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

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.

There’s a lot to keep up with when you start as a new fleet manager. To help you keep up, here are ten things fleet managers need to know to understand, track, and stay ahead of your UST compliance.

1. Every state has different regulations: As a fleet manager responsible for UST compliance, you need to know that every state has different regulations. Even though the regulation comes from the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), each state has the authority to create its own rules. You can find those here.

2. Your inventory cycle may change depending on the state: Every state is a little different regarding requirements. In some states, you must do inventory variants on a ten-day cycle. Some are 30 days. In other states, you don’t have to do it at all. Learn about state requirements here.

3. Some states require a third party inspector: Some states require a third party inspector to come out and inspect the system to get your permit (i.e., Illinois). In other states, you pay a fee. Other states don’t even have an annual process. You can learn the specifics here.

4. There are three types of operators: The three types of operators are Class A, Class B, and Class C. Class A operators must operate and maintain your UST system. Class B performs your monthly walkthrough inspections. Class C is often the first respondent to emergency situations. 

5. Violation fees multiply until you pay them: Regulators can issue violation fees monthly if you don’t resolve a violation immediately. For example, if you have a $1000 violation and it takes you six months to get it fixed, that violation could ultimately cost you $6,000 total.

6. You need a follow-up process for inspections: All deficiencies that crop up in an inspection require not only corrective action but also a way to track that action. With a process in place, you’re able to produce the required documentation whenever someone needs it, be it a technician or an inspector. Without the proper paperwork, the next time a technician goes out, they won’t know there is an issue. 

7. You must maintain a record of deficiencies and corrections: Monthly walkthrough inspections now have a monthly compliance report that includes any deficiencies. As noted, you have to have documentation for every deficiency as well as the corresponding corrective action. You need a means to attach those corrections to your compliance reports easily and linear linkage–when each document links to the next one in the chain–is the most efficient method.

8. Implement a standard practice to triage alarms: Some alarms will clear themselves, such as needing a fuel delivery, low volume, and high volume, but most will need you to respond. Having a standard in place to triage and respond to alarms can stop you from wasting hours sorting them.

9. Keep track of your UST operators: It’s important you know which operators are on your roster for each location you manage. Each class of operator has different training requirements and different frequencies for training in order to be up to date. Fleet managers need to know that every facility has the right class operator with up to date training ready to respond to any issues.

10. Know every facility’s testing requirements: Every UST system is a little different with different components and requirements, and this is especially true for fleets. Because of these variations, there are few standards for maintaining facilities. New fleet managers need to know what they’ve got and when testing is done or you risk falling behind and getting hit with major fines.

How to get ahead

Being a fleet manager is rewarding, but, in the past, it required juggling reams of papers containing all the dates, personnel info, deficiencies, and corrective actions you need to stay compliant. Luckily, these days, you can invest in technology that keeps you on track and documentation at your fingertips.

Discover technology that does the tracking for you.

Technology-driven experiences are everywhere. From iPhone to Netflix, customers buy products and order services literally with their fingertips. If you’re a Digital Native, the thought of doing anything manually–like driving to the store or going to rent an actual movie–might be foreign to you. And when it comes to business processes, manual processes seem downright archaic.

Technology helps companies in every sector automate labor-intensive backend processes and customer-facing services. Cloud technology has the power to revolutionize fuel delivery in our industry. With a commodity such as fuel, it’s nearly impossible to track workflows, vendors, tanks and leak lines, or fuel usage without some automation in place, at least with any accuracy.

While the processes you’ve been using may be good enough, the retail fuel industry is evolving faster every day. Efficiency and productivity can differentiate your business from the forecourt down the street. Fuel delivery automation is paving the way.

Innovation as a Competitive Advantage

Technology is capable of integrating into your operation’s backend systems while at the same time streamlining your operation on the front end. Here are five ways innovation can give you a competitive advantage.

1. Achieve better workflows. Using many technology systems for site management can leave you feeling like your information is scattered and difficult to access. You may have a decentralized process spread across various divisions. You may have to manually update spreadsheets. You may not have a standard operating procedure to manage compliance. You may be managing work orders haphazardly.

If so, this all translates to poor efficiency and lost revenue. Whether it’s to track maintenance orders from entry to completion or pipeline repairs, fuel delivery automation can help you run your business at peak efficiency and greatest profitability.

2. Save time. You can review past alarms, tie them to specific tanks, identify issues with theft, carriers, or leaks and analyze the time of discovery. Knowing when and why alarms are triggered represents crucial data points that can improve response time. Our software gives owners the ability to escalate workflows with custom notifications, ensuring critical tasks are taken care of immediately.

