How to Become a Fuel Jobber

Discover what’s really involved in becoming a reseller of gasoline and diesel fuel – it’s not a decision to be taken lightly. We’ll explore a number of issues that you must take into consideration before taking the plunge to become a jobber, including:

• Credit: You’re not only going to need more of it from your own suppliers, but you’ll need to extend it to new fuel customers. But how do you get it? And how do you vet potential customers?
• Risk: Now you have greater risk in the fuel that YOU buy, and more importantly, greater providing fuel to YOUR customers.
• Supply: You are going to be purchasing A LOT more fuel. How do you learn to reconfigure your business to manage these huge changes?
• Branded v Unbranded: Do you brand your stations, or go unbranded? That’s a decision that as a fuel distributor can be the difference between success and failure.
• Contracts: It’s critical to understand the relevant pieces of a contract to include with your supplier, as well as your customers.
• Marketing your business: Getting new customers is a challenge – you’re going to be competing with established fuel distributors who know how to get new customers. We’ll teach you how to market your business, and how to deal with challenging customers.

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Agenda

Day 1: Thursday, September 20, 2018

2:00 – 2:30 p.m.

Registration

2:30 – 3:00 p.m.

Introduction & Course Overview

An overview of what we will accomplish over the next 2 days, and an introduction to the speakers and the attendees.

3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

What is a Jobber, and What You Need to Know to Become One

Dolores Santos has more than 40 years of experience buying fuel for some of the largest jobbers in the U.S., so she truly knows what the world is like as a jobber. In this session, Dolores will tap into her invaluable knowledge to outline the major issues you need to deal with as you become a fuel distributor.

We’ll discuss:

• Supply – forget what you know. It’s a new world as a jobber and you need to understand how it will change your business.
• Liability – you’ll have a lot more of this, and you’ll need to factor this into your business plan.
• Infrastructure – what the structure of your new fuel distributorship is likely to look like.
• Credit – it’s a whole new world as a jobber.

4:00 – 4:15 p.m.

Refreshment Break

 4:15 – 5:15 p.m.

Branded v. Unbranded – One of Your Most Important Business Decisions

Whether you are a retailer, or a fuel distributor, one of the pivotal decisions facing your fuel business is whether to remain branded, or to become unbranded. There are benefits and downsides to both. If you are branded, and opt to go unbranded, can you get out of your branded contract, and what kind of costs/risks are involved with going unbranded? Have you really scoped out the competitive landscape? If you are choosing to go unbranded for your distributor business, have you factored in inversions, and reliability of supply? Pay close attention during this session so you can make the best decision as you revamp your business.

5:15 – 6:15 p.m.

Credit – Everything You You Need to Know About Giving it / Getting It

Your business isn’t the same – fuel is now a revenue center since you are now a jobber. As you focus on redistributing your fuel, one of the biggest issues you will need to deal with is credit – perhaps the most important leg of a distribution operation. Your concern is not just the credit YOU need to buy more fuel, but the credit risk you will need to extend to your new customer base. We’ll discuss:

• Integrating the four key areas of credit into your new business – New Customer Approval, Order Release, Customer Service / Collections, Periodic Reviews
• Process vs. People – how to set up credit authority, and a department
• The qualifications you want when you hire credit staffers
• Five red flags to look for in your potential customers
• Written Credit Policy – why it’s a must-have in your distribution organization
• How to deal with sales, especially when they want to on-board customers with less than stellar credit
• Buyer Beware! – what the credit scams are, and how you can avoid them
• Reporting / Documentation / KPI’s – how to set it up in your organization
• Credit with your suppliers – what to do if prices double, and your supplier tightens credit
• Hedging – how credit can affect margin calls on hedges

6:15 p.m.

Q&A / Cocktails with Instructors

Day 2: Friday, September 21, 2018

7:00 – 7:30 a.m.

Continental Breakfast

 7:30 – 8:15 a.m.

