Oi coppa! I got a question for you

[SMOKEU]

I call bullshit. Stealing fuel is theft. Just like stealing a chocolate bar from a convenience store.

[BoristheBiter]

The profit margins of customers choosing a full fill, outweigh losses from the occasional runner

I think you'll find they get most of it back plus extra via the courts. Stopping a motorist somewhere in traffic, after locating via tracking or cams, hauling his ass back to the station to watch video etc, is all really time consuming.... great for the garage owners....some runners just forget to pay.... I did once out of forgetfulness, but return 40min later when I looked in my wallet and saw the cash.

Must be a good excuse for them in court with low conviction rates

Have the coppa's jumped yet?

If they get it back the gas station is lucky never mind extra. Slap on hand with wet bus ticket and maybe court costs if they are really unlucky.

[Scuba_Steve]

I call bullshit. Stealing fuel is theft. Just like stealing a chocolate bar from a convenience store.

yea I'm hoping for at-least 1 cop to confirm or deny this "legal loophole" (I'm expecting the latter).

RC your usually decent with the knowledge, care to jump in???

[scissorhands]

Fuck you're a funny man, unless things have changed dramatically in the last few years there's bugger all margin in petrol

Take away full fill and watch income of $4,030,000 drop to $4,000,000... or so, who wants to reduce income levels in todays commercial world?

Then while not waiting in line to pay, the customer will not ad other items to the shopping list. 30k grows to 80k

This loss of income would logically prevent 'pay first petrol' becoming mandatory.

Whats so funny about that?

At least I'm not jeering the coppa's to jump when the situation at the service station could be easily avoided if owners wernt so GREEDY

[caspernz]

Take away full fill and watch income of $4,030,000 drop to $4,000,000... or so, who wants to reduce income levels in todays commercial world?

Then while not waiting in line to pay, the customer will not ad other items to the shopping list. 30k grows to 80k

This loss of income would logically prevent 'pay first petrol' becoming mandatory.

Whats so funny about that?

At least I'm not jeering the coppa's to jump when the situation at the service station could be easily avoided if owners wernt so GREEDY

Haha, you really don't have a clue about retailing fuel do you? At least Kickaha had the right idea...no servo can survive just on fuel sales alone. As for the manner in which this post was started by the OP, no surprise that no self respecting policeman has posted a reply. I sure as heck wouldn't respond to such disrespectful shite if I were in their ranks.

[scissorhands]

I'm clueless after all

[avgas]

Haha, you really don't have a clue about retailing fuel do you? At least Kickaha had the right idea...no servo can survive just on fuel sales alone. As for the manner in which this post was started by the OP, no surprise that no self respecting policeman has posted a reply. I sure as heck wouldn't respond to such disrespectful shite if I were in their ranks.

I'm clueless after all

That was a bit rough. Proper explanation required.

scissorhands, the retailer typically gets 4 cents a litre.......and that is to cover everything.
Thats roughly 2-3% markup?
If a servo doesn't sell the 'extras' - they usually are closed down in about 2 years.

[pete376403]

The profit margins of customers choosing a full fill, outweigh losses from the occasional runner

I think you'll find they get most of it back plus extra via the courts. Stopping a motorist somewhere in traffic, after locating via tracking or cams, hauling his ass back to the station to watch video etc, is all really time consuming.... great for the garage owners....some runners just forget to pay.... I did once out of forgetfulness, but return 40min later when I looked in my wallet and saw the cash.

Must be a good excuse for them in court with low conviction rates

Have the coppa's jumped yet?

Gas stations won't get anything extra back via courts. For the chain that we (my employer) provides IT support for, drive offs are captured on camera. The images are sent to a collection agency, who chase up the offender, and who add collection costs. The station doesn't have to do any more, nor do they get anything extra over the petrol dollar amount back. I guess the other petrol retaillers operate in a similar manner.

