Last month, the Gravitate team attended the Western Petroleum Marketing Association’s WPMAEXPO 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada—an event that has become a major, national conference for the petroleum marketing industry.
From our three days at WPMAEXPO, here are our most significant observations about the current state of the industry.
1. The market has stabilized.
Two years ago, the industry experienced a significant amount of volatility and turmoil when the Ukraine-Russia conflict began. Notably, this war impacted supply chains and caused diesel prices to surge.
However, this conference was the first time in a few years that the war wasn’t a major topic of discussion. In fact, it appears that the industry and the world have learned to successfully navigate the structural changes to the supply chain that this conflict precipitated.
2. It’s time for fuel retailers to start thinking about how they can decrease their costs of fuel acquisition and transportation.
After several years of healthy sales and strong margins for fuel retailers, there’s a collective sense that the good times may be over. Although margins remain strong, there are challenges ahead on the horizon. Now, rates are high, economic growth may slow, and fuel retailers are beginning to prepare for a market downturn by cutting costs where they can.
Though fuel margins are largely driven by the market and supply and demand—external factors that can’t necessarily be controlled—retailers do have means of driving down internal costs. This could mean layoffs, a slowdown in acquisitions, a focus on renegotiating contracts with suppliers, a reduction in capital budgets for store maintenance and upgrades, or a reduction in supply and transportation costs.
This situation presents a critical opportunity for technology to assist retailers in reducing costs while keeping margins as wide as possible. The right technology solution can improve bottom-line profitability, including:
- Reducing the cost of fuel acquisition by finding the best wholesale supply option at most up-to-date, lowest cost
- Optimizing logistics and helping retailers get most out of truck loads and drivers via automatic dispatching and identification of optimal routes
Deploying automation in general to replace humans in performing tasks and processes in less time and with much greater accuracy
3. Carriers have become a key constituency at WPMAEXPO.
WPMAEXPO started as a regional conference for everyone in the petroleum marketing industry, primarily fuel marketers and specifically those concentrated in the Western U.S. states. However, we have noticed an expansion in the carrier market—WPMAEXPO has actually become a national conference for carriers across the U.S. As a result, companies looking to connect with prospects at this conference should consider carriers’ needs and concerns.
We consider the increased attendance and outreach from carriers to be a new and welcome change. In our interactions with prospects and customers, we have discovered that carriers are not only interested in leveraging new technology to replace their legacy systems, but that they want to invest in AI. We stand ready to support carriers with the industry’s only AI-powered fully functioning dispatch solution built specifically for the fuel transportation industry that can save dispatchers time and boost efficiency while improving productivity, profitability, and driver utilization.
Did you attend WPMA this year? Share your experience and observations with us here.
Also - don’t forget to meet the Gravitate team at the 2024 SIGMA Spring Conference in Austin, Texas, on May 6-8.