Also, when you’re operating many convenience stores, vendor management can become a critical profit (or loss) center. The ability to integrate vendors into the platform can improve efficiency dramatically. Instead of laboring over paper files that are hard to transfer and analyze, you can automate vendor data feeds, streamlining the entire process.

3. Improve outcomes. Software lets you check tanks and line leaks around the clock so a leak never goes undetected. It can also correct common ATG configuration issues, minimizing shutdowns.

No one wants to lose a customer to the competition, especially over something preventable like an unavailable or slow fueling nozzle. Automation creates frictionless fueling. Technology can monitor and prevent slow fuel and nozzle unavailability. It can simultaneously check tank levels and track fuel use to reduce the duration and frequency of tank shutdowns.

4. Mitigate risk. When you improve alarm efficiency, you’re better able to manage risk. Alarms set for overfill, high or low product inventory, will generate reports you can then analyze. You can review past alarms and tie them to specific tanks to create a fuel delivery model. This model lets you plan based on historical data and real-time forecasting for timely fuel refills. It’s not just a leak you have to be concerned about. You can lose sales if you run out of fuel.

5. Minimize errors. Automation at the pump provides the lowest possible inventory variance by correcting for common sources of error, such as the tank chart, meter drift, temperature, and vapor loss. No one wants to lose a customer to competition, especially over something preventable like an unavailable or slow fueling position.

Wrap Up

There are many reasons to automate fuel delivery. For one, the software lets you focus on the real issues rather than the process of moving paper from one point to another. Also, a robust cloud solution provides a simple one-stop-shop of actionable analytics. You can improve both the customer experience and increase fuel sales when you invest in fuel delivery software.

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.

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. 

By Tim Tang (Hughes) based on an interview with Titan Cloud Director of Product Management, Clay Moore

The Internet of Things (IoT) has enormous potential to transform modern business with the innovations that are developing every day. For the convenience store industry, one IoT opportunity involves technology that has been deployed for decades: the Automatic Tank Gauge (ATG). Routinely used by almost all modern businesses that store or depend on the distribution of fuel, the ATG is an electronic version of the dipstick that is dropped into an underground tank to assess fuel levels. 

Beyond tracking fuel inventories, the ATG–with its direct telemetry with installed probes and sensors across the forecourt–holds tremendous potential for improving customer experience, increasing operational efficiencies, and protecting the business against compliance risks. 

Common ATG Challenges: Misconfiguration 

To fully realize the business potential in the ATG, the first place to start is by resolving common configuration problems. Improperly configured ATGs overwhelm store operators with unnecessary alarms. This not only distracts them from their daily responsibilities, it also trains them to ignore these incessant alerts—like the boy who cried wolf—which can be dangerous in those instances when the system is alarming on critical issues, such as fuel leaks or overfill events, in which the ATG may be warning the operator that the tank has been overfilled and fuel is literally spilling out of the exhaust vents. However, because of frequent false or trivial alarms, the store clerk often learns to ignore this box in the backroom that beeps periodically throughout the week. The danger is that in those few instances when the alarm is valid and critical, spilled or leaked fuel not only represents wasted inventories that should have been sold;  it also causes costly regulatory fines and clean ups that a year of margins may be unable to make up. A far better practice is to learn to manage the ATG’s parameters properly to ensure these alerts represent true positives and to couple that with the right software tools to help guide the appropriate response. 

In addition to the nuisance of unnecessary alarms, misconfigured ATGs can also unnecessarily shut down all the dispensers at a location. There are some alert conditions that are severe, but most should only require the shutdown of an individual affected dispenser or set of dispensers associated with the tank in question. When the ATG is misconfigured, an alert could result in a station-wide shutdown, interrupting the station’s ability to service customers. This not only causes an immediate loss of customers but also leads to the loss of future business as those same customers are unlikely to risk repeating the same experience. They may, temporarily or permanently, alter their commuting behavior and begin frequenting the station down the road instead of yours. 

Another common ATG misconfiguration misleads the operator into believing that his tanks are critically low, shutting down dispensers. The system does this by design to avoid stirring up sludge in the bottom of  the tank and risking the introduction of air into the system. An opposite misconfiguration tells the operator there is more fuel than is actually available, resulting in a true run-out scenario—the bane of any fuel manager’s existence. In either case, improper tank probe settings almost always lead to lost sales and frustrated customers and operators. 

The good news is that many of these misconfigurations can be easily detected by the right software capable of analyzing data collected from the ATG and dispenser. With the right remote management capabilities, these and other configuration issues can both be identified and proactively resolved before they affect your bottom line. 

