Patent Application
20190210864
The present system relates to a fuel dispenser that can process discounts on the retail price per gallon of gasoline in which only the wholesale price component is discounted.
Fuel dispensers are known to be used to dispense various types of fuel, such as regular, mid-range and premium grades of gasoline, and diesel fuel. Examples of such fuel dispensers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,302,899; 9,139,414; and 9,082,248, hereby incorporated by reference.
Such fuel dispensers include two main systems; an electronic control system and a mechanical system. The mechanical system is in fluid communication with a fuel tank, for example, an underground fuel tank. Both the electronic control system and the mechanical system are carried by a free-standing housing.
The mechanical system generally includes an electric motor, a pump and one or more electrically controlled valves required to control the fuel flow. The electric motor and electrically controlled valves are under the control of the electronic system. The mechanical system also includes a manual valve operated by the purchaser that controls the fuel flow when the mechanical system is enabled. A nozzle is connected to the pump with a hose. The nozzle is carried by a handle that includes the manually operated valve operated by way of a pivotally mounted lever attached to the handle. The lever allows a purchaser to control the gas flow from the nozzle by way of the lever. When not in use, the handle and nozzle are carried by a holster rigidly attached to the fuel dispenser housing. The holster is known to include an indication that the transaction has completed, such as a mechanically operated switch. Known indications use a manually operated lever that needs to be manually operated by the purchaser before the handle and nozzle can be hung up in the holster. Other means for indicating the completion of the transaction are also known.
The electronic control system includes an embedded computer processing unit (CPU) that controls the operation of the electric motor driving the pump and the electrically controlled valves. The electronic control system also includes displays for indicating the price per gallon of a selected grade of fuel, a magnetic card reader for receiving a purchaser's credit card and a bi-directional communication system for communicating with credit card companies relating to the payment of retail sales.
Typically, a retail customer swipes a credit card through a magnetic card reader located on the fuel dispenser housing. The electronic control system reads the data on the magnetic strip on the credit card and checks the customer's available credit in the purchaser's account by way of the bi-directional communication system. Once the purchaser's account balance has been verified, the electronic control system enables the electric motor that drives the pump and the electrically controlled valves and enables the fuel flow to be manually controlled by the lever in the handle.
In addition to accepting credit cards, known fuel dispensers are known to provide fuel discounts based upon purchaser loyalty cards when such purchaser loyalty cards are read by the magnetic card reader in addition to the purchaser's credit card. These discounts are normally provided at the fuel dispenser in the form of a reduced retail price per gallon.
Cash reward credit cards are also known. With such cash reward cards, a statement credit is provided on the purchaser's statement for all fuel and other purchases made with the credit card.
One problem with such loyalty cards and cash reward credit cards is that the discount normally applies to the entire retail gas price. However, the discount cannot be applied to the local tax component. The per unit retail fuel price is comprised of multiple components; wholesale price component+a local tax component and a local fee component. The local fee component includes owner profit and various other fees and costs, and other charges associated with the location of the retail fuel station. The tax component includes federal, state and local taxes based upon the location of the fuel dispenser. Each of these components is known to vary as a function of the geographic location of the fuel dispenser. Because of these variances and since discounts cannot be applied to taxes, the use of fuel discounts that apply to the entire retail per unit price of fuel are known to be very small or limited to a specific region where the local fee and local tax components as well as the wholesale price components are constant.
Prepaid fuel cards are also known which normally provide a fixed price on the entire unit price of fuel. These prepaid cards are of little value to wholesalers, such as gasoline companies like Shell, Exxon, BP and the like, because wholesalers operate over a region where the wholesale price components and other price components making up the per unit retail fuel price vary. For example, as illustrated in
One attempt to solve this problem is disclosed in Wanasek US Patent Application Publication No. US 2004/0260632 A1 (“Wanasek”). Wanasek discloses a prepaid commodity card in which several gallons of fuel can be pre-purchased from a wholesaler at a fixed per unit wholesale cost without taking delivery. The Wanasek system is not viable. One reason is that there are no known fuel dispensers that can process such a discount card. Since the currency of Wanasek card is gallons, transactions would need to be handled by an attendant. Also, local fees and local taxes would need to be determined by the attendant and handled in a separate transaction. Another problem is that a separate card would be required for each grade of gasoline, i.e., premium, mid-range, regular and diesel because their prices are different and independent. As, such, wholesalers have not been known to have any interest in such a prepaid commodity card.
