Remote connectivity provides the foundation that allows convenience stores, fleets, and any other facilities with fuel the visibility needed to tap into the power of technology. 

As the name implies, without remote visibility into your equipment, you’re stuck with manual, on-site processes that slow you down and cost you money. You won’t be able to tap into the benefits of remote solutions and you’ll have to keep performing every inspection on-site and filling out all paperwork by hand.

Remote connectivity is the first step in digital transformation. But it’s also crucial that the data you get from your devices is trustworthy and accurate. When you make major decisions for yourself or your customers, you have to know that you’re basing them on correct information. 

The right solution that’s dependable and accurate can revolutionize how you do business. But you don’t have to take our word for it. We talked with Joseph Whalen, the Retail Account Manager for RKA Petroleum, about how technology has improved the way they do business. 

This technology allows them to identify issues sooner, get them fixed faster, and make them the best at what they do. Here is what he had to say.

How has remote connectivity helped your daily operations?

Remote connectivity allows us to see up-to-date inventories, which in turn allows us to take care of our customers much quicker. It allows for better communication between our dispatchers and drivers, which ultimately saves our drivers time on the road.

What departments use remote connectivity in their day-to-day operations and how?  

Our Dispatch Team relies on our Titan devices throughout the day to check fuel levels and to make sure there are no major changes—plus or minus—at our customers’ sites. Management occasionally needs to access the information in the software if a customer needs any reconciliation reports. Our sales department utilizes the phone app as a backup on the weekend. As you can see, we use this technology across departments.

How has remote connectivity improved your services?

Having real-time data is crucial for knowing the levels at our various customer sites. If there is an unexpected increase at one of our customers’ sites, the real-time data allows us to make quick changes in deliveries and make sure that every customer has what they need. Also, if we ever notice that something doesn’t look quite right in the data, we can notify them that there may be an issue, such as a probe being out, a tank monitor issue, etc. We are able to see these issues further in advance and implement the fixes needed sooner as well.

Has remote connectivity helped you maintain compliance? If so, how?

Remote connectivity has absolutely helped us maintain compliance. Michigan law states that you only can fill a tank to 90%. Knowing the correct fuel levels helps us make sure we take the correct amount of fuel, saving time for the driver and saving money for the customer. Water in the tanks can also be a compliance issue. The water level icons also help with communicating findings to our customers so they can implement solutions before they rack up major problems–or major fines.

Has remote connectivity helped with fuel delivery? If so, how?

Coordinating a fleet of drivers is a task. I feel that RKA has always been one of the best in the business at doing this, but having this technology allows us to be the best! Coordinating fuel deliveries has seen the biggest improvement with this technology. Time is money, not only for our customers, but for our company as well. The better everything is coordinated, the better our customers are taken care of! Having remote access to accurate data makes it possible. 

Wrap Up

Digital transformation is key for thriving in today’s market. Technology allows you to anticipate challenges and solve them before they cost you money. Like RKA Petroleum, you’ll be able to keep an eye on your data, noticing when something is off long before it causes expensive damage. 

Technology allows you to work faster and cheaper with the confidence to say that you, too, are the best in your business.

Learn how Titan’s family of brands can make your business more effective.

What do convenience store owners, fleet directors and bus terminal managers all have in common?

These are the folks who manage the fuel inventory for their company. Cars, trucks, and buses all need gas. As you know, there is plenty of risk and loss involved in managing a retail fuel supply. Poor fuel management can translate to less profit for the company which the company passes onto the customer.

Fuel is the number one expense for your facility. Fuel inventory variance adds a layer of complexity. You may be thinking, “How can a gallon of fuel change? A gallon is a gallon, right?”

Well, no.

Trust us when we say that there’s a lot of science behind fuel inventory variance. Suffice it to say that the volume calculation of fuel within its container represents an imperfect science. This results in reading errors. 

To make matters worse, many Fuel Directors (we’ve been told) still track their inventory the analog way with spreadsheets. Not only is this cumbersome but also represents a huge waste of time, energy, and money. If you transfer imperfect data to your accounting system on top of flawed fuel readings, then it will be impossible to determine the true cost of your company’s fuel inventory.

But wait, here are a few more surprises.

Other factors, like weather, theft, leaks, and global uncertainty all affect fuel supply.

Know the Importance of Fuel Inventory Variance 

1. How Weather Affects the Retail Fuel Supply

Americans from coast to coast saw or experienced many extreme weather events these past several months. From raging fires in the West to a standstill on I-95 that kept drivers snow-trapped overnight. Nashville, home to Titan Cloud Software, was immobilized for two days after six inches of heavy snow fell and below-freezing temperatures made a surprise appearance.

We don’t think about fuel supply until the demand exceeds it, and then we rush out to top off our tanks and fill our generators. But, what if your local retail fuel outlet didn’t plan ahead of the weather report? What if you bought a bus ticket to visit friends and the depot didn’t factor in weather conditions? What if your area loses power and the local electric or cable company didn’t gas up its fleet?

This is a potential worst-case scenario awaiting your business when you have no weather contingency plan that makes fuel inventory planning a priority.

