Fuel stations are known to be a hive of activities. On a typical day, a fuel station of any tier simultaneously offers multiple goods and services to its clients. Many stations deal in lubricants, fuel, gas, and vehicle servicing; some operate convenience stores. Without the proper tools, these forecourt activities can become a nightmare to monitor.
Through in-depth research of the workings of fuel stations and lots of ingenuity, we came up with a revolutionary product – the Pesapal Forecourt Management Solution (PFMS). This forecourt solution helps the petrol station managers to monitor all forecourt activities from a single dashboard and does much more. It gives your forecourt an edge by providing unrivalled security, crucial insight, industry-leading accuracy, and renowned reliability.
PFMS, enables you to monitor your station’s fuel dispensers, check fuel tank levels, and monitor convenience store sales and inventory together with LPG and lube reports. It is a system designed to help businesses in the fuel retail industry manage and optimize their operations. It includes features and capabilities such as fuel dispensing and inventory management, remote monitoring, real-time reporting, and other automated processes. With the PFMS, you can pull reports remotely, in real-time, for whatever period you require. It can also be plugged into our payment channels, such as the Sabi POS (Point of Sale) and E-invoicing.
With the Pesapal Forecourt Management Solution, you can pull reports and do analytics or a monthly pump-to-tank reconciliation to confirm a net gain or loss. The system will accurately point you to any problems in your forecourt equipment, e.g., piping, tanks, or dispensers. The reports can also provide information on pumps needing maintenance or recalibration and the pump maintenance history. All these can be done by logging on to your PFMS dashboard. Reports for any activity happening on a dispenser can be pulled with a time stamp.
We provide RFID (radio frequency identification) readers and AVI systems when installing the forecourt controller at your station. These are essential for managers who are keen to know their staff performance statistics. RFID tags can be issued to staff while their names and details are preconfigured into the system.
The forecourt controller picks information such as the sales statistics of each attendant for each fuel grade. PFMS also prevents losses arising from collusion between staff and drivers. The forecourt controller automatically generates records of each fuelling activity at each nozzle and the amount dispensed by each pump against the sales records. Moreover, any attempted sabotage of the forecourt management system is detected instantly. No fuel will be dispensed at the pump without a closed-loop connection between the controller and dispensers.
For fleet management purposes, Automatic Vehicle Identification (AVI) is used to ensure fuel is only dispensed in registered cars. During fueling, the AVI system reads the vehicle's RFID tag through a chip placed on the car and the nozzle and checks it against a database of authorized vehicles. If the vehicle is authorized, the fuel pump is activated, and the fuel is dispensed. If the vehicle is not authorized, the fuel pump remains locked. This keeps operational costs in check by monitoring the consumption and performance of each vehicle within a fleet. PFMS picks up exact statistics of the amount of fuel dispensed to each vehicle and can also generate an invoice that is sent to the fleet manager as a payment request.
Previously, managers and proprietors had to make price changes on their stations’ price boards on-site. However, with PFMS, you can adjust your prices remotely from any location and have them reflected on the price board. This allows you to easily manage your pricing according to market demand, supply, and regulations.
Automatic Tank Gauging (ATG) is an advanced fuel tank levels monitoring tool. Mechanically and electronically calibrated probes are inserted into the fuel station’s storage tanks to tell the fuel level in real-time. With the forecourt controller in place, information about fuel tank levels can be automatically picked up and displayed on the dashboard. Having this crucial information at the click of a button eliminates assumptions and gives clear and actionable wet stock data. With this system in place, you can monitor any leakages in the tank and manage inventory effectively.
We can also configure mobile payment application systems, payment terminals and POS systems to the PFMS. This link enables you to monitor the modes of payment used for different purchases made at your station. In addition, it simplifies reporting and reconciliation by pulling information from different devices and gives you control over all the devices from a single platform.
Fuel stations have varying preferences for different brands of fuel dispensers. With this in mind, we made our forecourt solution compatible with over 125 fuel dispenser models. While some are limited to European and American dispenser models, our Forecourt Management Solution can be configured with European, American, South American, and Chinese brands. This serves the African market well since it has experienced a rise in the popularity of Chinese and South American fuel pump models.
47 models of fuel tanks are compatible and can be configured with PFMS. In the Kenyan energy and petroleum market, 13 fuel tank models are available. Our Forecourt Management Solution is compatible with these models. The forecourt controller can also be configured into price boards to enable you to change the prices at the touch of a button.
Moreover, our forecourt solution can be integrated into POS systems such as Compulinks. This loops in the convenience store into the same dashboard as your sales from the fuel pumps. It can also be configured into Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and fleet management systems. This configuration lets you monitor your fuel and stock levels from one convenient platform. The versatility of PFMS will set your fuel station apart from the competition and increase your forecourt’s efficiency.
Once you have placed a PFMS installation request through any of our contact channels, our team of forecourt experts will pay you a visit. The system installation happens on-site. At the heart of the Pesapal Forecourt Management Solution is the forecourt controller. This device is a software controller which assures communication between the other components of the retail system (POS, BOS) and the devices from the forecourt: fuel dispensers, tank gauging systems, etc.
Normally, the forecourt controller’s preferred installation point is at the back office or in the station’s strong room. This is done for security and discretion purposes. A cable connection is installed from the controller to the motherboard of the pump, preferably through the station’s cabling ducts. The pump is configured to automatic mode to send information to the controller. The same is done for all the other forecourt devices.
The network connection is based on the local area network (LAN) and a remote server. All the forecourt data generated by the system is securely stored and will not be lost in the event of network failure. Moreover, the forecourt controller and its components rely on a backup battery in case of power outages. We also provide compatible RFID tags, cabling, and RFID readers as additional components to the PFMS.
The Pesapal Forecourt Management Solution and the Sabi Smart PDQ are ATEX (Atmosphere Explosible) certified. ATEX Certification is a product regulation that ensures the safety of equipment intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres. Every step in our work methodology on the PFMS system is ATEX compliant. The communication protocols used by the forecourt solution are SSL and TLS compliant to ensure that your forecourt and station’s data is tamper-proof. This lets you control your data and remain assured of its security.
This online interface displays the reports of your forecourt’s performance as relayed by the PFMS system. On the dashboard, you can pull reports such as:
You can filter and view your preferred statistics, check tank volumes, and send invoices and reports from the PFMS dashboard. Stations with multiple branches and sub-retailers can be configured to one remote server address. The data from these sites can be channelled to a central point which can be viewed from the dashboard. Multiple users can also be configured on the forecourt system with different administrative rights assigned to them.
In February 2022, Pesapal received accreditation from IFSF to provide integrated payment solutions to fuel stations. IFSF is a community dedicated to enabling technology standards to benefit automotive fuel and energy retailers. Its objective is to ensure the harmonization of equipment interconnectivity and communication standards. Its approach is collaborating with other standards organizations and relevant institutions to achieve common standards for the interoperability of forecourt and convenience devices and services.
We now partner with fuel retailers nationwide to provide secure and seamless payment solutions. With this adherence to global standards, you can rest assured that your station will have an excellent forecourt management partner in the PFMS.