Common ATG Challenges: Inadequate Employee Training 

Another related problem compounded by the high employee turnover rate common in this industry is that on-site employees often do not know how to interpret ATG alarms and sometimes simply disarm them. Anything to stop that annoying beeping. As part of the recent EPA requirement for class A, B, and C operator training, employees must be fully trained on how to handle emergency situations. For your company, this could include supplemental training on what each key ATG alarm might mean and the appropriate action to take. Depending on the issue, some federal and state violations can be levied based on the number of transactions conducted after an issue was detected. For example, the station may be fined thousands of dollars for each transaction conducted after an ATG logged a leak event. When an employee repeatedly ignores valid alarms, they not only put the station at risk of a dangerous situation, they perpetuate avoidable financial loss. 

ATG Opportunities: Improving the Customer Experience 

In the convenience store industry, a crucial component of the customer experience is the speed at which the fuel dispenser is able to deliver product. There is quite a discernible difference between an eight gallon and a four gallon per minute flow rate. The former marks a satisfying customer experience. The latter tests your customer’s patience and brand loyalty. 

Like other retail industries, operators must be vigilant in details that directly impact their customers’ experience with their brand. Not every customer may take the time or opportunity to complain about a slow dispenser, but it is well understood that for every customer who complains, there are many more who drive off irritated an may or may not give you a second chance. Even worse, in this constantly connected worlds, customers may utilize one of many social platforms to vent their frustrations to the masses. Some consumers take it upon themselves to provide a “service” to the community by warning other of poor service wherever they find it. You don’t want to be caught in these cross-hairs consistently. This has a tangible business impact on your brand and causes a halo effect on other surrounding stations flying the same flag. A brand that has become associated with an unsatisfying experience undermines the business opportunity for other operators. This is why any large oil companies require strict adherence to branding standards by their dealers. However, the customer fueling experience is often missed on their surveys and secret shopper apps. 

In conjunction with a negative customer experience, there is also an even more quantifiable business impact of slow flow. A slow dispenser directly correlates to fewer fuel sales. Plain and simple, lower throughput equals less fuel sold. 

To measure the customer experience and throughput, an ATG stands front and center. It can be augmented with additional electronics, such as an electronic dispenser  interface module,  or EDIM, which brings in the dispenser loop data to allow flow rate tracking. By studying deviations from normal transaction trends across a system, fuel operators may accurately infer which dispensers are performing out of specifications. Critical data collected from ATGs can also be analyzed to triangulate not only flow rate issue but root causes. Whether a dirty filter, a failing dispenser component, or even poor fuel quality, the ATG can be used to identify and solve a multitude of issues. 

ATG Opportunities: Optimizing Fuel Inventories 

A longitudinal analysis of ATG data may reveal opportunities to improve the business. For example,  some  operators maintain extremely high fuel inventories of thousands of gallons continuously. When such levels are repeated across many convenience stores, they represent substantial corporate resources that are literally buried in the ground. Unturned fuel in the ground translates into dollars that could have been otherwise invested in the business. 

 ATG Opportunities: Centralized Data Collection & Automated Compliance 

A critical aspect of convenience store operations involves data collection to meet numerous state and federal regulatory compliance requirements. Accurate record keeping can be time-consuming and tedious for store operators. Risk management is a known cost of doing business in the petroleum industry. To provide additional store operation support and alleviate labor requirements, the ATG can be used in conjunction with mature software platforms to provide compliance and compliance reporting automation. 

In the case of emergencies, centralized alerting provides an additional layer of protection. For example, when a leak has been detected, true positive alarms should not only be going off at the convenience store, they should also be going off at the corporate office. Real-time alarming serves to prevent small accidents from turning into larger, more expensive ones. A critical success factor for real-time alarming is a high performance and reliable network connection at the store. If the network is suffering from congestion or an outage, the alarm will not be successfully transmitted. Multi-path SD-WAN solutions are a cost-effective way to address this critical need over broadband networks. 

Summary 

Ever present and mature, the ATG is an IoT device that can be used to enhance business. Proper ATG setting configuration and training are critical first steps. But after that is done, the data that can be accumulated from these devices allows significant automation and optimization of service and protection against risk. Store managers and fuel delivery teams need to work together to understand the data and make the adjustments necessary to achieve these benefits. Having a robust network that can transmit the data to the right decision makers will bring all of this together and create a new reality: a reality focused on the customer experience and proactive, automated environmental compliance. 

*This article was originally published in SIGMA Marketer’s IGM Magazine