Taw Service Station & Sticklepath Service Station
Colin Moore owns Esso Taw and Sticklepath Service Stations in Barnstaple, Devon. The forecourts serve a busy commercial area and local community. In addition to a petrol filling station, the sites also offer customers a wide range of convenience goods including hot food, alcohol, groceries, drinks, snacks and magazines.
HydraPOS
Colin installed HydraPOS, HTEC’s touch-screen Point of Sale system specifically designed to address the needs of petrol forecourts, with a user interface designed to simplify the process of selling fuel, on both his sites and says:
"HydraPOS is the best IT investment I have ever made, it works well, is intuitive, easy to use and increases speed at the checkout."
HydraPOS links to pumps, tank gauges and other hardware devices by way of an HTEC manufactured site controller – a specialist hardware device designed for 100% resilience. The functionality provided means that continued trading is possible in the event of virtually any failure. Software faults, POS hardware faults or faults within the site controller itself are handled by the unique resilience of the system, designed to maximise business continuity on the forecourt. Colin says:
"The Service and Support I receive from HTEC is a key component of the system."
ANPR Security
As with most forecourts today the sites suffer from crimes such as drive offs, shoplifting and violence towards staff. Colin has always taken a hard line in the past with offenders and works closely with the local police to help prevent forecourt crime. Colin has also installed HTEC’s ANPR solution on his forecourt.
HTEC ANPR software is unique in the Forecourt Retail market, when used in conjunction with HydraPOS it is the only system which can physically stop the pump dispensing fuel - other systems send an alert to the Kiosk and the operator has to make a decision on what action to take. In addition to preventing ‘Drive Off’ Colin uses the system to provide an extra service to his customers:
"Mistakes can happen and if a customer queries a transaction with the operator in the kiosk it can be traced via the ANPR video recording, which matches all transactions against the registration number of the vehicle."
Colin uses the system on both sites and also has a Service and Repair workshop where additional cameras are installed. All three facilities are linked via the Internet and controlled from one central point.
Future Developments
Ever conscious of Customer Care Colin is considering the addition of OPT (Outdoor Payment Terminals) on his forecourt for the future. The industry is predicting that a PrePay at the pump facility will be on most forecourts by 2011 and HTEC are well positioned to fulfil this requirement in 2005 they were the first company in the UK to gain a Chip and Pin approval for outdoor payment terminals and since have continued to enhance systems.
For further information please contact our Marketing Team on 02380 689 200 or alternatively e-mail us.