Prepare Your Forecourt For Summer Road Trips

It looks like Americans just can’t wait to get on the road again.

After months of shuttered doors and few travelers on the road, convenience store owners are beginning to see an increase in traffic as states continue lifting quarantine measures following the COVID-19 outbreak. The most recent NACS and PDI reports show that the number of workweek trips has increased to almost the same level as 2019. As states continue to open their cities one thing has become apparent: this will be the summer of road trips.

July and August are the most popular months for travel, but with most people still feeling uncertain about travelling by plane, many are altering their vacation plans to stay closer to home. In fact, Service Management Group found that 71% of people are less likely to travel by plane this summer. Instead, one-third of Americans will be taking a road trip in place of airline travel according to Gasbuddy’s 2020 Summer Travel Study. This is great news for convenience stores across the nation, but after weeks of waiting for more forecourt traffic, owners and operators need to ask themselves if they’re prepared for this sudden increase in customers.

If there was ever a time to take control of forecourt maintenance, it’s now. Even though customers’ main concern is cleanliness, they’re still expecting fast and convenient service instore and in the forecourt. To maximize uptime for each fueling asset, many owners and operators are turning to software solutions to help streamline their maintenance processes. Titan Cloud’s  maintenance platform offers a work order dispatch feature to expedite the process and manage tickets for better performance and fewer go-backs. With the addition of root-cause analysis, this solution provides the transparency that owners and operators need to improve their assets and processes before crowds of vacationers start showing up.

Preparing for lots of customers also means preparing to give them a frictionless fueling experience. Now more than ever, owners and operators need to prioritize minimizing nozzle downs, runouts, and flow rates. ATG monitoring systems can solve these and other problems by providing data and analytics that help make inventory management easier. With Titan’s advanced fuel analytics solution, owners and operators can even pinpoint when to replenish inventory (and by how much) so their fueling positions  stay open and ready for customers.

With most summer vacations just around the corner, owners and operators need to use this time to prepare for the road trippers by streamlining inventory and maintenance processes.

To talk to someone about the Titan Cloud solutions that can help do just that.

Brent Puzak

VP of Solutions Consulting

Brent brings 25 years' industry experience to Titan Cloud as the Vice President of Solutions Consulting. He led environmental shared services for a global retail chain with over 9,000 locations, moving through numerous leadership positions. Brent's diverse background and knowledge allows him to take a strategic approach to addressing complex industry challenges.