Thought about adding a Diesel Island to your location?
Are you located near a major highway? Do your customers ask if you accept OTR Fleet cards? Are you located near a large trucking company? If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, you need to seriously consider adding a diesel island to your business.
Diesel islands aren’t a luxury anymore. They’re a necessity. Diesel islands make fueling locations operate more efficiently, minimize staffing, and maximize profit. Diesel islands also enable remote fueling locations with or without convenience stores to attract business.
As effective as diesel islands are, they also require a significant amount of planning. Without that planning, your new diesel island could absorb the entire quarter’s profit margin for small fuel retailers. Here’s what to consider before you get started.
What to Consider When You’re Adding a Diesel Island
Your Property and Its Layout
Many fuel retailers attempt to add as many fuel dispensers as possible to their diesel island. Unfortunately, this approach creates nightmarish traffic flow problems.
Where will trucks pull in and exit? If things get backed up, where will they line up? Do you have overflow parking? A diesel island should make operations more efficient, not less. Be conservative in how much you add to the space.Invest in low-energy LED canopy lights for the diesel island. This form of lighting allows you to light a diesel island for hundreds of thousands of hours while cutting down on costly utility bills.
Lighting
Lighting performs three essential functions. First, it entices customers from the road and demonstrates that your truck stop is open for business. Second, it provides a measure of safety for customers as they fuel up. An unlit fueling station is a red flag for anyone driving through the night. Third, it enables customers to see clearly as they move about their truck, lighting the way to your location’s convenience store. Ultimately, if you can’t afford to light a diesel island, you can’t afford to install one at your location.
Payment Processing System
Diesel islands are typically unbranded, freeing fuel retailers to use unbranded processing networks like Financial Fuel Services. This presents a tremendous opportunity.
The most frequently used cards at a diesel island are OTR fleet cards. That being said, more and more fuel retailers are accepting Visa and Mastercard at their diesel islands. It’s our goal to facilitate this transition.
At Financial Fuel Services, we recommend upgrading from the now-outdated Trendar system and installing one of Comdata’s cutting-edge processing systems like SmartAuth, Smartsite, and SmartDESQ. These systems allow diesel islands to process payments from OTR fleet cards, Visa, Mastercard, and other major credit cards.
Don’t Try This On Your Own. Contact Financial Fuel Services for a Consultation.
Installing a diesel island represents a MAJOR investment. This article is just scratching the surface of the items you need to consider when planning for this upgrade.
Before you start unpacking your blueprints and analyzing your capital improvement budget, schedule a consultation with Financial Fuel Services.
We specialize in walking fuel retailers through business-critical decisions about payment processing. We can help you review. Reach out to us today. We’re happy to answer any questions you may have.
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