Most convenience retailers understand the importance of reconciling their physical inventory in the store, but a surprising number don’t fully realize the tools available to help with tracking their wetstock, otherwise known as fuel inventory. Both c-store owners and carriers must work together to accurately track fuel levels, at the store and on the truck, to ensure effective inventory management.

Accurate fuel inventory management is critical, because fuel sales have notoriously thin margins. Even seemingly minor inaccuracies in your inventory can impact not only your bottom line but your store’s reputation with consumers. And you can end up having to pay the price for any mistakes.

So, how do you put an end to the losses? As a c-store owner, you must identify the most likely areas of impact to prevent or address inaccuracies as soon as they happen. The first step is to identify potential delivery shortages/overages, losses, leaks, or manual errors.

Ensuring accurate fuel delivery

At the convenience retail level, fuel prices are an initial (and sometimes only) attractor for customers. Once a customer is at your site, it’s imperative that you can meet their needs—because your business reputation depends on it. Running out of fuel doesn’t simply result in a lost sale or a few lost customers. It instills a lack of trust, which has the potential to erode sales on a long-term basis. The last thing you need is for your hard-earned customers to begin visiting your competitors down the street instead.

Conversely, having too much fuel on hand ties up your budget unnecessarily. Here’s where working collectively as convenience store owner and jobber come into play. It’s imperative to leverage fleet technology that can calculate exactly how much fuel is on the truck and how much fuel needs to drop. You then need to make sure this information is integrated with your site-level back-office software, allowing your team to easily reconcile fuel amounts.

Identifying fuel shrinkage

Theft, better known as shrinkage, is defined as a discrepancy in the amount of a verifiable product you have onsite versus the amount your software reports you should have onsite. These discrepancies take place in many forms. Shrinkage could take the form of vendor/carrier fraud, employee theft, customer theft, or paperwork errors.

The difference between carrier shrinkage and inaccurate fuel delivery comes down to intent. This is where technology protects both convenience retailers from theft and jobbers from accusation. With the proper technology, convenience retailers can be alerted to any inaccuracy after a tank filling, such as a carrier shorting the store.

What happens if that’s not the case, but you’re still missing fuel? Syphoning fuel can occur as easily as an inaccurate fuel drop. Solving this issue is relatively simple. Start by monitoring your automatic tank gauge (ATG) sensors for inaccuracies between your tank amounts and fuel sales.

Without the proper software, imagine how many gallons of fuel you’d need to sell just to replace a single missing gallon. Compounded over countless gallons, this issue could leave you financially responsible for covering a significant amount of loss.

Following environmental standards

In some cases, your inventory may be short due to issues far less nefarious than shrinkage, such as a leakage problem with your storage tanks. According to the EPA, “Inspections conducted nationwide indicate that most people who think they are doing [fuel] inventory control are not doing it in a way that is likely to find leaks and meet the law’s requirements for leak detection.”

Make sure you’re following the proper environmental codes for your state in order to catch potential leaks in your storage tanks and containers. With such slim margins to manage, you need digital technology to help track the amounts carriers drop into your tanks against the quantities sold in your forecourt.

Because fuel inventory tools can come in all metaphorical shapes in sizes, you need tools that can integrate easily, ranging from supply chain logistics for carriers to back-office software for retailers. This allows both c-store owners and jobbers to gauge the amounts dropped at each site more accurately.

Investing in the right technology can help you control every aspect of your operation, whether that includes your convenience store or your fleet. You can greatly reduce administrative time by leveraging single-solution technology that helps you reconcile fuel sales with inventory levels—allowing you to sell your inventory at competitive prices.

You can thrive in today’s digital economy. Contact us today to learn how we can help you transform your business.

With PDI Logistics International, fuel retailers, wholesalers, and haulers get an enterprise solution designed to bring visibility and control across the entire fuel distribution network. Automation, dynamic forecasting, and business intelligence create actionable insights to minimize risk, reduce cost, and improve customer and employee satisfaction. Listen as PDI experts discuss the smart applications and mobile tools in this end-to-end solution.

