Self-service and its developments

seems to be a common practice for such licences to be issued in the name of an officer of the authority. In addition to its seeming invidious to place personal responsibility on an officer, this practice would appear to be strictly incorrect. It is the authority who owns or leases the land, and is therefore the occupier, and not the officer. The act does not apply to the Crown.

I have not so far referred to the Transfer of Licences Act of 1936. It should be noted that there is no right of appeal against a refusal to transfer a licence. It may be that the High Court would not allow an authority to refuse to transfer a licence for capricious reasons, although this is not free from doubt. In any event, it would appear to be quite legitimate for an authority to refuse to transfer a licence on the ground, for example, that the transfer would tend to perpetuate the existence of an old-fashioned site which cannot conform with modern safety standards.

1. The Times, 20th May 1966, (1966) 2 All.E.R. 816. 2. (1966) 2 All.E.R. at p.820, paragraph C. 3. (1910) A.C. at p.596. 4. Regulation 1 (2). 5. 0914) 1 KB 258, l 1 LGR 1220.

SELF SERVICE AND ITS DEVELOPMENTS IN THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE

J. F. BRIDGER, A.C.G.I., G.l.Mech.E., B.P. Retail Division Shell Mex and B.P. Ltd., London

I have been invited to present a paper on "Self-Service and its developments in the immediate future". Self-service is very much a subject of the moment, and judging from the volumes of comment and writing in the trade press and increasingly in the national press too, it is a subject about which there is no shortage of interest.

I am going to discuss developments particularly in terms of new equipment, new designs of outlet and about new techniques of petrol retailing currently being tested by BP and other oil companies in the UK and Europe.

Some, if not all these developments are likely to make an appearance in the UK before too long-a few are already here and some of you may probably have seen one or two of them.

But first of all some facts and figures. Before the Second World War, a car population of 1.9 million cars consumed 2.9 million tons of petrol bought at 35,000 retail outlets. Today, the car population has quintupled to 11.9 million cars, petrol consumption has gone up in the same order and the number of retail outlets has gone up to 41,000.

By J 974, however, as far as one can accurately judge, the car population will have incressed by half again; as will the petrol consumed. The number of sites will have dropped by about 10 %, which is significant.

It is likely that by 1980, over 2,000 million gallons of motor spirit will be sold in the UK through self-service outlets. This will represent over half of the estimated throughput in the UK at that date.

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Most of this volume will be sold through large integrated post-payment developments, selling weU over a million gallons of fuel a piece, per year. . The trend towards self-service can be explained in terms of tighter profit margins forced upon the trade by higher Jabour charges, shortage of an acceptable type of forecourt attendant and rapidly rising overheads.

How do we in BP see the market shaping in terms of the type of outlet petrol. from which the motorist of the 1980's will be buying

Most probably types of outlets will have resolved themselves into five different categories.

First of all there will be the large fully integrated post payment site. In addition to petrol retailing a large range of useful ancillary functions will be catered for at this type of site. Po-- large shopping area selling not merely TBA but any useful Imes of that are required in the particular trading area, can be quickly and profitably turned over. leisure goods, cosmetics, gardening equipment, stationery are some examples. Facilities such as launderettes car washing and in the right localit; DIY serv1cmg will also be common. Children's facilities, rest rooms and restaurants will also be found in specific localities.

Secondly there will be the small post payment sites which will be in where space is at a premium. This type of site cater for high volume petrol sales only with possibly car wash 1f there is room. A minimal sales area selling only oil may be provided.

Thirdly, there will be the ghost site-an unmanned one or two pump outlet situated in the remote country areas such as Scotland and the Lake District, or in locations where the trade is particularly seasonal. At this type of outlet and location it is not always economic to keep attendants on site the year.

Four or five such outlets may well fall under the control of one ghost site manager, who will visit each one every few days to collect money and check petrol stocks and equipment.

Fourthly there will be the neighbourhood friendly dealer site offering a full garage service on a friendly basis. Car service, sales, spares and petrol will all be dispensed with a cheerful smile. There will always be a place for this.

Lastly there will be the very large new and secondhand car dealerships; to this trade, petrol selling has very often been regarded as a non-profit making ancillary service. Many dealerships will doubtless give petrol selling up completely, and concentrate their efforts entirely where their expertise lies, namely in car sales and service. These sites will include specialist car repair outlets-possibly even specialising in repairs to one variety of car.

Talking generally about post-payment first, by the end of the year BP will have opened 100 integrated post-payment developments, most of them incorporating car-washing, substantial shop facilities selling everything from TBA to camping gear. Where there is a demand for a particular service, then we should be interested in meeting it.