Another problem with the methodology disclosed in Wanasek is that it is based on a specified per unit wholesale component price. As published by the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), 65% of the price of a gallon of gas is based on the cost of crude oil. (see www.nacsonline.com/YourBusiness/FuelsCenter/Basics/Articles/Pages/The-Price-Per-Gallon.aspx). As illustrated in
In general, known fuel discount cards are not useful to wholesalers that operate over a large region, such as the US, since wholesale prices, local taxes and local fees per unit vary by location. Since taxes cannot be discounted, the discount would need to be apportioned between the other per unit price components; namely the per unit wholesale fuel price and the per unit local fees. Since the per unit local fees and local taxes, as well as the per unit wholesale price components vary by location, it would be virtually impossible for a wholesaler to administer a uniform discount on the wholesale price component of the per unit price of fuel.
Thus, there is a need for a fuel dispenser that is configured to process prepaid fuel discount cards based only upon a discounted wholesale price component.
A fuel dispenser that solves the problems of the prior art by enabling a fuel dispenser to process prepaid fuel discount cards in which the discount is only applied to the wholesale price components of the per unit retail fuel price. The system recalculates the per unit retail price based upon the discounted wholesale price components. Upon purchase of the prepaid fuel discount card, a snapshot of the wholesale price components is taken of all fuel dispensers in a region and locked in for the purchaser at the time of purchase of the prepaid discount fuel card for delivery later. When a purchaser takes delivery of gasoline, a central server performs “back office” processing and recalculates the retail per unit price of fuel at the time of delivery of the fuel based upon wholesale price component discount for the fuel dispenser location where the fuel is being delivered. The system automatically debits the purchaser's prepaid account for the fuel purchased at the discounted retail price based upon a weighted average of the discounted wholesale price component of different prepayments at different times which may be at different wholesale discounts. With the novel system disclosed herein, the wholesaler can control and keep track of the amount of the discounts applied to the retail unit price of fuel. Using the discounts, the wholesaler, i.e. gasoline company, can create an elastic demand for the fuel by raising the discount to generate additional sales and lower the discount to lower the sales volume. The wholesale discount system allows gasoline companies to re-popularize gas cards sponsored by gasoline companies which may help regain customer loyalty for fuel credit cards.
These and other advantages of the present invention will be readily understood with reference to the following specification and attached drawing wherein:
An improved control system for a fuel dispenser solves the problems of the prior art by providing a control system for a fuel dispenser that can process prepaid fuel discount cards that discount only the wholesale price component of the per unit retail fuel price. The system recalculates the per unit retail price based upon the applied discount. Upon purchase of the prepaid fuel discount card, a snapshot of the wholesale price components is taken of all fuel dispensers in a region, for example, the US, at the time of purchase of the prepaid fuel discount card or another specified time that are locked in for the purchaser at that time. Initially the purchaser deposits an initial amount of money in the account.
When a purchaser takes delivery of gasoline, the fuel dispenser reads the purchaser's account data on a prepaid fuel discount card and transmits the data to a central server along with the location of the fuel dispenser, the grade of gasoline selected, the current per unit retail price and the number of units pumped. The central server performs “back office” processing and determines a weighted average of the discounted wholesale price component of different prepayments at different times which may be at different wholesale discounts. The central server determines the discounted per unit retail price at the time of delivery based upon that weighted average and determines a maximum number of units that can be pumped based upon the discounted per unit retail price and the purchaser's account balance. The central server sends an enable signal to the fuel dispenser to enable fuel to be pumped up to the maximum number calculated. Once the transaction is complete or the maximum number of units has been pumped, the central server disables the pump and debits the purchaser's account.
At the time of purchase of the prepaid fuel discount card, the central server takes a snap shot of the wholesale price components existing at all fuel dispensers across an entire region or at a specified time. The snapshot locks in the wholesale price components for the purchaser existing at fuel dispensers across the region. The percentage discount is then applied to the locked in wholesale price components at the location of the fuel dispenser where the fuel is delivered. With a fixed discount on the wholesale price components in effect at the time of purchase of the prepaid fuel discount card, a wholesaler can determine and control the discount being applied to the wholesale price components of the per unit retail fuel price across a region.
