3 weeks ago, Gravitate Founder, Mike Scharf and I attended the SIGMA conference in San Antonio. Since this was the first conference many folks had been to in over a year, there was a lot to talk about. For those who missed the event, or forgot to take notes, I put a summary together of some of the key takeaways that came from presentations, meetings, and conversations.

1. The driver shortage is real:

Trucks are often the enabler of executing arbitrage opportunities. Without the right flex in trucking (in-house and third-party carriers), fuel companies are not able to execute these opportunities. As such, marketers, supply managers and traders understand the benefits of leveraging software to optimize decisions, provided that “we can find drivers”. Many companies are resorting to a dedicated HR organization that focuses on training, recruiting and maintaining their driver resources.

2. Marketers, Account Reps, Pricing Managers and Supply Managers want their time back:

Whether it’s winter storms, cyber-attacks or just run-of-the-mill pandemics, salespeople on the front line are stretched. Customers would rather pick up the phone and call their trusty account rep when they have a question about allocations, need a BOL or loading number or want to check their remaining contract volume. Companies need to invest in self-service customer portals that allow their customers to easily access their data without blowing up the phones and inboxes of sales reps.

3. Price volatility is here to stay:

Winter storms, cyber attacks, pandemics, hurricanes and long-term demand patterns are driving price variation. Since 2004, the average fuel economy of U.S. vehicles has increased 29% and is set to hit 25.7 miles per gallon this year. Demand for fuel was stagnating long before COVID. The average day-over-day change in RBOB price increased from 2.6 cents in 2019 to 3.1 cents in 2020. Price volatility is increasing on average and the extremes are getting larger. This means that risk management and supply diversification is increasingly important for fuel marketers.

4. Automation in existing software solutions is lacking:

Legacy accounting, dispatch and resource planning systems were designed for humans to do a lot of manual data entry and workflow. Companies want software that is scalable. As your business grows, the right software should protect you from headcount growth. Whether it’s billing, dispatching or allowing ordering online, the right systems put a cap on your costs and allow margin to grow as your volumes increase.

5. Data Security and redundancy is paramount:

The cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline led to a 6-day outage which put data security and disaster recovery at the top of everyone’s minds when it came to software. Although the Colonial outage was exacerbated by frantic consumers filing up before normal (demand in the southeast increased 40% over the course of the outage versus the previous week), it certainly showed the importance of data security. To my fellow software salespeople: expect the security assessments to get a lot longer!

If you missed our presentation or didn't get to join us for a drink (unlikely), please reach out to tom@gravitate.energy to get on a quick discovery call.