For instance in Germany we have built parking facilities in the midst of Europe's largest shopping centre, a 60,000 square yard complex on three levels recently opened in Hamburg. The shopping centre, located in the Hamburger Strassecontains over 100 retail shops and 47,850 square feet of office accommodation.

The parking area includes a modern BP site offering petrol, a well equipped autoshop and a high volume car wash capable of cleaning 70 cars per hour. The BP installation complete cost £1-t million. In Germany we have a specialist department purely concerned with the construction of parking centres and we have already built 30 in major cities in Western Germany.

In pre-payment self-service BP have again taken the lead in tht; UK with about 150 note accepting units installed throughout the country. These note acceptors use as a banknote validator a unit which was originally developed from a US dollar bill changer. As any pioneers in a technological field, we have had our troubles with equipment, but now I can safely say that we are over the hill. In fact the equipment has not entirely been to blame as there are over 15 variations of the sacrosanct English £1 note. We have had the equipment tested under very rigorous conditions at our research centre at Sunbury-on-Thames, and the equipment is now more refined.

Site design has improved immensely over the last 12 months, and will doubless continue to do so. The era of the grubby station is over and sites are now being designed with a view to maximising throughput by inducing very high traffic flows across the fourecourt. Weather protecting canopies shield the self-service motorist from the elements. Pumps are placed on individual plinths to maximise the number ofrefuelling points. The phrase "traffic flow lines" has become part of the site designers everyday jargon.

Autoshops and canopies are sporting illuminated perspex facias specifically to improve appearances and attract the elusive motorist. The big message here is that the petrol industry is at last waking up to the fact that it is in the retailing business in its fullest sense, and that petrol is as merchandisable a commodity as soapflakes or custard.

In the future we must learn to become more flexible in our attitudes to design. The traditional face lift operation on sites in need of development is no longer the answer as the pace of innovation and the strength of competition becomes hotter.

For this reason lighter and less substantial buildings and constructions are required, as we must now be thinking in terms of frequent bulldozed developments. Cheaper development which, like mest modern automobiles, have "built-in obsolescence" could be the answer.

Plastics and GRP'S will doubtless also become common building materials. Actually two years ago BP erected an all plastic filling station on the Al to evaluate the materials and the methods of construction, and the lessons learnt will soon be applied elsewhere.

In terms of petrol retailing equipment there are many innovations now being tested or completed.

In Germany BP has a very large network of ta_nk units. Munz tank is a multi coin accumulator acceptmg coms of 1, 2 or 5DM in any order and up to a total of about £8. insertion of coins causes impulses to be sent from the com acceptor mechanism through the control i?to a figure storage unit and onto a readout situated o_n the md1cator panel. They also pass from the figure mnt the control panel to the kerbside pump durmg pumpmg. Impulses from the pump flow back to the control panel an? the figure storage unit to a receipt printer which releases a ticket at the end of the delivery. The Munz tank system is ready _for use when (a) the main switch in the network connect10n has been switched on and (b) a safety pin has been removed from the

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latched delivery nozzle and inserted in the Munz tank to operate a tumbler switch. The words "ready for use" and "Please insert money" then appear on the indicator panel. The money inserted by the customer is registered on the indicator panel and during delivery this sum is back-counted until at zero money the pump switches itself off automatically. After insertion the coins are checked in several different ways and if accepted' pass into an intermediate storage holder which has two openings. The coins remain in this holder until the customer withdraws the nozzle when they drop into permanent storage. Should a customer want his money back before withdrawing the nozzle he can obtain it by pressing a return button.

The passage of a coin between checking and the intermediate storage causes an impulse to be transmitted which controls a switch which sends information to be totalled and stored. As the computer turns in the petrol pump impulses are sent out which are transmitted to the figure storage unit in the Munz tank. There an impulse of similar value is cancelled by subtraction. In this way all the stored impulses are cancelled one by one. When DM0.5 worth of fuel remains, the fuel flow is restricted electro-magnetically and the money computer slowly appraoches zero. After delivery a paper receipt is printed.

The blender pump coupled to the Munz tank has normally an automatic shut off nozzle to prevent overfilling. Although it is possible for the attendant to use the safety pin to latch the nozzle open during normal service this procedure is forbidden by Petrol Authorities during Munz tank operation by self service customers. Because of this, the safety pin from the latch nozzle must be removed when the pump operates on a self service basis, and used as a contact for the operation of the tumbler switch in the Munz tank.

Installation of Munz tank units started in 1963 with the full authority of the German Petroleum Regulators.