The novel system provides various advantages to wholesalers heretofore unknown. For example, a wholesaler can keep track of the aggregate amount of wholesale price component discounts over a given period by multiplying the wholesale component discounts by the number of gallons at a discounted wholesale price component. The novel system allows a wholesaler to increase the discount to increase demand or lower the discount to lower the demand thus creating an elastic demand for the fuel.
The system recalculates a discounted retail unit fuel price based upon a weighted average of the discounted wholesale price components associated with different prepayments by the purchaser at different wholesale price component discounts. The discounted unit retail price at the time of delivery is determined by subtracting the undiscounted wholesale price component at the time of purchase of the prepaid fuel discount card from the undiscounted retail price at the time of delivery and adding the discounted retail price component at the time of delivery.
The discounted unit retail price is determined as shown below.
As used herein, the following definitions apply:
As illustrated in
To provide a discount on the wholesale price components on the retail price of a gallon of fuel, the retail price must be recalculated. The enhanced functionality of the fuel dispenser is based upon “back office” processing by a remote central server that automatically recalculates retail fuel price per gallon based upon a weighted average of the wholesale price component.
Various options are contemplated for each discount. For example, the discount may be fixed, variable or graduated and may be different in different parts of the region. For example, the prepaid fuel discount card can be a percentage discount on the wholesale discount component of the unit retail fuel price at the time of purchase of the card or alternatively a fixed or variable percentage discount, for example 10%, at a specified point in time.
An important aspect of one embodiment of the invention relates to the snap shot of all wholesale price components at the time of purchase of the discount fuel card existing in an entire region, such as the US, before a discount is taken. Those wholesale price components are locked in for the purchaser for the entire balance on the card. The discount is applied at the time of fuel delivery to the locked in wholesale price component existing at the location of delivery at the time of the snapshot.
With the discount discussed above, the fuel cost will vary at different locations based upon the differences in the wholesale fuel costs, local fees and local taxes. For example, assume the purchaser purchases a prepaid fuel card based upon a single prepayment of $1000. Assume the purchaser takes delivery of 10 gallons of fuel at a location where the undiscounted retail premium price per gallon is $3.50 and the undiscounted premium wholesale price component at that location is $2.50 per gallon at the time of the snapshot and the local fees and taxes are $1.00 per gallon. With a 10% discount on the wholesale price component, the discounted retail price would be 10×(2.25+1.00) or 32.50. This amount would be debited from the purchaser's balance on the prepaid fuel card leaving a $967.50 credit balance on the prepaid gas card.
Now assume that the purchaser goes to another locale to take delivery of 10 more gallons of gas where the undiscounted premium retail price per gallon is $2.50 per gallon and the local taxes and local fees are $0.50 per gallon and the wholesale premium price component at the time of purchase of the prepaid discount fuel card is $2.00 per gallon. Applying the same 10% discount to the wholesale price component at the time of the snap shot, the purchaser's account would be debited for another 10×($1.80+$$0.50) or $23.00 leaving the purchaser with a credit balance of 944.50.
The wholesale fuel discount system may be used in various applications for purchasing one or more of the following items:
An exemplary fuel dispenser is illustrated in
The fuel dispenser 50 includes a main display 51 (
The fuel dispenser 50 also includes input devices. A magnetic card reader 54 is provided for reading from a magnetic strip on the back of a prepaid discount fuel card or an embedded chip. The magnetic strip or embedded chip is in encoded with a purchaser's account information. Biometric readers, such as fingerprint readers are also contemplated. A keyboard 56 is provided for typing in passwords, such as zip codes.
The electronic control system 53 includes a computer processing unit (CPU) or microcontroller 57 (
The mechanical system 55 includes an electric motor 72, a pump 74 and an on/off control system 78. The electric motor 72 and the electrically controlled valves 76 are responsive to an enable and disable a signal from the on/off control subsystem 78. Once the electric motor 72 and electrically controlled valves 76 are enabled by way of the on/off control subsystem 78, fuel flow is enabled under the control of the manually actuated lever in the handle 57, as discussed above.
