4 Tips to Make Fuel Retailing Safer

AUSTIN, Texas -- Delivering fuel is a difficult and hazardous job. Convenience-store retailers can help minimize the dangers by following a few key best practices.

Here are four examples that came out during CSP's Leadership and Crisis Prevention Forum in Austin, Texas ...

Murphy USA Inc. paints marks on its stores’ pavement where drivers should position the nose and the back of truck so that they do not obstruct guest traffic, said Thomas Holt, senior manager of employee and customer safety for the El Dorado, Ark.-based chain.

Douglass Distributing provides new drivers with a packet that includes a Google Map aerial view of how to enter the site and where to park, said Beth Kratochvil, vice president of safety for the Sherman, Texas-based company.

When they arrive on-site, Douglass Distributing fleet drivers put on a vest, set up cones and place a strobe on top of the cones. “They are in such a hazardous, vulnerable position,” Kratochvil said. “That strobe comes in handy, especially for night drivers.”

Douglass Distributing drivers are trained to avoid spills and fuel cross-contamination by first hooking up the drop gun to the tank, then the hose to the drop gun, and then to the truck, Kratochvil said.