On the flip side, fuel delivery during bad weather is often hampered. Does your fuel distributor have enough deliveries scheduled? How large is their fleet? Where are their distribution centers and who’s in their network of local distributors? Can they guarantee efficient fuel management? This is when custom automated workflows can become a lifesaver.

2. How Small Leaks Affect Fuel Supply

Leaks in your fuel storage tanks and containers impact more than the environment. Although rigorous compliance is reason enough to take charge of your fuel inventory, leaks also represent revenue loss.

Leakage won’t be found on your spreadsheets. Thanks to innovative technology there’s a way to analyze the changes in height and volume within the tank that allows for rapid and sensitive leak detection. Even tiny leaks can be spotted fast whereas in the past it would have taken days or weeks to solve the problem. When retail margins are slim, every drop matters.

3. What Faceless Fuel Theft Looks Like

Back in the 70s during the oil embargo, when gas was in short supply and car lines were long, it was common to read stories of thieves siphoning gas from a car parked in a homeowner’s driveway. Today, theft often happens in a less obvious way.

Vendors or carriers may “steal” through inaccuracies. Siphoning fuel this way happens through an inaccurate fuel drop. If you’re monitoring your automatic tank gauge (ATG), you should be able to catch this. Titan’s ATG management system will alert you to discrepancies between your tank amount and fuel sales.

We don’t want to sound alarmist. Fuel inventory variance could be inadvertent and no fault of the carrier. Because fuel is a liquid, it expands and contracts based on temperature. Liquid contracts when it’s cold, so the actual fuel delivery and the bill of lading may differ. A cold tanker could be the cause of the variance.

Below ground, the variance may happen for a different reason. Fuel can contract inside the tank when the outside temperature is warmer than the below-ground temperature. There would appear to be an inventory variance even though you received the right amount of fuel.

You can see why the technology protects both the retail fuel stop and the vendor.

4. How Global Uncertainty Shakes Things Up

High gas prices tend to have a ripple effect on consumers’ pockets and businesses’ profits. Gas prices in the U.S. typically increase in the Spring and then decrease in the Fall mainly because demand declines following the warm summer months. But, for the past several months, gas prices have been rising. 

The cost of crude oil worldwide is affecting gas prices at the pump and softening demand. The economics of low demand/high supply is off-kilter because the cost of crude oil accounts for more than half the price of a gallon of gas. Couple that with European natural gas prices going crazy due to the harsh words traded between Russia and the West and panic-buying hit the market sending prices through the roof. Demand for heating oil is also strong, allowing for crude oil prices to remain high.

As long as global uncertainty continues, fuel inventory planning is more important than ever.

Wrap Up

There are many ways convenience store owners and operators can lose money through fuel inventory variance. The good news is that technology exists that can improve your fuel planning. You can manage risk despite extreme weather events, global uncertainty, or fraudsters. 

Learn more about how Titan can perfect your retail fuel management.

When we announced our acquisition of Melbourne-based Environmental Monitoring Solutions (EMS) in February, many Titan Cloud customers were curious about the reasons for the acquisition and wondered how it would benefit them. Not only do we share similar goals and a vision for the industry, but by combining the companies’ extensive product lines, we can expand our offerings and capabilities to EMS and Titan customers around the world. For current Titan customers, there should be two new products first and foremost on your mind: Greenscan and Fuelscan.  

You can now ditch third-party SIR vendors and use Greenscan for monthly, weekly, or even daily SIR reports. By  giving you control of your own data, Greenscan lets you fully integrate compliance information on one platform while leveraging a team of dedicated analysts to process daily reconciliation data. For those Titan users who are currently self-managing their SIR, Greenscan can help you save time and money by consolidating internal systems and processes. 

For on-site fuel reconciliation, look no further than Fuelscan. This product yields richer data sets than third-party sources, allowing you to view all your fuel data instead of the trimmed-down version you would otherwise receive. By integrating Fuelscan with other Titan products, you have the freedom to use the equipment you already own instead of being locked into a particular hardware provider. Additionally, you can create a more autonomous fuel management system by removing your dependency on third-party vendors for your own data.  

Finally, EMS is the only ISO9001-2015 certified company for leak detection, so you can rest easy knowing we meet the highest industry standards. 

We’re excited to offer both Fuelscan and Greenscan solutions to all our customers, so you can fully integrate your forecourt from required SIR testing to fuel inventory management. 

Interested in Greenscan or Fuelscan software? 

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

by Kurt Gutzmann, Chief Scientist

What exactly is a “tank chart” and why do we want it to be “perfect”?  A tank chart tells us how much liquid is in a tank based on the height of the liquid. It sounds simple. Tanks might be cylindrical, or they might be ‘capsules’, cylinders with hemispherical end caps (see Figure 1). Still, there are some formulas from analytical geometry that will give us the volume of liquid for a given. The tank might be tilted a bit, perhaps 1 inch (25 mm) from one end to the other, so the liquid will pool at one end as it gets low. 