All components of the fuel dispenser 50 are carried by a common free-standing housing 71. The fuel dispenser 50 may incorporate similar mechanical and electric hardware as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,948,376; 9,302,899; 9,139,414; and 9,082,248, hereby incorporated by reference.
Referring again to
The central server 70 includes a CPU or microcontroller 84 and memory 86, such as RAM memory and persistent memory. The central server 70 is provided with access to a wholesale price database 88 and a purchaser's account database 90.
The wholesale price database 88 includes the snapshot of all the wholesale price components applicable to all fuel dispensers in a region, existing at the time of purchase of the prepaid fuel discount card or at a specified time. The purchasers account database 90 includes at least the accounts of all participating purchasers, the amount of their prepayments, their current balance and the amount and type of the discount, as well as their current account allocation, as discussed below. The databases 88 and 90 may be part of the central server 70 or may be remote and connected to the central server 70 by various communication networks, such as the Internet, cellular or other networks.
Referring to
Each fuel dispenser 50a, 50b . . . 50n may transmit the following data to the central server 70:
In return, the central server 70 recalculates the retail fuel price per gallon based upon a discount applied to the wholesale price component existing at the fuel dispenser where delivery is taken at the time the prepaid fuel discount card is purchased. The central server 70 calculates the maximum number of gallons that can be pumped based upon the recalculated retail price per gallon and the current balance in the purchaser's account. The central server 70 transmits the following data to the fuel dispenser 50a, 50b . . . 50n, where delivery is taken:
The discounted retail price per gallon may be used to the drive various displays on the fuel dispensers 50a, 50b . . . 50n including the retail price per gallon displays 58, 60 and 62 for the various grades of fuel as well as the display 51 that displays the number of gallons pumped and the total cost therefor.
Based upon the purchaser's available account balance or available credit, the central server 102 determines the maximum number of gallons that can be dispensed based upon the discounted retail gas price and enables the electric motor 72 and the electrically controlled valves to be enabled under the control of the hand-operated lever in the nozzle up to the maximum number of units of fuel calculated, as discussed above. Should the maximum number of gallons be reached before the hand operated lever in the nozzle is released, the central server 70 will send an off signal to the on/off control 78 to turn off the pump 74 off at the maximum number. Alternatively, the pump 74 is turned off when the desired number of gallons is reached, or the purchaser's tank is full.
After the gasoline dispensing is terminated either by the purchaser or automatically when the purchaser's gas tank is full or when the maximum number of gallons is reached, the fuel dispenser 50a, 50b . . . 50n may send a transaction complete signal back to the central server 102. Upon receipt of that signal, the central server 102 adjusts the purchaser's account balance based upon the number of gallons pumped and the recalculated unit retail price. The revised balance is stored by the central server 102 in the purchaser's account database 90 (
The purchaser's account is subsequently debited for the discounted number of gallons pumped. In one embodiment, the discount is displayed at the pump in the price per gallon and the total transaction price during the transaction. In an alternative embodiment, the undiscounted unit retail price and the undiscounted total transaction price are displayed at the pump during the transaction. In latter embodiments, the discount is only reflected on the purchaser's account.
An exemplary flow chart for a fuel dispenser 50a, 50b . . . 50n is illustrated in
Referring to
If the purchaser's account is valid, the CPU 84 in the central server 70 recalculates the unit retail fuel price, as discussed below, and transmits it back to the fuel dispenser 50. In step 126, the transceiver 61 in the electronic fuel system 53 (
As mentioned above, the server 70 recalculates the retail price per gallon based upon the grade selected and the purchaser's locked in wholesale price component. The CPU 57 in the electronic control system awaits the response from the central server 70 in step 128. Once the response is received, the discounted retail price may optionally be written to the displays 58, 60 and 62 by way of the CPU 57 in step 129. In step 130, the electric motor 72 and electrically controlled valves 76 (
Alternatively, the fuel dispenser 50 is disabled from pumping fuel when the handle 57 (
An exemplary flow chart for the central server 70 is illustrated in
If the purchasers account is valid, as determined in step 144, the CPU 84 looks up the date of purchase of the prepaid fuel discount card from the purchaser's account database 90. The CPU 84 utilizes that date to access the snapshot of wholesale price components existing on the date of purchase of the prepaid fuel discount card from the wholesale price database 88. To determine the wholesale price component at the fuel dispenser 50 where delivery is taken, the CPU 84 utilizes the location data received from the electronic control system 53 (
The CPU 84 also accesses the purchaser's account data from the purchasers account data base 90 to determine the amount and type of discount assigned to the purchaser's account. The CPU 84 also determines the average weighted wholesale price component based upon the discounted wholesale price components existing at the times of multiple prepayments This data is used to calculate a discounted retail price, as discussed above, based upon the existing per unit retail price received from the fuel dispenser 50, the undiscounted wholesale price component existing at the time the prepaid fuel card was purchased received from the wholesale price database 88, and an average weighted discounted wholesale price component. The average weighted discounted wholesale price component is used to arrive at a discounted retail price in step 148, as discussed above.
