Maximizing Asset Life: The 12 Ways Investing in Lower-Quality Fueling Equipment Before Site Start-Up Costs More in the Long Run
By Steve Stewart
Retail and commercial petroleum site operators face similar opportunities and risks regardless of station size, particularly when balancing upfront capital investments with long-term operational and maintenance costs over a typical 15-year lifecycle.
While minimizing initial costs may seem attractive, relying on lower-quality technology often leads to higher maintenance expenses, equipment failures, environmental risks and disruptions that negatively impact customer experience and station reputation. With so much on the line, vetting fueling system equipment for pitfalls that increase the total cost of ownership is necessary to get a handle on the fully burdened cost of the equipment.
Here are the 12 ways lower-quality or outdated fueling system equipment ends up costing fuel sites more over the lifetime of the equipment.
1. Premature part fatigue, part failure, or lack of service life.
Equipment that is not built to last is strike one. Equipment that is not engineered for repairability and serviceability through modular design is strike two. Equipment that does not meet either of these criteria is strike three. Advanced fueling equipment manufacturers test parts to verify their expected service life to tout their products’ service life. For instance, 11A and 11B Automatic Nozzles from OPW Retail Fueling are lab-tested to prove they will last through 1 million cycles. By documenting and communicating this data point, OPW Retail Fueling can show fuel site operators that these nozzles have been proven to perform better than any other nozzles on the market.
Spill buckets offer another example. The more spill bucket wear parts you replace, the more value you get from these critical environmental protection assets.
2. Not durable enough to withstand operating conditions.
Weather and operating conditions vary widely from site to site. This fact may seem obvious, but it often becomes a stumbling block for fuel site operators who prioritize commodity-focused, general-purpose equipment over long-term value and the ability to reliably meet requirements dictated by their operating conditions. This is especially critical for networks expanding their footprint while simultaneously introducing new sites.
Standard-issue fueling system equipment often lacks the robustness or advanced engineering needed to meet challenging environmental conditions — whether it is engineered to handle extreme cold, high humidity, water intrusion, corrosion, or to meet the most stringent vapor recovery standards.
3. Product losses.
Contaminated fuel, leaks and spills resulting from lower-quality equipment purchases add up to bottom-line losses over the equipment’s lifetime. These losses can be avoided with fueling-system products featuring advanced engineering.
For example, not all equipment is engineered to provide superior protection against water intrusion. This is particularly true of tank sumps. Watertight features not only prevent substandard fuel quality but also protect against damaging phase separation in ethanol blends. When phase separation occurs, a water-alcohol mixture accumulates at the bottom of the tank, potentially damaging vehicles. This mixture must be pumped out of the tank.
To prevent a costly spill caused by an overfill during delivery, overfill prevention valves must be designed so that an automatic, positive shut-off occurs during an overfill without relying on delivery personnel to ensure overfill protection. The valves should also be engineered so that overrides cannot be broken or abused.
4. Fuel incompatibility.
At OPW Retail Fueling, we are consistently surprised by how often equipment is ordered for a fuel it is not designed to handle. What’s more concerning is that this error is occurring in relation to today’s primary fuels (E10, E15, E85, diesel and biodiesel blends).
Not only should fuel site operators invest in equipment to properly transfer today’s fuels, but they should also prepare for future fuels such as E20, E30, B20-B50 and renewable diesel if they want to get the most value out of their equipment.
5. Concrete demolition is required to upgrade, repair or replace equipment.
Breaking concrete to replace, repair or upgrade underground fueling system equipment was once unavoidable, causing fuel sites to lose days or weeks of downtime and fuel sales. Today, fueling system equipment manufacturers are making it possible to service or replace underground equipment without demolishing concrete. For instance, spill containers and fully integrated, double-wall flexible piping systems from OPW Retail Fueling can be repaired or replaced without breaking concrete, significantly reducing installation time and costs.
6. Servicing or installing equipment is labor-intensive or error-prone, making it more expensive than necessary.
A saying sometimes heard from fueling equipment manufacturers is, “The true value of the product actually starts when the service for the equipment begins.”
If you are overseeing maintenance at a fuel site or a network of sites, choosing equipment designed to minimize the number and duration of service calls needed to install or service the equipment will save time and labor costs. Advanced tank and dispenser sumps are two fueling system components that offer fuel site operators this efficiency. Consider this:
Today’s pre-plumbed dispenser sumps arrive on-site with the top, emergency shear valves, entry fittings, stabilizer bars, elbows, tees, flex connectors or rigid risers, all factory-installed and tested. This feature significantly streamlines installation and eliminates errors in the field.
Tank sumps that ship with factory-installed fittings, conduit, ports and electrical wiring boxes reduce the amount of configuration needed at the time of installation. Ensuring that proper torque is applied, appropriate cutting tools are used, and the correct sealing compounds are incorporated during the manufacturing process eliminates many potential errors that could occur in the field.
