Fuel South is the petroleum distributor owned by The Jones Co., the holding company Flash Foods, the Waycross, Ga.-based chain of 180 convenience stores in Georgia and northern Florida. Jones also owns Distribution South and [image-nocss] Walker Jones Dealership.
Andale is focused on the automation of the fuel supply chain from the point fuel is dispatched until it is delivered to the site, then extends to provide real-time BOL data to the billing system immediately after delivery. Pinnacle provides Andale as a hosted Software as a Service (SaaS) offering, fuel dispatchers utilize the system with nothing more than a web browser; drivers utilize the system with nothing more than a browser enabled cell phone such as their Blackberry or Treo. BOL transaction data is available as soon as a driver delivers fuel, and then downloaded from Andale for consumption by any 3rd party fuel billing system.
The industry-wide need for instant BOL delivery data has become one of the most pervasive issues for the petroleum marketing industry; Andale facilitates instantaneous BOL processing by reducing the lag time between fuel deliveries and receiving the carrier BOL.
"In the past, store managers had limitations on entering the [BOL] information as in timestamp and product codes. Most of our stores are unbranded and bill of lading information is not consistently located in the same place. Our drivers are far more familiar with the product and bill of lading information and they have taken to this new technology well," said Debbie Butler, Business Manager for Fuel South.
She added, "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. It has also reduced labor cost with the efficiencies gained from more accurate bill of lading information. Andale is a great enhancement to Pinnacle's Fuel Smart solution. We have been impressed with the ease of implementation and how quickly our drivers have learned to use this application."
Brian Reynolds, director of fuel solutions for Pinnacle, said, "Delays in receiving carrier BOL information lengthen the invoicing cycle of wholesale customers which slows the payment process and results in less revenue and less flexibility in tight credit times. Today's extremely volatile fuel prices have resulted in a demand for retailers to have faster information in order to make better pricing and replenishment decisions, Andale meets this demand by automating the entire BOL lifecycle from the point of dispatch through actual billing."
Arlington, Texas-based Pinnacle is a leader in automation technology focusing on the c-store and petroleum industries. Pinnacle delivers products that automate the broad spectrum of c-store operations and supply-chain management of fuel operations. Nationwide, Pinnacle's products and services are used daily in thousands of convenience outlets to automate and improve their store operations and by fuel marketers to increase their efficiency in the complex management of fuel delivery.
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