In step 150, the CPU 84 determines the maximum number of units of fuel that can be delivered to the purchaser based upon the discounted retail price and the balance in the purchaser's account. In step 152, the discounted unit retail fuel price is transmitted to the fuel dispenser in step 152 along with an ON signal that is applied to the on/off control subsystem 78 to enable the electric system 55 in step 154.
Both the CPU 57 in the electronic control system 53 and the CPU 84 in the central server 70 monitor the number of gallons pumped based on data received from the fuel dispenser 50 in step 156. If the maximum number of gallons is reached, the central server 70 generates an OFF signal that is applied to the on/off control subsystem 78 to disable the electric system 55 (
Periodically, for example, monthly, the system processes a monthly statement to be sent to the purchaser, as indicated in step 161. The statement will illustrate the actual charges for the gas for each purchase, i.e. charges with the discount applied. The statement will also include the balance in the account based upon prepayments that are segregated including any additional deposits and allocations, i.e. debits, since the last statement.
The best way to understand the payment allocation system is by way of an example below. The table below lists three deposits at different wholesale price component discounts. As used below, the prices refer to wholesale price components per gallon.
The columns in the table are described below.
As shown above, deposits were made on January 5, January 20 and February 20. As shown, the wholesale price components for each deposit varies from $2.30 to $2.80 per gallon. The system determines the weighted average wholesale price component per gallon after each deposit is made and discounted and uses that number to determine the discounted retail price per gallon, as discussed above. This discounted retail price per gallon may be displayed on the display 51 (
Referring to the table, the average weighted wholesale price per gallon is calculated each time a deposit is made to the account. The average weighted wholesale price component for each deposit normally varies as subsequent deposits are made. With reference to the table, the average weighted wholesale price after the initial deposit is $2.00 per gallon. When the second deposit is made, $80 remained from the first deposit. Thus, the average weighted wholesale price component per gallon at the time of the second deposit is [($80×$2.00)+($200×$2.10)]/$280 yields a weighted average wholesale price component of $2.0714 per gallon. When the third deposit is made, the user's account has a balance of $125. The average weighted wholesale price component per gallon at the time of the third deposit is [($125×$2.0714)+($300×$1.955)]/$425 yields a weighted average wholesale price component of $1.9892 per gallon.
Exemplary flow diagrams are illustrated in
Turning to
The system verifies the payment in step 232. If the payment is not verified, the system may post a note in step 234 indicating that the payment was not verified and return to step 228. If the payment is verified, the system proceeds to step 236 to establish account number and credit the payment to the account in step 238 and interactively set up log in credentials with the purchaser.
Referring first to
If another transaction is requested, the system proceeds to step 250 and assumes the purchaser desires to add funds. If the user indicates that funds are to be added, the system queries in step 252, the amount of the additional funds to be added to the account. In steps 254 and 256, the payment is initiated. In step 258, the payment transfer is verified. If it is not verified, the system proceeds to step 248 and terminates the transaction. If the payment is verified, the system proceeds to step 260 and credits the new deposit to the purchaser's account.
Deposits may made, for example, on-line by credit card, debit card, bank transfer, pay pal or other means. The average wholesale price component per gallon is determined, as discussed above and may be displayed, for example on the purchaser's smart phone.
Obviously, many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible considering the above teachings. Thus, it is to be understood that, within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described above.