[RDJ]

I understand the margin on pump sales is extremely low - according to the MTA sometimes it costs more to sell gas than the station owner makes in profit on the gas alone.

***

""Many independent service station operators work on a fixed margin basis, typically around 4 to 4.5 cents per litre. Working on a fixed margin basis means that the product their business is primarily based around is becoming increasingly uneconomic to sell. This at a time when the government takes a larger amount from each litre of fuel whenever the price goes up: currently taxes and levies account for more than 90 cents of every litre of 91 octane unleaded petrol (91 ULP).

For many operators, the current gross margin on 91 ULP is less than 2 percent and it is dropping with each successive price increase.

MTA spokesperson Ian Stronach says “There aren’t that many business models that work around a fixed margin mechanism like this. Many retailers are able to adjust and maintain margins as prices go up, but for many independent service station operators this is not a choice, they are trapped with a falling margin every time the price of fuel increases.”

As fuel costs increase, so does the tendency for motorists to use card based payment facilities rather than cash. This also adds further costs for operators as they pay a percentage based fee when a card is used. With card processing fees around the 1.25 – 1.5 percent level, the available margin is quickly consumed. In some cases, depending on the type of card presented, when loyalty schemes are in operation, operators are actually losing money on some transactions; it is costing them to sell the fuel.""

[scissorhands]

Gas stations won't get anything extra back via courts. For the chain that we (my employer) provides IT support for, drive offs are captured on camera. The images are sent to a collection agency, who chase up the offender, and who add collection costs. The station doesn't have to do any more, nor do they get anything extra over the petrol dollar amount back. I guess the other petrol retaillers operate in a similar manner.

okay I guessed wrong on getting the money back via courts
markup at a low 4% I figured already, still makes pre-purchased gas at lower volumes less attractive for the retailer.... buyer may just spend $20 instead of a $125 fill

Another point, people like to fill up, but they dont like dicking around with the cashier twice. If garages have pay first policy, customers may go elsewhere so they dont have to chat with cashiers more than once, each time they visit a fuel stop

[Smifffy]

Yeah, I got dicked around by a lippy local servo attendant, who then argued with me about what the sign said on the pump - it said "Lift handle and wait for attendant to activate pump" NOT "come inside and beg us to turn the pump on for you". Plenty of local servos and I'm sure that place enjoys plenty of custom from others, but I ain't going back there any time soon.

Oh well, it's not like they are markedly cheaper either.

okay I guessed wrong on getting the money back via courts
markup at a low 4% I figured already, still makes pre-purchased gas at lower volumes less attractive for the retailer.... buyer may just spend $20 instead of a $125 fill

Another point, people like to fill up, but they dont like dicking around with the cashier twice. If garages have pay first policy, customers may go elsewhere so they dont have to chat with cashiers more than once, each time they visit a fuel stop

[superman]

At least Kickaha had the right idea...no servo can survive just on fuel sales alone.

The unmanned fuel only servos with cheaper gas prices beg to differ...

[FJRider]

Another point, people like to fill up, but they dont like dicking around with the cashier twice. If garages have pay first policy, customers may go elsewhere so they dont have to chat with cashiers more than once, each time they visit a fuel stop

As I understand ... the Gas stations "pre-pay" before it gets in their tanks ... why shouldn't the customer ... ???

[Scuba_Steve]

Well given the lack of cop response, I'm gonna say that there is no "legal loophole" & the cops were just making shit up to avoid doing their job. Unfortunately I can't say I'm surprised

[avgas]

The unmanned fuel only servos with cheaper gas prices beg to differ...

Think you will find NONE are locally owned. ALL are globally owned. (yep even the so called "NZ gas companies")
Not that that is a bad thing - I actually like them. But just a point of difference between running a local operation and not can be seen purely on expenses.

Interesting fact : all these fancy autofil stations (around the world) are actually designed by a NZ firm. Who is only just releasing them in NZ now - their reasoning... "Shit on your own front lawn last, shit on the others first".