 |
||
 |
November 18, 2011 NEWS AROUND THE STATE TRAINING CLASS SCHEDULE APPRAISAL SERVICE MEET THE FOLKS AT LIBERTY GAS MEMBER BENEFIT PARTNER MESSAGE REAL ESTATE FOR SALE OR LEASE A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM BELLOMO FUELS POLITICAL PARTICIPATON: THE NJGCA PAC
This just in…I am writing from Washington DC this week as I am attending an energy innovation and technology conference…..and the buzz here is the nosedive that gasoline futures took today…..LOOK FOR BIG PRICE DECREASES. I’ll discuss this more next week as it makes the Exxon Divestment even more important. NOT KIDDING…….SEMINAR NO SHOWS AT RISK—EXXON DIVESTITURE ANNOUNCED—DUMB LEGISLATION HARMFUL TO C-STORES INTRODUCED—BEWARE OCTANE TASK FORCE! A LOT TO READ THIS WEEK: IF YOU WERE NOT AT ONE OF OUR SEMINARS LAST WEEK….DUCK! I am losing sleep worrying about you and this USDOL stuff…IT IS SERIOUS! YES….That is a brick that I just threw at you and is heading straight for your head! I MUST find a way to get your attention. Ok…if you want to downplay my alarm about the money you may be pissing away at your pumps because of inaccurate meters and automatic tank gauge systems….or if you want to ignore the reminders I am trying to give you regarding a new round of NJDEP inspections…then fine, there isn’t anything I can do. HOWEVER……..I just can’t let you ignore the warnings and advice of the United States Department of Labor. Several members mentioned to me that they were not in attendance last week, but told me that I shouldn’t worry because they were making changes to the way they paid their gas pumpers and mechanics. GREAT NEWS?????? Nope. That’s when I heard just exactly what they changed to! These members figured that they would simply declare that their employees were now being paid a salary. WRONG!!!!! That is exactly what USDOL is looking for. It seems that for eternity folks in our business simply pay employees a lump sum for a specified period of time that they worked during the week, regardless of how many hours they actually have worked. OR WORSE….They pay cash under the table or a combination of cash and payroll check. OK please pay attention so that you don’t screw this up. Please keep in mind that USDOL has officially stated that they implement a surveillance process for as long as a week prior to visiting you, so that means they already know who is working and when they are working before they set foot on your driveway. If a gas pumper is working 60 hours a week and you think that you are safe by paying him $600 for the week, then you are in one big pile of poop. USDOL will audit you and claim that the rate of pay that this employee was paid is $10 per hour. Then they will make you pay him time and a half for every hour over 40 hours that was worked in the work week. That means that you will owe the employee another $5 an hour for 20 hours each week. USDOL will go back as many as 3 years to secure back pay for ALL of your employees. That’s $100 a week for as may as 156 weeks! AND that is just for ONE EMPLOYEE! DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION YET! USDOL has a task force in New Jersey that began last December and is promising to visit EVERY gasoline service station and repair shop no matter how long it takes. USDOL is promising another round of ugly headlines sometime in the next few weeks that will reveal just how bad our industry is at complying with proper payroll practices. OK…here is another example that I received. A member has two mechanics that work Monday thru Friday from 8AM until 5PM. They also work on Saturday from 8AM until 1PM. That is a total of 50 hours worked. They think they are in the clear because they pay their mechanics a SALARY of $1000 a week. WRONG AGAIN!! USDOL will determine that that the rate of pay for 50 hours of work at a salary of $1000 equates to $20 per hour. Then they will calculate that time and a half be paid for the 10 hours worked beyond the 40 hour work week. That means you will owe your employee another $10 an hour for 10 hours. That too is $100 a week owed per employee going back as many as 156 weeks. Keep in mind none of what I just described includes fines, penalties, or additional taxes due to IRS. Do you see why I am figuratively throwing a brick at your head? The folks that attended last week’s seminars have given such alarming and positive feedback that now I am more concerned than before about those that didn’t attend. Even I learned things that I didn’t know and I am thinking that maybe I have to try one more time to bring you all together. You all seem to understand automatically that complying with NJDEP is important and you seem to be alert about that, BUT for some reason you are all fluffing away any problem you might have regarding both employment practices and meter calibration. I am frustrated! After years of anticipation, Exxon finally announced this week that they will begin to divest their retail locations in northern and central New Jersey. However, unlike past divestitures, this time around Big Oil won’t be able to sell these locations directly to mega-distributors and cut their current lessees out of the equation. Thanks to our First Right of Refusal law, Exxon must now comply with state law and permit their current franchisees the opportunity to purchase their locations. If those lessee-retailers decide against purchasing their stations, then that location will be