Now BP have more than 2,000 Munz tank units operating offering 5 grades of petrol by day, and night, at more than 2 OOO of the best stations throughout Germany. ' Another development which some of you may have seen is in Birmingham. It is a Japanese system designed primarily to use less forecourt area than a system with an equivalent number of conventional pumps. All the pump islands are eliminated. Hoses coupled to large readouts, visible from the forecourt descend from the canopy. This enables more effective use to be made of sites with limited space and no possibilities for the expansion which would be necessary to take full advantage of higher throughput potential. Manouevrability of vehicles on the forecourt is increased because fuelling can take place when the car is facing in any direction, as long as the car fill pipe is within a circular area of about 20feet diameter centred under the hose reel.

The attendant presses a button on the wall and a hose descends to shoulder level. When the hose is pulled manually a little further towards the car fill pipe, the pump motor is automatically started.

When the customer has been served, another button on the nozzle is pressed, and the hose ascends automatically back into the canopy.

The quantity of petrol bought is registered on elevated readouts installed at the rear of the forecourt. The readout is repeated on slave recorders in the sales office.

In Japan, 1,300 sets of this type of equipment have been installed, and these are predominently in small city centre outlets with high throughput and limited forecourts. A further 59 sets of equipment have been sold to oil companies all over

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the world in countries ranging from Taiwan to Turkey-not forgetting Great Britain of course.

For self service operation, the system can operate on a complete card operated basis. A customer can obtain petrol, oil and accessories, plus a car wash if required simply_ by inserting his card into a card acceptor on each relevant piece of equipment. Sales information is recorded at the control desk in the sales room.

After completion of his purchases, the cutomer goes t~ the sales room and inserts his card into a card reader. A pnnter then automatically issues a ticket showing the purchases made. The data recorded on the ticket can be automatically charged to the customer's account, by computer.

A Swedish innovation is the electronic hose and readout, about which I wrote in a recent edition of the Bulletin. This is another pace setting innovation as the pumping units a~e remote from the fuelling points and the electronic readout is on the nozzle itself. The result is a much cleaner and tidier forecourt, and a more convenient way for the customer to notice his sale. All that is required is the control panel for push button price or volume setting, a note accepting unit for out of hours use of the equipment, and of course the hose and hose-end readout themselves.

The credit card syndrome has thankfully not yet developed to any large extent in the UK. Some Scandinavian oil companies operate very sophisticated credit card accepting machines. A customer coming onto the forecourt places his card into the credit card acceptor and keys his card code number into the machine on push button. If his credit is good the pump is released and the customer may draw fuel. His transaction is transferred to punch tape and the customer is debited on a computerised accounting system every so often. If the customer's credit is not good his card is sucked into the credit card unit and not returned.

Computerised stock control both of petrol levels and TBA and shop merchandise is also technically possible now. Combined electronic tills and mini computers control memory banks which retain stock levels which can be altered every time a sale of petrol or an accessory takes place. When items are delivered or fuel delivery is made, the stock level is updated by the operator who can feed in information by push buttoH on the console.

Technically one could envisage equipment to feed this type of information to central data collecting points where the information could be analysed, and items recorded or fuel deliveries co-ordinated. However this sort of facility is very expensive and requires skilled and attentive operation. It also would require a more highly paid operator.

Now I want to deal with Rent a Spanner or DIY servicing at petrol outlets. Although there are a few outlets offering DIY service in the UK, this type of operation is very common in Scandinavia where self service is a more established concept. Servicing costs in the UK are rising rapidly-one informed estimator put a likely rise of 15 % in servicing costs over the next 12 months. I personally feel that there must be oppor-tunities arising now and in the short term future for the setting up of DIY servicing facilities in the right areas. At present a large amount of DIY work is carried out at home garages without proper facilities and tools. I am sure that many more people would be encouraged to tackle jobs on their cars available. if the use of suitable jacks, pits and tools are

In 1968 Denmark BP opened a large self-service petrol site with very extensive DIY facilities. The site has nine self-service

bays available for hire at 3s. per half hour. Tools can be hired, and each bay has washing facilities. A full-time mechanic is on call for free advice for the DIY tyro who gets out of his depth.

In addition the fitter has himself a double bay with a four ~ost. car lift, where he will carry out complicated stages of epair at a cost of 27s. Od. per hour. Commonly used spares are on sale, and TBA sales are four to five times higher than on a c~nventional site of a similar size and throughput. During ~Inter time when the weather is bad in Scandinavia and it is ~m~ossi?~e t? undertake repairs on the streets, the bays have 0 % Uhhsat1on. This drops in summer time of course when the weather is better.

