Forecourt fuel retailers are being battered by low margins, falling sales and shrinkage threats to their business. But this apparently bleak picture can be transformed by adopting a cost-effective and holistic approach towards these operational and security challenges, as Trevor Wallace, MD of Metro Security writes.
Forecourt owners in 2012 saw almost half a billion fewer litres of petrol and diesel sold at forecourts between April and June, compared with the same three-month period in 2011 – a drop of 10.6 per cent, according to the Department for Energy and Climate Change. The threat of a tanker drivers’ strike pushed petrol prices up to a record high of 142.5p in April 2012, yet 60pc of the cost of petrol still comprises fuel duty and VAT.
In reality, independent forecourt owners are clearing just three or four pence profit per litre and other threats to their bottom line are being driven by a combination of the economic downturn and pump prices. Drive-offs and a range of ‘shrinkage’ related hazards, involving both customers and staff, can endanger a business’ very existence. Stand-alone measures may have some effect on individual issues, but it’s only by amalgamating security systems with delivery equipment – out on the forecourt, inside the retail shop, and at the payment point – that true gains can be realised. An integrated approach pays real dividends, not just in terms of protecting fuel sale margins and tackling shrinkage losses. For a holistic solution will additionally enable a variety of operational and customer care actions to be implemented. These in turn will help drive associated sales – including higher margin goods – while effectively paying for the original installation too. It’s a win-win scenario.
Eye on the ball
This thinking lies behind a remedy recently launched by the fuel retail product company Tokheim. Called Tokheim Eye, the system uses high-definition (HD) CCTV to monitor the forecourt pumps and survey the scene when motorists make payments for fuel and extra goods they select from the site’s retail shop. Besides the system provides a range of real-time and post-event data, on details such as the filling number, receipt, staff member involved, date, time, and other useful transaction inputs, interfacing all of these with the images concerned. Importantly, all this information means the relevant footage can also be quickly and easily retrieved using these search parameters, ending the bane of CCTV systems that take forever to find the relevant footage. Tokheim Eye stores ‘event-driven’ images only, enabling operators to filter and refine their search criteria by product type, voids, tanker refuel, pump transaction, payment method and hundreds of other options. The system’s flexibility is extended through its adoption of the latest intranet/internet technology, which puts real-time surveillance images onto devices including desktop PCs, tablet computers and smartphones, enabling service station owners and managers to both monitor and control systems on and off-site.
Besides its security prevention and detection capabilities, Tokheim Eye can check on footfall levels and patterns inside the retail shop, staffing and related behaviour, with relevant shift patterns and training implications for remedying any deficiencies observed and identified.
Megapixel imaging means an end to fuzzy, pixelated views that provide little operational help and cannot be used later for potential prosecutions. The Eye system also uses IP network connectivity, enabling siting and installation of cameras, with the ‘future-proofing’ ability to move or add cameras as circumstances dictate. As for managing, deterring, detecting and prosecuting motorists involved in drive-offs, ANPR can be used to compile a blacklist directory, enabling automatic warnings to be generated to alert an operator if the same vehicle returns to the site.
Shrinkage analysis
Meanwhile, a variety of shrinkage-related problems, involving customers, staff and collusion between the two can also be addressed using Tokheim Eye’s integration of CCTV with Epos (electronic point of sale) and fuel PoS systems to reduce transaction overheads and eliminate losses by tagging suspect transactions and providing surveillance evidence.
The analytics ‘engine’ behind Tokheim Eye has been developed by Adder Digital Technology, supported by its sister company Metro Security, providing a solution that will not only record customers and staff but simultaneously collect vital information from the forecourt Epos system and tie it all together. This cuts down on theft of items and enables the identification of trends in fraudulent transactions, fraudulent refunds, sweet hearting and staff shrinkage, with one aim in mind – improving the bottom line return.
This analysis can be conducted remotely and refined by Metro Security’s software engineers working with loss adjusters to investigate incidents spotted by the range of data inputs. Reports can then be generated from multiple sites using a central processing server to demonstrate details such as comparative exception numbers, the types of exceptions involved, the dates and times these occurred and the specific operators processing returns, etc. Text linked to these incidents is overlaid with the video footage and associated audio relating to any of these transactions, providing a picture of what happened, with the ability to zoom in on the CCTV video for a more detailed view. This level of analysis and conclusive proof can make all the difference in, for example, identifying a member of staff with the highest level of returns.
Operational benefits
Metro Security monitors customer systems 24 hours, enabling the analytics to do more than just support the security systems operating on-site. For example, if can be used to provide equipment fault monitoring, or be used as motivational tool – eg a member of staff who can be singled out for praise after selling the most number of gift cards in a pre-defined period.
Equally, Tokheim Eye offers revenue boosting features tied into customer relationship management (CRM). The system’s software can analyse a motorist’s buying habits and this information can be linked with target advertising, using pump display screens to advertise specific products the customer has bought in the past and may then purchase again in the forecourt kiosk or shop when paying for their fuel.
Ron Perry pioneers Tokheim Eye
The early trials by independent service stations operator Ron Perry, in the north of England, pictured, has convinced him to invest in expanding the multi-functional Tokheim Eye monitoring system across his two sites near Hartlepool. Ron’s longstanding relationship with the fuel retail solutions provider led to the installation in September 2012 of the UK’s first operational Tokheim Eye system on the northbound-southbound sites of the A19. A trial of two IP dome cameras above cashier positions in the retail shops, linked to his office desktop computer and smartphone, has provided him with an insight into the potential uses of a fully expanded system.
Ron Perry says: “The images and data I’ve already seen have been invaluable in revealing operational management improvements we can make. For instance, reviewing staff activity after a recent drive-off incident showed we could introduce changes to maximise the chances of this being spotted and appropriate action taken in future. On a day-to-day level, it’s allowed me to see when queues build up in the shop and make changes in shift patterns to minimise inconvenience for our visiting customers. If I want to search for any kind of incident, it’s now far quicker and easier because the integration between the cameras, pumps and tills means you can ask the system to search via criteria such as last fill-up, last cash payment, by receipt, date, time etc.”
Ron Perry plans commissioning Tokheim’s partner Metro Security to install IP high-definition (HD) forecourt cameras to monitor the pumps and realise the value of a fully integrated system surveying both sites – including interfaced automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras for a variety of security and operational gains. “If adopted more widely, the instant alert benefits of Tokheim Eye would transform our ‘forecourt watch’ scheme here in Cleveland into a truly effective local network, enabling fast exchange of incident details to help combat criminals and deter their regional activities,” he adds.