bundled together with other stations that will be sold off to one of three distributors. The official announcement states that Exxon is looking to mostly Company Owned, Retail Operated (CORE) and Company Owned, Dealer Operated (CODO) locations in 13 counties. After all franchisees are given the chance to buy their locations, whatever stations that are not purchased will be sold off to PMG New Jersey II LLC, Lehigh Gas Corp. and NJ Energy Corp. The Exxon company delivery fleet will also be sold off to PMG and Lehigh as part of the deal. Exxon expects to start sending out packages in the week after next, with all transactions to be completed by first or second quarter of 2012. You can read more on this news by clicking HERE If you can’t appreciate the significance of this news, you haven’t been paying attention to much that I’ve been harping about the last couple of years. It was Fall 2008 when we learned that Exxon was going to sell off these locations, and after looking at the massacre that occurred in South Jersey once that divestiture was complete, the smart money was on history repeating itself in North Jersey. Yet here we are three years later and it hasn’t happened! To think that a group of small business owners could band together to stop one of the world’s largest corporations from selling their station out from under them isn’t just a tremendous feat, it’s mind-shattering. This wasn’t David vs. Goliath it was David vs. Godzilla! As I’ve said before, in our industry, the most advantageous position any small business operator can find themselves in is to own their location. Owning your station gives you a leg up in negotiating fuel delivery contracts, in dealing with outside vendors, and in helping you maximize your profitability. If you are one of the fortunate dealers who will now have a chance to buy your location, you should already be speaking to brokers or banks about loans and financial assistance. If you haven’t begun that process, get moving! I’m more than happy to speak to anyone who needs guidance or advice; just pick up the phone! Don’t forget, however, that the fight for the little guy isn't over. Though the Exxon divestiture announcement in Fall 2008 was the spark that got the ball rolling, the effects of our pro-small business legislation doesn’t end there. As many of you know, Shell and Lukoil have also made similar announcements, so look for more news on the horizon. Are you ready for some more stupid legislation that is gonna cost you money if you own a convenience store? One newly introduced piece of legislation is Senate bill 3083, the “Plastic and Paper Bag Reduction Act” from Senator Brian Stack (D-Hudson). This legislation would apply to every convenience store, supermarket, or retail establishment that has over 1,000 square feet of retail space. (That’s you) Beginning in January 2013, every store would have to charge 10 cents for every plastic or paper bag it provides for the customer AND provide the customer an opportunity to buy a reusable bag. In January 2015, the only bags that could legally be provided to customers would be reusable bags or more expensive compostable plastic and recycled paper bags. Most of the currently used bags would be outlawed. On top of that, the store operator would have to submit a quarterly report to the DEP listing every single plastic and paper carryout bag that they distributed in the last three months, and send in all the dimes they collected from them. The people who manufacture these carryout bags would be required to develop educational materials talking about how terrible their own products are and send them to every retailer in the state, who would then be required to post them where customers can see them. Anyone who violates this act would be hit with a fine of between $500 and $1000 per day. It’s hard to believe, but someone actually thinks this is a good idea. People in our government actually think this should be the law. That you, as small business owners, struggling through a terrible economy and working dozens upon dozens of hours a week just to keep the doors open and meet payroll, that you need yet another complication. That you need to implement a system to keep track of every freaking plastic bag you give to your customers just because someone in Trenton thinks it would be nice if there weren’t any more plastic bags. Examples like this not only get my blood pressure up, they are reminders why you need an advocate like NJGCA to keep an eye on these people and squash bad ideas like this before they can get off the ground. Rest assured we will be in contact with members of the Legislature to make sure this bill and ones like it go nowhere. Of course, USDOL isn’t the only government entity that’s out there enforcing the law. Recent headlines tell us that the Office of Weights and Measures (OWM) has recently launched an ‘Octane Task Force’ to ensure that stations are dispensing the appropriate grade of gasoline to motorists. The good folks at OWM are our friends. We’ve nurtured a successful and amicable relationship with them over the last four years and I don’t anticipate that will change. However, it’s important for you to know what’s going on in the industry and to be aware that the Task Force is making their rounds. So far, the results have been positive, but really they should be better. Out of 382 samples being taken from 213 gasoline stations, only 22 stations