Operating a gas station offers a different environment from traditional retail or service environments. Your costs are always changing, new taxes and regulations mandate additional costs, and your competitor’s prices fluctuate constantly.
On the other hand, fuel is a commodity that is essential to the vast majority of the population. Whether your customers are driving to work, school, or to the store to do some shopping, they need fuel to get there.
Juggling all of these attributes can be a pain. Improving your fuel management system can be a chore. However, doing both can yield positive results and maximize your fuel use for increased revenue.
Using a Fuel Management System
As reported in this article by Forbes, private gas station owners have historically been on the losing end of the profit margin spectrum. This started to change a few years ago with the advent of efficient, cloud-based fuel management systems.
These systems offer gas station owners insight into their fuel sales and consumption that was previously unavailable. Now for the first time in history, gas station owners have access to a wide variety of data to help manage their fuel more effectively.
- Easy Tracking: Manage deliveries, invoices, jobber bills, or credit card settlements. Did you know that most private businesses have no policy in place for collecting unpaid invoices? A fuel system keeps track of all outstanding invoices so you know exactly what you are owed
- Simple Tank Reconciliation: Track tank volume efficiently and manage deliveries and new orders with ease. Get automatic SIR/tank reports generated with ease and stored electronically for later use and review
- Manage Multiple Tanks: Large or small, any gas station can benefit from an effective fuel management software. Multi-tank management allows larger operators to function efficiently, while smaller stations still reap the benefit of effective management
- Manage Margins More Efficiently: Precisely track pool margins and manage margins with precision
- Alter Gas Prices with Ease: In a business environment that is always changing based on outside forces, the ability to change gas prices with ease is a key feature of an effective fuel management system. With the proper login credentials, owners can change prices at the pump and POS system from anywhere with cloud-based fuel management software
- Support Owned or Commissioned Fuel Management: However you get your gas, a fuel management software can account for the variations that exist between full ownership and commission-based fuel
- Support Rewards Programs: Gift cards and customer loyalty programs are a large, and increasing, component of the gas station business. A good management system handles these methods and can filter reports to show rewards activity or gift card redemptions
- Calculate Profits: With constantly changing costs, profitability can be difficult to calculate. Generate profit reports based off of consumption and real-time fuel costs in order to paint an accurate picture of your gas station’s profitability.
AT the beginning of the economic downturn in the United States, net profit margins for private gas station owners hit a low of 0.9%. While margins have increased since then, they remain razor thin in some places. An effective fuel management system is a key component in maximizing your fuel management for the best possible return. This will not only ensure profitability in the short-term, but provides a “secret weapon” for those times when profit margins may decline again in the future.
Interested in learning more about CStorePro Fuel Management Solution? 
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