Such is the leaning towards self service in Sweden that controlling systems for operating DIY bays on an unatt;nded or s~m~-attended basis are also available. These are ver; sophisttcated ideas indeed and one which I have seen I shall tell You about.

Design of self-service DIY facilities should be done in such a way that operating personnel do not have to waste time s~pervising for time paid or supervising car wash. The bays s ould be charged on the basis of the time the bay is occupied rath h ' . er t an from the amount of water used or the length of hrne that the electric light is switched on. TI The best arrangement is to have little or no supervision at all. /e personnel can then concentrate their activities on the sale 0 Products and paid services. w·Jhere are var~ous coin-operated f 1 open solenoid valves for water machines available which as long as the time is paid i or.I The customer is then free to stay as Jong as he pleases ~at ~e iay. without paying, and do what he wants after having Pr~fi~ b

~Is car. This is not the ideal solution in terms of a. ihty for the operator. . preOrdinary photocells have also been used to indicate the sence ofa h" 1 · is not . ve IC e, and to shut off the water supply If the fee the 1 paid. These can be P 1otocell deceived by directing a torch towards

A .

code~we~ish .Patented system is available which is based on a a log· P~ sation. of a lamp and photocell in order to obtain rnotoI~ ock nst. which cannot be deceived · by the enterprising The system this t e . operates as follows on an unmanned . site. At and tip of ~Ite Pa_Yment is made after the bay has been used thecu~~ocar is reta1~ed in the bay by a Jock on the door until whi h mer has paid. Each bay has electrically operated doors the~ are supplied with protective photocells and a bar along bei ower edge of the door to prevent people or vehicles from ng struck when the door is automatically closed. Payment control is achieved by the photocell and lamp pulse coded which is directed diagonally across the bay. In the bay high pressure water, hot and cold, and compressed air for lubrication is controlled by solenoid valves which do not open until the doors to the bay are fully closed. The valves then remain open as long as the bay is occupied which is verified through testing of the logic locked photocell circuit. The lighting of the bays is controlled in the same manner. This must be paid for on the basis of the length of time that the bay is occupied as perceived by the lamp and photocell circuit.

In the washing bay for example the system is ser at one coin per 15 minutes. In the grease bay one coin per 12 minutes.

When the motorist wishes to rent a bay, the door is opened by pressing a push button on the outside. The door opens, and the car is driven into the bay. After three minutes the door is automatically closed. The door is then locked and cannot be opened by using the push buttons. The motorist can now perform his work and if he wants to leave the bay himself, he can use side doors. When he wishes to leave the bay with his car h.e inserts the requisite number of coins to pay for the time he has occupied the bay. The time is shown on a counter by the coin box.

As the coins are inserted they are registered on a counter which moves down towards zero and when the counter indicates that he has paid for the total length of time he has occupied the bay, the doors open and the counters are reset. The motorist has now got three minutes to drive his car out of the bay, before the door is automatically closed. This system can thus be used at completely unmanned service stations which can be open 24 hours a day.

At a manned service station where the bays can often be sited some distance from the main building it is usual to have a small lamp panel at the cashiers desk, with a green light indicating an unoccupied service bay and a red light indicating a bay with a customer in it. In this situation, payment is made in advance.

The photocell and lamp, are placed diagonally across the bay as before. When the customer enters the bay, the first pulse coded test switches on the light and water, and a bell rings to remind the motorist to pay his fee by inserting a coin in the slot for payment in advance. A stay of say 15 minutes for example is paid for in advance. If the customer does not pay his fee the light is switched off after two or three minutes as well as the solenoid valve for water and at the same time a red light flashes on the cashiers desk. After payment, the cutomer may work until the bell rings again when he can either insert another coin or drive his car out of the bay and leave. If he stays for more than three minutes without paying, light and water is cut off again and the red lamp lights on the cashiers desk .

These are interesting and sophisticated systems and doubtless very expensive too. It remains to be seen whether such facilities will catch on in any degree in the UK.

In this fast moving age of innovation and streamlining of the petrol retailing business, there is a very real danger of forgetting the customer, and his likes and feelings.

Research has shown that there is much resistence to selfservice from those who have not experienced it, whilst those who have tried it and mastered the technique tend to be hooked once and for all. The most violent antagonism to self-service comes from those whose first experience of selfservice has been unpleasant. Perhaps they have been left to work out for themselves how to serve petrol, and have not been instructed on the use oh he petrol pump, or even welcomed to the site.