were found to have below standard octane. You can read more on the Task Force’s work by clicking HERE I’ve gone on record dozens of times warning against octane cheaters. However, I don’t want to jump to conclusions that the ones who were found to have low octane were ‘cheating’ because there could be valid reasons why they failed – so pay attention. As we learned last week at our Calibration & Regulatory Seminar (check that – as you SHOULD have learned our Calibration & Regulatory Seminar IF you attended), some stations that use mechanical blending pumps are at higher risk of bleeding regular fuel into your premium tanks. If that’s happening, and depending on how much product you pump, it can lead to SERIOUS octane dilution. Although having bad pumps is NOT an intentional act of fraud, the law still views it as the customer is not getting what they paid for. And to be honest, the court of public opinion doesn’t care. Why? Because unfortunately, not everyone in this business is 100% honest – they try to cheat motorists or they try to cheat YOU. We’ve all heard stories about delivery drivers that don’t have room to fit a full compartment of regular into a storage tank and end up dumping it into the premium tank. In such situations, either you didn’t know or you looked the other way. Or perhaps an unscrupulous station owner deliberately tried to pass off regular fuel as plus- or premium-grade gasoline to make a few extra pennies. Regardless of the reason, the premium octane is diminished and customers are in fact being cheated. Careful record keeping of inventory can be helpful when fighting octane violations. If you don’t have blending problems and the octane is too low (and you didn’t dump regular into premium) you must call the office so we can have a heart to heart with your supplier. Although the law says you are responsible, I will make sure that your supplier steps up to the plate. Lastly this week, we want to give you a heads up on the ‘Rebate Bill’ that was (formerly) masquerading as a Below Cost Selling measure. As you recall, NJGCA, FMANJ, and our allies fought against a proposal which would have permitted big box gasoline retailers/convenience store chains and supermarkets to create loyalty programs that would essentially legalize Below Cost Selling in New Jersey. They’d do this through ‘giveaways’ – that is by pooling a group of high-profit/high-margin items together to make up for the few cents a gallon they’d shave off a motorist’s fill-up whenever someone made a purchase at the pump. That was obviously unacceptable. Thankfully we were successful in getting a compromise and the proposal was changed in the Assembly. Fast forward a few months and we’ve learned that the bill is going to be heard in the Senate Commerce Committee on Monday. After so many months why is this bill on the radar again? Because after taking off to campaign, the Legislature is now back in Trenton, rushing to get all old business concluded before the new session begins. We’ll let you know what happens on Monday, but wanted to make you aware of the bill’s progress. Thanks for listening - See you next week! Regards,
NEWS AROUND THE STATE 11/16/2011: 11/16/2011: 11/16/2011: 11/15/2011: CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ARTICLES IN OUR “NEWS AROUND THE STATE” ARCHIVE
TRAINING CLASSES!! NEW JERSEY EMISSION INSPECTOR TRAINING In order to be licensed as a Motor Vehicle Emission Inspector, You must complete this course and pass a “Written Exam” given by the State of New Jersey on the same day. To become an Emission Inspectors you can take this one day State approved training program that will provide a understanding of inspection related issues including EPA, Regulations, Safety, Diesel, Customer Service and the New Jersey State Specific Curriculum. This specially tailored NJGCA Inspector course fulfills all State requirements.
“Manuals Included” - Payment is due upon registration. Please Contact Debbie Hill at Debbie@njgca.org or 973-376-0066 to register! PLEASE NOTE: FUTURE DATES WILL BE ADDED UPON REQUEST AND ACCORDING TO DEMAND. CONTACT DEBBIE at 973-376-0066 or DEBBIE@NJGCA.ORG TO LET HER KNOW YOU ARE INTERESTED IN TAKING A SPECIFIC CLASS. THIS WILL ALLOW US TO GAUGE YOUR NEEDS AND KEEP TRACK OF THOSE WISHING TO PARTICIPATE!!
MEMBER BENEFIT PARTNER MESSAGE TMP Energy Solutions 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.
POLITICAL PARTICIPATON: THE NJGCA PAC
Promoting our agenda in Trenton is of utmost importance to NJGCA and our members. We defeated BELOW COST SELLING We made history in getting FIRST RIGHT OF REFUSAL signed into law! We have built large support for RIGHT TO REPAIR and got it passed out of the Assembly We defended your small business against the false accusations of Attorney General Anne Milgram We gained wide support to move New Jersey to an all PIF Inspection System and close the CIF lanes ...and MUCH MORE!! In each instance, we achieved these goals with the help of our friends in the Legislature! If every member contributes just $100.00 we will be able to provide the help necessary to ensure victory for our allies. PLEASE SEND YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO: I understand that times are tough for all NJGCA members, but this is just as important as any battle we have fought in the past. We have made great progress in Trenton. I hope that you will answer the call. THE MEMBER TOOL BOX |
|
 |
||