7. Avoidable ancillary/pass-through costs.
Some costs that factor into a part’s total cost of ownership are harder to see than others, such as those incurred during equipment shipment or distributor-level inefficiencies. For example, new segmented overfill prevention valves allow for more compact packaging and cost-efficient transport, helping distributors, petroleum equipment service companies and fuel-site operators avoid overlength fees. The segmented design also reduces the potential for damage during transit and makes storage easier.
Dispenser sumps offer another example. Advanced composite manufacturing processes now make it possible for dispenser sumps to neatly stack and nest within one another. This ability permits efficient use of space in a warehouse, in a construction trailer or on a jobsite. If distributors can maximize their warehouse space and optimize how they load their delivery trailers, this can contribute to lower shipping costs.
8. Inspecting and testing equipment is cumbersome and time-consuming.
Access to system components is critical. Advanced tank sumps, for example, enable technicians to inspect conduit lines high in the sump and access the electrical wiring box without having to enter the confined sump area.
Equipment designed to streamline traditional testing processes also helps lower costs. Advanced overfill prevention valves enable technicians to test and verify the valve without removing it from the tank. This design feature allows testing to be completed in about one minute, compared to one hour for traditional valves. By providing the ability to isolate and air-test the interstitial space of double-wall flexible piping using integrated test ports in the fitting with air stems and junction test kits, manufacturers help operators validate pipe tightness in minutes.
9. Fires, spills, overflows, leaks or misfilling incidents occur.
While the core mission of all fueling system equipment is to protect the environment and mitigate the risk to people who interact with it, some fueling equipment offers better protection than others.
Without question, fire prevention, preventing overfills and maintaining the integrity of underground storage equipment are of the utmost importance. But even hanging hardware can help prevent a costly mishap.
For example, nozzles with flow-lock technology will shut off if they fall out of a vehicle and are tipped up, limiting spillage and unsafe conditions. DEF/AdBlue nozzles with a misfilling prevention device help users avert costly misfilling incidents, such as accidentally inserting the DEF/AdBlue nozzle into the diesel tank.
Breakaways also perform a critical safety function. If a drive-off occurs, the breakaway not only helps prevent costly damage to the dispenser if the vehicle were able to dislodge it, but it also prevents fuel from spilling out of the dispenser hose. “Dry” breakaways with double-poppet designs go a step further, sealing both the nozzle hose and the dispenser hose to prevent fuel in the nozzle hose from spilling out.
10. Downtime is exacerbated.
Breakaways also illustrate how equipment design affects downtime. Amid this age of distracted driving (and fueling), some gas station operators estimate that drive-offs occur almost monthly. Dispensers with single-use breakaways that separate to protect the dispenser and prevent a spill after a drive-off must be taken out of service until a qualified petroleum equipment technician can install a replacement breakaway. User-friendly reconnectable breakaways with “push, twist, click” technology enable an operator to quickly and easily reconnect the breakaway so it can be reused. Reconnectable breakaways can get the dispenser back to pumping fuel without the time and expense of a service call. Reconnectable breakaways pay for themselves after two to three drive-offs per breakaway.
11. Brand experience erosion.
Fueling a vehicle is a chore. Ensuring a quick, comfortable, and above all, trouble-free fueling experience is essential. The adage “you only get one chance to make a first impression” absolutely applies to a retail fuel site, and, more precisely, to the dispenser and nozzle. To help retailers ensure a positive experience at the pump, OPW Retail Fueling recently enhanced its 11A and 11B Automatic Nozzles. An easy-open feature with reduced opening force, an ergonomically designed grip with a new barrel cover and lever, and an updated scuff guard help provide users a comfortable fueling experience that instills confidence in the brand.
12. Customer churn.
Equipment problems on the forecourt are an absolute turn-off. Ask yourself: how likely are you to return to a station with bagged nozzles, vacuum trucks constantly coming and going, malfunctioning payment terminals, slow pumps, inaccurate fuel metering or substandard flow control?
According to data from Upside, C-store operators who prevent customer churn establish a competitive advantage that will boost the bottom line. The data indicates that earning just one additional monthly visit from fuel customers who are not yet committed to that store’s brand could increase revenue by 88 per cent.
Fueling system equipment backed by mediocre engineering usually produces mediocre results over the lifetime of the equipment. Not only does less advanced equipment distract operators from their core retail business, but it also sabotages lucrative in-store sales opportunities. With so much at stake, it is imperative at the outset of a site start-up to weigh the short-term savings of less expensive equipment against the long-term value higher-quality equipment will provide.
Steve Stewart is the senior Canadian & Caribbean sales manager for OPW Retail Fueling, based in Smithfield, NC, USA. He can be reached at steve.stewart@opwglobal.com. For more information on OPW Retail Fueling, go to opwretailfueling.com.