Figure 1. Ideal Tilted Cylinder 

This problem was solved over 350 years ago when Euclidean geometry met Newton and Leibniz calculus. However, the “solution” makes the very big assumption that our tank is “perfect”, i.e. it is well and truly a cylinder. The reality is the tank only looks like a cylinder at a coarse level of resolution. If we zoom in on the tank, we will find all kinds of irregularities, deformations, and internal volume-occupying structures (gussets, pipes, pumps, welds, and more). These cause the tank’s shape to depart significantly from the ‘ideal cylinder’ or ‘ideal capsule’. So, the volume calculation above will produce errors by overstating the volume here and understating it elsewhere in an unknown manner. 

Is the calculation good enough? That depends on what we are doing with the volume. For bookkeeping purposes, it might be sufficient. For measuring how much fuel we just received in a delivery, it might be close (+/- 3%) but probably not. For leak detection, it is not nearly good enough. For precision and accuracy of inventory variance for environmental compliance purposes (+/- 1% US, +/-0.5% Canada) the calculation will fail most of the time. 

If we have a more perfect calculation, one that accurately and precisely (see Figure 2) gives us volume from height, we can use that ‘perfect tank chart’ with confidence that the numbers are correct.

Figure 2. Precision and Accuracy 

So how do we get such a perfect chart? One way might be to pour known amounts of liquid into the tank, check the height, and record it as we gradually fill the tank. This might get us some accuracy, but if we want precision, we will have to use little tiny amounts at a time which is not feasible. The tank manufacturer uses this procedure to ‘calibrate the chart’ for the tank (the ‘strapping chart’), but it is only at a very coarse level and lacks precision. Another way to perfect the tank chart might be to put a laser rangefinder inside the tank and measure it for various distances in every direction and then use that data to build up a finite element model. This process works best on a truly empty tank, which is rare, so while the method is precise, it could also be inaccurate. 

A third way would be to measure the amounts of fluid going in and out of the tank over time and record the corresponding heights. The inventory going into the tank must equal the fuel exiting the tank, unless there is some evaporation, breathing loss, or temperature-based shrinkage or expansion. This is close to perfect since we can account for the latter factors and record precise height measurements. The height measurements do not have be accurate for most purposes except for run-out estimates.  

We are mainly interested in the changes in volume for changes in height (the differential domain). It does not matter much whether our ruler is on the bottom of the tank or 10 feet below the tank (see Figure 3) in order find height differentials. 

Figure 3. Height Difference Measurement

From Perfect Chart to High ROI

Titan has developed novel and innovative methods for analyzing the changes in height and volume that produce a tank chart that is much closer to perfection now than any prior methods in the industry. The Titan Cloud Perfect Chart is accurate and precise (the units of volume are micro-liters, and the height is measured in micrometers) which allows Titan to provide its customers with: 

• Inventory variances close to zero (0.8%) 
• Delivery measurement within 0.7% (+/- 3.4 gallons on a 5,000-gallon delivery) 
• Rapid and sensitive leak detection – even tiny leaks can be detected within hours instead of days or weeks
• Measurement of dispenser meter drift – meters can be properly re-calibrated to ensure that correct revenue is received for fuel sold, and weights and measures compliance risk is eliminated

The Perfect Chart serves as the foundation for Frictionless Fueling, Titan Cloud’s wetstock management solution that leverages your existing forecourt equipment for a greater return on your software investment. By starting with a precise and accurate tank chart, Frictionless Fueling helps convenience store owners and operators minimize inventory variance and increase profits at every site monthly. 

Want to know how Frictionless Fueling can help you boost profitability? 

Contact one of our specialists, so you can start managing your wetstock with confidence. 

To care about wetstock management is to care about saving—and making—money. If you buy or sell fuel, wetstock management is required to ensure that you receive and dispense the amount of fuel you paid for. Good wetstock management helps companies keep track of their fuel inventory so they can detect fuel losses when they occur and use their resources efficiently.  

Every fuel retailer has a process to manage fuel inventory, as fuel is by far the largest expense an operator incurs. As with other commonly used industry terms such as inventory management or inventory reconciliation, wetstock management is a global term that attempts to address all potential sources of variance including tanks charts, meters, deliveries, temperature, theft, and leaks. Technology can help.  

Many convenience store operators have a wetstock management process in place, but it comes in the form of massive spreadsheets and error-prone manual entries. Since most local regulators require accurate and timely fuel reports, automating your wetstock management process is vital for day-to-day forecourt operations. Without an accurate and dependable process using scalable technology, owners and operators are exposing themselves to enormous risk.  

Replacing manual wetstock management processes with an intelligent software solution (such as Titan Cloud’s Frictionless Fueling) gives c-store operators greater visibility into their fuel movements, so they can account for every drop of fuel purchased. Fuel management software minimizes inefficiencies caused by slow fuel dispensing, over dispensing, and shortages for a better customer experience and greater profits. After implementing Frictionless Fueling, one Titan customer found that they reduced inventory variance significantly, reduced acceptable delivery variances by 60%, and increased fuel sales by 3% per site. Focusing on wetstock management is a critical part of any convenience store’s path to greater profitability, so get started on improving your system right away.  

If you’re ready to improve your wetstock management, get in touch with our team.

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