Speeding Up the Island

The average time between credit card payment and pump activation for Sheetz customers could range from 25 to 35 seconds, and at times when a station's activity hit a high, the transaction time often grew longer.

With the additional payment options and the added self-service functions offered at many stations today, the company knew it had to find a way to increase the speed of its pump transactions.
"It was about our focus on our customer's transaction time as well as reliability," said Todd Harrison, POS development manager at Sheetz Inc.

The company uses Radiant's POS system, and had been using its Jaguar pump controller as well. At the end of September 2005, Sheetz tested Radiant's new Tiger Fuel Controller, which increases bandwidth to the fuel island, providing faster speed of service and allowing more transactions at the pump, the company reported.
Two weeks later, Sheetz installed the new controller at a second location, and the company currently has 11 locations using the device.

"Our transaction times are down to 18 seconds from the time you enter your card to when fueling begins," explained Harrison.

"The Tiger Fuel Controller actually splits the communications from one channel out into four channels for faster communication, and we can hook up to 32 fueling locations, or 16 pumps to one device."
Additionally, the pumps handle cash acceptors, and for single-bill transactions -- such as a $20 bill for $20 worth of gas -- the new controller offers transaction times of 8 or 10 seconds, compared with 25 seconds with the older controller.

"We were the first North American installation," said Harrison. "We currently have 26 locations installed with Radiant's 6E POS platform, and will roll out the Tiger Fuel Controller to all of them by mid-January. We are also installing it as part of our new store openings."

Peak Performance
According to Harrison, a side benefit is the controller's performance during times of peak activity.

"During peak business hours, the pump transactions used to slow down because of the need to communicate to so many pumps," he said. "Now the transaction time is staying consistent, whether its slow or busy."

Sheetz plans to upgrade its POS system to Radiant's 6E platform throughout the chain -- stores are currently using an older Radiant model -- and will be upgrading to the Tiger Fuel Controller as well.

"We plan a full rollout next year for both the new POS and the controller," said Harrison. "We've been a Radiant partner for over 10 years now, and we've been able to grow with their products."