WAYCROSS, Ga. -- A year ago, Flash Foods had a problem. The convenience store chain couldn't quickly or easily know the in-ground cost of their fuel inventory. Today, the chain is using automated, real-time bill-of-lading (BOL) capture, reducing the lag time between dispatching a fuel load and receiving the carrier BOL. This has allowed the retailer to increase revenues and gain operational efficiencies.
Flash Foods worked with sister company distributor Fuel South Inc. and Pinnacle Corp. in implementing a BOL system to resolve the issues, according to a Pinnacle "Customer [image-nocss] Success Story."
Previous, the only information Flash Foods had to rely on when making retail fuel price changes at the store level was the replacement cost. Not knowing the in-ground cost of inventory could, and sometimes did, result in lesser gross margins than anticipated, according to the Pinnacle report. Flash Foods experienced a loss in time and profit due to the manual, time-consuming process it had in place for dispatching fuel loads and receiving carrier BOL information.
Fuel delivery drivers had no way to immediately report their BOL information to the home office; drivers would collect all of their BOLs and deliver them to the home office via truck or mail which sometimes took several days.
From there, the process of store manager entry of BOL information was time consuming, inconsistent and on occasion, inaccurate.
To resolve the problem, Flash Foods selected Pinnacle's Andale solution for automated, real-time BOL capture. Andale is a web-based solution focused on the automation of the fuel supply chain from the point fuel is ordered by a retailer until it is delivered by the wholesaler. Andale facilitates instantaneous BOL entry, reducing the lag time between dispatching a fuel load and receiving the carrier BOL.
The process begins with the fuel wholesaler dispatch office entering the fuel order into the Andale system. The driver receives notification of new orders via a web-enabled cell phone, then proceeds to pick up the fuel load at the terminal and receives the hard copy BOL. The driver then enters the BOL number and necessary information into the Andale system with his or her Web-enabled cell phone.
Debbie Butler, business manager at Fuel South, was tasked with rolling out Andale for all Fuel South drivers and Flash Foods locations. Implementation to all 180 stores and 50 drivers was started in May 2009 and completed in November 2009.
"The biggest challenge during implementation was convincing the petroleum truck drivers that accessing emails and the Internet on their Blackberry was a painless process," Butler said. "Once we convinced them to give it a try, our drivers were surprised with how easy it was to use, and we were surprised at how quickly they adapted."
And the results: "Our drivers are far more familiar with the product and bill-of-lading information, and they have taken to this new technology well," said Butler. "Andale has given us a quicker response time in evaluating our inventory, giving the ability to know our in ground cost of inventory on a daily basis."
With the increase in accuracy and timeliness of information flow into its fuel accounting software, Flash Foods is now able to produce monthly financial statements in record time, according to the report. The company expects to reach its return on investment (ROI) in June 2010.
Arlington, Texas-based Pinnacle Corp. is a leader in the automation technology industry focusing on the rapidly evolving convenience store and petroleum industries. Pinnacle delivers products that automate the broad spectrum of c-store operations and supply-chain management of fuel operations.
Flash Foods, Waycross, Ga., operates a chain of 180 c-stores in Georgia and Northern Florida. It holding company, the Jones Co., also owns Fuel South Inc., Distribution South and the Walker Jones Auto Dealership.
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