are still plenty of opportunities to increase fuel sales by optimizing flow rate, inventory variance, and other aspects of the customer fueling experience, operators must first minimize tank shutdowns or else there is no fuel to sell.  

Want to learn more about how to optimize your fuel program for greater profitability? 

Get in touch with one of our specialists, so you can start generating a greater ROI today.