SAN ANTONIO -- Refiner-marketer Valero Energy Corp. said that it has involved its network of point-of-sale (POS) terminals in a national, missing-child alert system, enhancing the service's ability to quickly broadcast emergency messages about victims and their abductors.
Valero, San Antonio, in partnership with San Jose, Calif.-based VeriFone Holdings Inc., said the two companies have implemented the AMBER (America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) Alert distribution system. The Valero-VeriFone effort will allow the AMBER Alert system to disseminate [image-nocss] information about missing children and their suspected abductors through VeriFone's POS devices directly to Valero's more than 1,000 U.S. retail stores.
The U.S. Department of Justice credits the AMBER Alert system with helping find more than 200 children since the program began in 1996.
We have created a solution that leverages technology at the point-of-sale to create a vital public service, says Bud Waller, VeriFone executive vice president of integrated solutions. We are working with Valero and the petroleum and convenience store industry to provide a cost-effective means to use their in-store systems to provide timely public safety information to their local communities.
Gary Arthur, Valero's senior vice president of retail and specialty product marketing, said, We're pleased to be an integral part of this program, which helps save children's lives and reunites them with their parents. He noted, Making a difference in communities where Valero has operations and especially making a positive impact on children's lives has been part of Valero's mission since it was founded 25 years ago.
The electronic process is relatively simple. When area authorities post an AMBER Alert, the child's information gets downloaded from CodeAmber.org, the web-based AMBER Alert system, and flows into Valero's servers. From there, the information is transmitted over Valero's privately managed network to geographically targeted Valero retail locations. The POS workstation screen displays the information, which also arrives in a printed format. This message includes the location of the abduction, contact information for the reporting authority and available links to images of the missing child and suspect composites.
The VeriFone Topaz POS workstation and the company's Sapphire site controller both use a standard computer protocol known as XML within the products' processing technology. VeriFone used that technology to incorporate the AMBER system.
Valero has more than 4,700 retail and branded wholesale outlets in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean under brand names including Valero, Diamond Shamrock, Shamrock, Ultramar and Beacon.
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