POLITICAL PARTICIPATON: THE NJGCA PAC
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 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE: GREETINGS & SAL-UTATIONS! 

CALIBRATION & REGULATORY SEMINAR, GASOLINE MARKET CONDITIONS

I hope you’ve been keeping an eye on your mailbox.  If you have, you may have received your invitation to attend our Calibration & Regulatory Seminars on November 9th and 10th. If not, then you should be getting it soon.

If you already got it or if you’re still waiting for yours to arrive, PLEASE DO NOT IGNORE IT!

When you read through our invite, you’ll see that we aren’t hosting this seminar to waste your time or ours.  Rather, we are calling this meeting because it is urgent that you find out what we have to present you!

I know, some of you may be reading this and thinking that I’m blowing things out of proportion, but I’m not!

How important is this meeting?  For gasoline retailers, it could literally be the deciding factor that keeps your doors open in the year ahead – I’m dead serious.

We’re organizing this seminar to fill you in on a phenomenon that continually affects nearly every retailer without the owners’ knowledge. 

As we have suspected for some time, the majority of you are giving away product every time you pump gasoline into a customer’s vehicle.  What’s more, your inventory system isn’t even catching it or adequately informing you of how much product you have in your tanks!

How is this possible?  Two reasons: Ethanol and improper programming of your inventory system.

As you know, ethanol not only attracts moisture but is also highly corrosive.  Over time, the ethanol will eventually wear down important components of your fuel delivery system.  This not only creates a costly problem for your station in a mechanical sense, but also makes your system imprecise.  That means over time you are literally giving away gasoline to your customers.

In addition, we have learned that when your inventory system was initially installed and set up, it may not have taken into consideration the actual internal dimensions of your underground storage tanks.  Just having one or two numbers dimensions slightly off can throw off the calculation.  That means that the when your Veeter Root system (or any other system) spits out how many gallons you have in the tank, it may be giving you improper volume. 

When I was in business, I depended on my pumps, my inventory system and other tools to tell me how much I was pumping and how much inventory I had in order to gauge my profits and losses.  But what do you do if the trusted tools you’re using aren’t properly calibrated or reporting properly?

As you can imagine, it creates one huge mess that has immense ramifications for your small business.  In fact, I’d go as far as to say that, taken together across all retailers, this is a problem of crisis proportions. 

In light of this, wouldn’t it make sense for you to attend our meeting and learn what you need to know to survive?  Isn’t it worth a day’s time to save your business and keep your establishment profitable?  The answer is obvious, but I can’t force you to show up – you have to make the effort!

Still, the issue of ethanol, inventory precision, and calibration is only one part of our program. 

At the same time that you’re wondering why and how you are giving away gasoline, USDOL has been making headlines and grabbing attention by coming down hard on auto-repair shops and gasoline service stations for violating employment laws.  As we have repeatedly reported to you, USDOL has organized a task force and is on a quest to visit every single gasoline station in New Jersey.  That’s because, unfortunately, our industry has a very deeply ingrained practice of hiring people off the books and paying them under the table. 

No matter if you employ legal or illegal residents, or even if your employees agree to it, you are breaking the law.  While we all have issues with these laws, the fact is that we have to comply with them or find ourselves on the other side of expensive fees and legal proceedings. 

For these reasons, USDOL is making a point to pay you a visit – and I have no doubt that they’ll follow through to complete their goal. 

Wouldn’t it be somehow smart for you and all NJGCA Members to hear about what’s involved and what would be required to comply with the existing regulations?  Well, that’s exactly what we’re going to do.  USDOL will come to our seminar to give a presentation on how you can comply with the law while NOT costing you a lot of money. 

And, of course, we also want you to attend our seminar because our friends from DEP will be there to tell you what you need to comply with environmental regulations.  Don’t take that lightly!  DEP I stepping up their enforcement efforts and it would be well worth your time to be there and hear what they’re after.  No matter if you are a grizzled veteran or just recently got ownership of your location, you should be there!

So please take a look at what we sent you, mark the date off on your calendar, and call us to RSVP with your attendance.  I promise you that this is an important seminar that you will benefit from.  Don’t sit on the sidelines; attend this event and protect your small business!!

Of course, the urgency of our seminar aside, none of this makes a difference if you’re not paying attention to the market right now.  There’s still plenty of volatility in the market and the price of crude is fluctuating.  When there’s a dip (as there is now), it’s up to you to make sure you’re grabbing a little extra margin to keep your business afloat and help see you through the leaner times when your margins shrink back down.  I know that many of you will race to reach the bottom and match the numbers by a competitor down the street.  While I’m all for competition, I’m even more for keeping your doors open.  So be smart about this and pay attention to the market!

