Self-service gas station

• Project name: Self-service gas station
• Class: 4IT496 Simulation of Systems (WS 2013/2014)
• Author: Bohuslav Dvorský
• Model type: Descrete-event simulation
• Software used: SimProcess

Introduction

In Western countries becoming increasingly popular self-service gas stations - a station where is no staff, but only machine that after the payment distribute fuel or other goods like mix washed, distilled water etc… With my friend we were thinking about a similar concept in the Czech conditions and realistically began to explore the possibility of implementation of the business plan. We contacted fuel distributor, manufacturer that would provide us station infrastructure (fuel tank, tubes, software, fuel dispenser…), directorate for roads and highways, a construction company that would build asphalt road connector, many banks for best offer of cashless payment and business loan and more other institutes. So we got estimate price of everything we need for construction of self-service gas station including payment for permissions from different authorities. Thanks acquaintances of my friend, we also have actual data from the gas station standing on the same path where we would like to build our station. It is the Benzina gas station and we have data like average number of cars on the station, average liters of fuel tanked, ration of diesel, petrol and LPG.

Problem definition

Can be this project profitable? As we discovered, more than 50% of people use credit card to pay the fuel. Unfortunately banks for companies like ours charge a fee for their services in the amount of 1.48% of the total. This finding is very frustrating simply because the margin for fuel out of a large network of filling stations is about 2 CZK per liter. This finding is very frustrating simply because the margin for fuel out of a large network of filling stations is about 2 CZK per liter. So most of the revenue is likely to be cash payments or loyalty card payments. Thanks to the self-service station, we can eliminate the cost of human factor, main building or restrooms. But when considering starting a new business we muse take a loan in the amount of almost 100% of the capital. We must also include the cost of bank loan, electricity, internet and maintenance of the station.

I believe that in certain circumstances the project is profitable. My job is to find the conditions under which self-service station made ​​a profit and paid itself.

What do we know?

As I stated in the introduction, we have obtained all the information to which we could get and made ​​contact with the fuel supplier.

• The lowest possible price for the station: [ CZK ] 3000000

• Price for another dispenser / connection to the system: [ CZK ] 250000

• Price for a split tank with diesel / petrol: [ CZK ] 800000

• Price for road connector in the chosen location: [ CZK ] 1500000

• Price for the parcel: [ CZK ] 500000

• Monthly fixed costs - electricity, internet, maintenance: [ CZK ] 15000

• The cost of a dispenser - asphalt road: [ CZK ] 200000

• Capacity of the tank: [ l ] 15000

- basic type of station (lowest possible price) include: Fuel tank, fuel dispenser (diesel/petrol), infrastructure, asphalt road, software...everything needed for running the station

- split tank: fuel tank is divided into two sections - 7500 litres of diesel and petrol

• Average number of customers: 502

• Average litres of fuel tanked: 35

• Diesel/Petrol tanked ratio: 60% / 40%

• Payments ratio - credit card/cash/loyalty card: 67% / 14% / 19%

• Fee for credit card payment: 1.48% of total amount

We obtained this data from the employee of Benzina gas station in Šterbnerk. This gas station is situated in the same locality as our fictive gas station so we can label this data as relevant for us.

LPG can be refueled only by trained personnel which for this type of station is unacceptable.

Fuel supplier

We communicated with the nearest fuel supplier that meets our conditions. Because our station is located within a distance of 35 km from the headquarters of the supplier, the price per delivery is included in the price of fuel. Our supplier is company Albeva Morava s.r.o.. Our conditions were: price for delivery included in price of fuel and just in time delivery with continuous replenishment of fuel. The idea is that the station software will detect low fuel level and alert our supplier who then begins the process of delivery of the fuel. We were asured that our station software can send email or it can be connected to ERP-like system of various suppliers. Email variant was enough for our suplier and further terms would be specified in the contract. So we found another question...what level of fuel should warn our supplier due to the variable cost for the supply of different quantities of fuel?

Diesel delivery: [ l ]

10001 -15000 : 34,48 [ CZK ]

15001 - 20000 : 34,24 [ CZK ]

20001 - X : 33,81 [ CZK ]

Petrol delivery: [ l ]

10001 -15000 : 34,03 [ CZK ]

15001 - 20000 : 33,91 [ CZK ]

20001 - X : 33,79 [ CZK ]

Location

A parcel of size aproximately 1600 square metres. Price for metre square is 300 CZK. This parcel is situated on the main way from Šternberk to Opava and also to Poland. So there are plenty of cars heading to Poland or to Opava.

Method

Lets start with simple math. We know that Benzina has aproximately 502 customers per day and they tank 35 litres per average. That is 17570 litres per day and divided with diesel/petrol ratio we get 7028 litres of petrol and 10542 litres of diesel. With fuel divided to petrol and diesel we can now calculate the costs of fuel.

We have three variants due to volume of petrol delivery:

Variant A : 10001 - 15000 litres

Diesel cost: 363488,16 [ CZK ]

Petrol cost: 239162,84 [ CZK ]

Variant B : 150001 - 20000 litres

Diesel cost: 360958,08 [ CZK ]

Petrol cost: 238319,48 [ CZK ]

Variant C : 20001 - X litres

Diesel cost: 356425,02 [ CZK ]

Petrol cost: 237476,12 [ CZK ]

After consulting with a financial advisor from Fincentrum.cz I was told that it is possible to get a business loan with an interest rate of around 5.5% for 5 years, 6% loan for 10 years and 6.5% for 15 years. So lets sum what we know about our fixed costs and cost for building the station.