Executive Overview

HQ: Berlin, Germany

Industry: Crude Refining

Size: Fleet of 175, 1,200+ Service Stations

Solution: PDI TransPac

Business Challenges

• High volume, resource intensive paperwork within an otherwise sophisticated distribution system
• Needed to increase transparency while modernizing digital communications with third-party suppliers

Solution Overview – PDI TransPac

TransPac, part of PDI TouchStar’s integrated end-to-end fleet management solutions, provides a robust technology framework that simplifies ongoing workforce automation and delivers operational efficiency across the oil and gas supply chain. TransPac enables you to boost operational efficiencies with paperless transactions and automated accounting, point-of-sale invoicing, paperless POD, and total records management.

Read more about PDI TransPac.

Customer Results

• Enhanced communications both internally and externally
• Provided accurate route information to drivers
• Monitored trucks in real-time, from a birds-eye point of view
• Increased system automation efficiency

Executive Overview

HQ: Suhr, Switzerland since 1975

Industry: Heating Oil Distribution

Size: 80+ Trucks

Solution: PDI TransPac, FleetWatch

Business Challenges

• Business growth led to an increase in the amount of manual paperwork
• Employees spent more time sorting paper documents and less time increasing deliveries and improving customer service
• Lacked reliable truck history and trip activity data

Solution Overview – PDI TransPac

TransPac provides a robust technology framework that simplifies ongoing workforce automation and delivers operational efficiency across the oil and gas supply chain. TransPac enables you to boost operational efficiencies with paperless transactions and automated accounting, point-of-sale invoicing, paperless POD, and total records management.

Read more about PDI TransPac

Customer Results

• Improved delivery efficiency by implementing on-board billing and printing
• Reduced errors from outdated, manual fleet management system
• Increased database of historical information on truck activities
• Eliminated expensive, inefficient paperwork through the use of mobility

Executive Overview

HQ: Meridian, Idaho

Industry: Convenience Retail, Petroleum Wholesale and Logistics

Size: 250 Locations

Solution: PDI Logistics, PDI Enterprise

Business Challenges

• Inefficient billing and load dispatch processes
• Disparate systems resulting in inaccurate reporting
• Lack of visibility between head office and sites
• Long paperwork processing times

Solution Overview – PDI Enterprise

Designed using more than three decades of experience and the creative input of world-class retailers and petroleum marketers, our holistic software solution has everything you need to run your entire business.

Simply put, we do the right thing for you, no matter what it takes. We’re known for building high-value, long-lasting customer relationships, and we earn that reputation every day.

Read more about PDI Enterprise and PDI Logistics

Customer Results

• Provided better load and order management
• Improved dispatch forecasting and resource allocation
• Enabled real-time visibility for better, faster decision-making
• Reduced manual processes

Executive Overview

HQ: Dallas, Texas

Industry: Crude Oil

Size: 230+ Trucks

Solution: PDI WellSite Manager, WellSite Mobile, HyperDocs

Business Challenges

• Dispatching loads to haulers took too long
• Receiving ticket information from haulers took too long
• Required a solution to simplify and improve data entry into their back-office software
• Wanted a scalable, simple solution to meet the needs of their large user base

Solution Overview – PDI WellSite

WellSite manages a driver’s daily workflow through a mobile device that stores and communicates information directly to your back office system, eliminating the need for paper-based administrative processes. It offers a simple user interface, a locally-stored database, a consistent and easily-scalable workflow as well as time reporting.

