Pumping innovation

DX Promote allows retailers to advertise their goods and services through an integrated digital experience at each fuelling point. This messaging helps drive customers inside the convenience store to increase retailer sales and profit margins. Driven by Microsoft Azure, DX Promote leverages next-generation technology to centrally manage and deploy day and time-appropriate advertisements. It also offers the capability to boost in-store sales, on-site car washes and other services. Ultimately, DX Promote increases overall average per-visit revenue and profit.

“The DX Promote user experience has been designed to streamline operations by creating a simple process to upload and change the promotional and media content customers see at varying stages of the fuelling process,” says Reggie O'Donoghue, senior director of product management at Dover Fueling Solutions. 

Gilbarco Veeder-Root suggests that better inside sales start outside under the canopy. Toward this end, the company launched Encore Experience, a cloud-based open applications platform that enables retailers to customize on-screen experiences at the forecourt and drive customers inside a site’s convenience store. With Encore Experience, retailers can create their own apps or use Gilbarco-built or third-party-developed apps to remotely and securely deploy content and functionality to their Encore® dispensers screens.

Encore Experience is Gilbarco’s first open application system that is fully interactive. While customers fuel vehicles, they can view live news as well as in-store promotions. The dispenser is designed to increase loyalty with apps that direct customers into the c-store. “Encore Experience greatly enhances a guest’s speed of access to a store’s range of products and services. The concept seeks to remove every barrier to in-store sales where the profits are,” says Steve Liguori, Gilbarco’s marketing manager for Encore Experience.    

Operators can have multiple apps running and can customize dispenser messaging for all locations or just one dispenser. Dispensers can also print out in-store coupons and alert gas customers to promos and store events. And, perhaps most important is that Encore Experience takes payment at the pump for embedded promotions.

Bennet Pump has been making fuelling devices for more than a century and many Canadian operations utilize the company’s new NV line of dispensers. These products offer an enhanced operating economy with the company suggesting energy costs are 60% lower than other dispensers. It also offers one of the best fuel meters in the business, something operators like because accuracy puts money in their pockets. The systems also come with a range of media displays that range from 7-inches to 10.5-inches.

Alternative energy solutions

B.C.’s Powertech Labs has just released its latest hydrogen dispenser. Powertech Labs is wholly-owned by BC Hydro and has installed hydrogen fuelling equipment at four retail sites in the province, one in Quebec and another in California. The new-look dispenser offers an easy-to-use customer interface and provides T40 700 bar and 350 bar fueling capability. It comes with a full POS for credit and debit transactions and can be configured for fleet use. Customers can fill a passenger car between three and five minutes. The company reports that this design simplifies installation and mirrors other dispensers with single or double-sided use as well as single and double nozzle options available. The equipment is also easily installed at existing gas stations right next to diesel and gasoline dispensers.

Charge Point is offering a solution for operators that want to offer EV charging. Charge Point’s CT4000 charging station dispenses electricity to customers with new electric-powered vehicles. The system features flexible pricing options where charging fees can be set by time or session. Usage can run through Charge Point’s mobile app where a waitlist can put users in a lineup at busy sites. The app reserves a spot and alerts the driver when a place is available. 

Gilbarco Veeder-Root has introduced their new RT50 50kW DC Fast Charger to add to their existing line of EV chargers. Simple and quick to install, the RT50 offers a small footprint and can be placed almost anywhere on the apron. It also speaks your language with an intuitive interface designed for easy use.  

Correction: In the May/June 2021 print edition of OCTANE we incorrectly identified Dover Fueling Solutions (DFS). We regret the error and have altered the text to reflect the correct company name.