| Automation in Petroleum Retailing |
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| Written by AIA |
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The business landscape of the energy sector, especially petroleum, is becoming increasingly uncertain and unpredictable. What makes this sector much more challenging is that many of the factors that directly affect profitable operations are beyond the direct control of the organizations. Protecting the Consumer against unscrupulous retailers has always been a challenge. The role of technology in petroleum retailing needs to be explored in a way that encompasses the interests of multiple stakeholders — viz. supplier, retailer and consumer. Petro-retailing markets are evolving rapidly world wide. These markets are also becoming commercially competitive, as price controls are lifted. In many countries, the role of the government in the petroleum sector is being redefined and markets are being deregulated, i.e. state interventions such as special treatment of state-owned oil companies, price controls and restrictions to trade and are being removed. As a result the petroleum sector is becoming more and more competitive. In a market where price is regulated and therefore almost uniform, factors such as convenience and product / service differentiation play a more important role in winning the market share. When price becomes free to move, it assumes greater importance in winning customers. As prices begin to vary for the same product, customers differentiate outlets not only by the quality of the offering and the convenience of acquiring it, but also by the price being charged. In markets such as fuel retailing that sells homogenous products, the importance of price increases considerably, as consumers are not able to differentiate between the product attributes. Therefore, within this type of market in order to successfully retain market share whilst maximizing profit, the issue of pricing is crucial and needs to be addressed. Petro Retailers in any geography face the following key challenges with underlying objectives:
To face these challenges, retail management needs to look at :
Complex and diverse networks of Gas Stations are often managed and controlled using Gas Station Management System, typically located at the area offices of petrol retailers. This solution enables remote monitoring of retail operations, price management, product promotions, end of day data warehousing and enhanced reporting through slicing and dicing the data warehouse.
Fleet Management System VIU (Vehicle Information Unit) fitted in each fleet vehicle is hooked up to the Odometer and with fuel cap. Once connected and initialized, the VIU will keep correct log of the miles traveled and also details on the fuel type required for vehicle, registration number, etc. Whenever a fleet vehicle reaches gas station for re-fuelling; the automation system will communicate with the VIU to upload odometer reading, type of fuel permissible, etc and will grant automated authorization. Authorization will be granted in line with limits and restrictions provided for each vehicle. During re-fuelling operation, the dispensing goes on till the time nozzle is inserted in the fuel tank and communication between VIU antenna and nozzle is established, which ensure that 100% of the fuel dispensed is filled up in the vehicle authorized by the system. Further, since the odometer reading of each vehicle is uploaded during the re-fuelling operation, fuel consumption pattern of each group of vehicles with respect to time and distance can be calculated and provided to fleet owner as report.
Fuel Delivery Management System has following major components:
At the Marketing head office level, usually technology enablers like Dynamic Pricing, Secondary Distribution Planning and Scheduling and Demand Forecasting are deployed to enable quick decisions related to pricing, forecasting and replenishment across the secondary supply chain. At the corporate level, strategic solutions like Network Planning are deployed to enable decision related to network optimization to boost the marketing gains.
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