Thanks for listening - See you next week!

Regards,
Sal Risalvato
Executive Director

NEWS AROUND THE STATE

9/29/2011:
Unemployment applications fall to a 5 month low
The government reported that national economy grew slightly faster in the spring than initially reported and applications for unemployment benefits dropped to its lowest level in five months. The news suggests that employment layoffs are stabilizing as unemployment applications dropped to their lowest level since April 2nd.  Wall Street greeted positive economic news on Thursday by rallying stock futures.  Click above to read the entire report.

9/27/2011:
Making fuel from wood…and water?
In the search for alternative and renewable fuels, a Georgia company has discovered a unique way of taking agricultural waste into fuel.  By treating cellulosic biomass waste (such as switch grass, wood chips and other non-edible plant waste) with compressed water heated to very high temperatures, researchers believe they have finally found a way to remove all the sugars from plant-material to create a basis for producing ethanol.  This process is far cheaper than conventional methods using expensive enzymes and other high-cost materials. If the technology is fully vetted and commercialized, it could help reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign sources of oil while creating a new industry the domestic market.  Read the full story by clicking above.

9/21/2011:
Small and forced induction engines becoming big sellers
With tighter emission and fuel economy regulations a constant reality, automakers are downsizing many engine options on the production vehicles in order to meet federal mandates.  Surprisingly, some of these motor choices have become quite popular, despite a reduction in cylinders and the use of forced induction.  This trend seems to indicate that motorists are becoming more comfortable with smaller powertrains and less cylinders, as long as they don’t have to sacrifice performance and fuel economy rises. As more drivers switch to smaller-displacement, forced induction engines, will your auto repair technicians know how to properly service turbocharged and supercharged engines with complicated electronics?  Click above to read the full article.

9/21/2011:
Governor seeks merger of Rutgers, portions of UMDNJ
A higher education task force commissioned by Governor Christie has recommended that Rutgers University by united with parts of UMDNJ.  The plan would be the start of a massive restructuring of the medical education system in New Jersey and placing UMDNJ’s New Brunswick-Piscataway campus — Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, the School of Public Health and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey – under the control of Rutgers University.  The task force believes that the move would raise Rutgers’ national profile and draw more research dollars to the Garden State. UMDNJ has been plagued by scandals and ethical lapses over the last decade, blighting the perception of the institution and scaring away research grants.  If the plan is implemented, the other portions of UMDNJ in Newark, Camden, and Stratford could be further realigned with other state universities or restructured. 

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ARTICLES IN OUR “NEWS AROUND THE STATE” ARCHIVE 

MEMBER BENEFIT PARTNER MESSAGE

TMP Energy Solutions
Another Way to Save on Your Energy Bills

We have had a number of NJGCA members successfully reduce their rate per kWh   signing up through our energy saving program. We know it’s difficult to collect 12 months worth of previous electric bills to get an “accurate” analysis when comparing a variable rate to a fixed rate, but we now have another option available. 

This new solution is a power purchase option; the other program is still in full force and has saved members thousands of dollars. If you sign up for the power purchase option, you will be grouped with other NJGCA members until the minimum KW demand is acquired. By pooling the member’s usage together, you will be able to take advantage, as large energy users do, and receive a lower kWh rate.

Each member will receive their own contract. Each member is responsible to sign and return the agreement the day it is received in order to secure the price for their group.

Please do your due diligence, so when you receive the proposal and the agreement you will be able to make an intelligent decision.

If by chance, you still want us to assess you bills, to give you a price to compare, we will require12 months of your most recent utility bills.

There are no bills required, but we would still like to have one bill per meter on file to check account #’s, meter #’s  service addresses and other pertinent information incase there is a problem.

The term of the agreement is for 12 months. During this term period, you will have price protection against any energy price increases along with a low fixed kWh rate.

If you are interested in becoming part of this power purchase option, please contact Phil Apruzzi at the NJGCA.

Remember when you sign up your energy through the NJGCA Energy Program, TMP makes a considerable donation to the NJGCA Scholarship Fund through their proceeds. This has no affect on your rate, and costs you nothing out of pocket.

We hope to help hundreds of NJGCA members reduce their utility costs by participating in this and our other cost reduction programs.  Our purpose, in the endeavor, is to help NJGCA members lower their energy costs while supporting the NJGCA Scholarship Fund. 

Contact Phil Apruzzi at 973-376-0066 or email Phil at phil@njgca.org. Mention that you are interested in saving money on your energy bills. NJGCA & TMP Energy Solutions will handle all the rest.