Read more about PDI WellSite

Customer Results

• Streamlined and integrated fleet management processes
• Improved efficiency and accuracy across the entire fleet
• Connected haulers with dispatch, planning, and back-office systems
• Produced quantifiable cost savings across the entire company

Executive Overview

HQ: Bangkok, Thailand since 1983

Industry: Aviation Refueling

Size: 70+ Trucks

Solution: PDI AvPac, AvFleetMarshall, AvManager, AvSchedule

Business Challenges

• Needed a significant modernization of equipment to manage the volume of fuel in the hydrant pipeline network
• Wanted a solution to provide clear scheduling for fueling vehicles, interface with a flight information delivery system (FIDS), and handle fuel supply, contract creation and allocation of flights to fuel suppliers

Solution Overview – PDI AvPac

Automate and standardize processes and manage daily workflow, all though a connected mobile device.

PDI AvPac manages your refuellers’ daily workflow – from vehicle inspections and equipment checks to delivery tickets and invoicing – through a mobile device that communicates information directly to your backoffice system, eliminating the need for paper-based processes.

Read more about PDI AvPac

Customer Results

• Increased system stability
• Reduced maintenance and support costs
• Enhanced fleet reliability
• Improved company bottom line

Executive Overview

Industry: Oil & Gas

Segment: Petrol station distribution

Size: 20 tankers, supplying 260 service stations

Solution: WinDMS, OilDroid

Business Challenges

• Encountered scheduling conflicts due to dynamic sales environment
• Lacked centralized dispatching capabilities
• Needed more operational visibility and access to reliable data insights

Solution Overview – WinDMS and OilDroid

A comprehensive dispatch planning and scheduling solution that optimizes secondary distribution bulk transportation processes by addressing a multitude of scheduling challenges.

Using leading edge technology and an intuitive, user-friendly UI, this mobile solution delivers real-time functionality that speeds up the delivery process and reduces paperwork.

Learn more about PDI’s logistics solutions for North America and International customers

Customer Results

• Increased transparency by seamlessly integrating data from all parts of the business
• Reduced operating costs and improved fleet productivity due to centralized dispatch
• Prevented runouts with better real-time reporting and tank-level visibility
• Reduced number of manual processes with automation

Executive Overview

HQ: Christchurch, New Zealand since 1993

Industry: Logistics, Bulk Diesel and Fuel Delivery

Size: 80+ Trucks

Solution: PDI TransPac, TransPac Fuel, FleetMarshall, Fleetwatch, Schedule, Easy Planning, HyperDocs

Business Challenges

• Experienced significant growth over the past 20 years
• Began to feel the double-edged sword of expansion as the fleet continued to grow
• Logistical challenges of managing new assets and resources required to meet the needs of their growing customer base

Solution Overview – PDI TransPac

TransPac, part of PDI TouchStar’s integrated end-to-end fleet management solutions, provides a robust technology framework that simplifies ongoing workforce automation and delivers operational efficiency across the oil and gas supply chain. TransPac enables you to boost operational efficiencies with paperless transactions and automated accounting, point-of-sale invoicing, paperless POD, and total records management.

Read more about PDI TouchStar TransPac

Customer Results

• Increased efficiency across bulk refueling and fleets
• Decreased manual processes with on-site signature and storage
• Optimized resource utilization
• Enabled drivers to access customer information on-site

Executive Overview

HQ: Offenbach, Germany since 1939

Industry: Petroleum Distribution

Size: 450 vehicles; 7 countries in Europe

Solution: PDI WinDMS

Business Challenges

• Decentralized tanker truck dispatching operations
• Wanted to minimize paper and to automate and digitize planning and dispatch operations
• Needed to be able to respond more quickly to sales fluctuations at fuel retailing locations

Solution Overview – PDI WinDMS and PDI OilDroid

Comprehensive dispatch planning and scheduling solution that allows significant optimization of secondary distribution bulk transportation processes by addressing a multitude of scheduling challenges.

Using leading edge technology and an intuitive, user-friendly UI, this mobile solution delivers real-time functionality that speeds up the delivery process and reduces paperwork.

Learn more about PDI’s logistics solutions for North America and International customers

Customer Results

• Digitized and automated delivery operations
• Improved visibility into operations through daily reports
• Decreased mileage and allocated drivers efficiently
• Avoided retains and runouts using real-time information