Bonus Session: One Jobber’s Success Story

We’re thrilled to have Sanjiv Patel, President of National Petroleum as our special guest speaker. Mr. Patel took a seven station retail business and grew it into a jobbership that does more than 55-million gallons / year and is growing. In this session that is absolutely can’t miss, Mr. Patel is going to candidly discuss how he found the right education tools to create his jobbership, the mistakes he made and learned from, and how he handles all the market place challenges.

Sanjiv Patel, President, National Petroleum

Sanjiv has started several companies in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Publishing, Semiconductor, Internet and Petroleum. His expertise has helped him put his company as one of the fastest growing companies in America for five years in a row in an industry that has been stagnant during this time. He is passionate about helping small business owners and it’s this passion that made him the founding member of APCA, American Petroleum and Convenience Store Association. APCA is non-profit entity that has more than 1,200 members. Sanjiv holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Engineering from USC.

8:15 – 9:30 a.m.

Risk Part One: What Is Risk, and Why You Need to Worry About it

As a jobber/fuel distributor, your risk profile changes dramatically. You’re going to be buying, and reselling a lot more fuel than you did before. What happens if prices for physical fuel double or collapse? Do you know the kinds of risk you will face? Listen as we explain the following kinds of risk in purchasing your PHYSICAL fuel:

• Basis
• Price
• Market
• Security of supply
• Credit
• Intraday price changes at the rack
• Unbranded price inversions

9:30 – 10:30 a.m.

Risk Part Two: What Your Customers Will Expect, and What You Can Provide

We’ll talk about how you manage your physical fuel risk. As a distributor, you will need to use risk management to hedge your physical fuel purchases, especially if you offer flat / fixed / or capped pricing programs to your new customers. We’ll outline:

• Hedging – what is it?
• Futures prices v. options – how to determine which is better for your business
• Fixed price/cap programs – what they are and how they work — both from your supplier and for your customers
• Strategies to hedge your fixed price/cap commitments
• Fees – what you pay to your broker, and what you collect from your customer
• How to choose a broker and manage that relationship
• Margin calls – you must understand them, and be prepared to pay them
• How you set up a risk program internally, and how to manage it

10:30 – 11:00 a.m.

Refreshment Break / Boxed Lunches Arrive

 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Getting and Keeping Fuel Customers – How To Market Your Fuel Business              

Being a distributor of fuel is worth nothing unless you have customers. And those customers are going to have varied and very specific fuel requirements. This session will focus on:

• Who are your potential customers, and where to find them
• Marketing and sales – how to market your service, and how to find and train sales people
• Government bids – how to bid on RFP’s and analyze cost structures before you do the bidding if you are interested in getting into this sector
• The specific risks of bidding on government business, and how to counter them
• Wet hosing/mobile refueling – what you need to understand before you start offering this service
• Challenging customers – they come in all shapes and sizes. Learn how to overcome language/cultural differences, and how to resolve disputes with customers
• How to write a fuel contract – we’ll review some real-life supply agreements that are disasters and learn from their mistakes!

12:00 – 12:45 p.m.

Building and Protecting Your Supply Portfolio

Once you’ve decided to become a reseller, your supply picture is going to change dramatically. You’ll not only likely see an increase in your fuel requirement, but also in the amount you will spend. In addition, you’ll need to reassess your existing supplier relationship and pursue new ones. Listen and pay close attention as Dolores explains:

• Storage – do you have enough, and how do you go about buying or leasing more?
• Pipeline shipping – is this right for you, and if so, what is required to become a spot buyer, or a “shipper of note” on pipelines?
• Transportation – now that you are purchasing more, how do you go about contracting for transportation, and how do you determine what is or isn’t a reasonable rate?
• Inventory – how quickly can you turn your in-tank inventory?
• Supply – how secure is yours? Is it tied up in contract commitments?
• Pricing benchmarks – what are the differences? How does index-based pricing work?

12:45 – 1:00 p.m.

Final Q & A/Adjourn

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