MIDDLETON, Wis. -- Officials with PDQ Food Stores Inc. said that gasoline driveoffs are a growing and pricey problem, and that it now plans to upgrade its pumps to equip every station in the Madison, Wis., with a prepay-only option, reported WISC-TV's Channel3000.com.
This forces drivers to use a credit card at the pump or prepay inside the store before filling up their vehicle with fuel, said the report.
"It's no secret that as prices get higher, the instances of theft increase as well. Plus, it's kind of [image-nocss] a double whammy because the impact of that theft is much greater at $3.50 per gallon versus $2.50 per gallon," Matt Hauser, president of the Wisconsin Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Store Association, told the news outlet.
Currently, about 60% of consumers prepay for gasoline, Hauser said.
According to a survey of convenience store owners last year, cited by the news outlet, Wisconsin owners reported a collective loss of almost $2 million because of driveoffs in 2009. Nationwide, retailers lost nearly $90 million a year due to drive-offs, officials said.
PDQ's move is in line with recommendations from local law enforcement, according to literature posted at pumps. Company officials said that they hope a minor inconvenience will tackle a big problem head on, especially because there is little recourse in collecting from those committing gasoline thefts.
A Madison Police Department spokesperson told Channel3000 that officers no longer respond to gasoline driveoffs because the crime is preventable by requiring customers to pre-pay. "These are all individually owned and operated. They're individual owners who have a brand agreement with these major oil company suppliers--and in the case of PDQ, PDQs actually 100% employee owned, so I'm sure it's very frustrating for these employee owners to experience losses due to gas theft," said Hauser.
Click herefor a video report.
PDQ Food Stores is a 45-store convenience chain based in Middleton, Wis.
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