Electronic fuel price changers offer accuracy, convenience and flexibility for gas stations, truck stops and C-stores.
By Jef White

There’s a lot to like about today’s electronic fuel price changers, including their bright, easy-to read digits, remote or networked changing capabilities, and the high-tech, professional image they convey for gas stations, truck stops and convenience stores.

Plus, with the way gas prices are increasing almost daily lately, owners may need an electronic sign just to keep up.

“With today’s fuel price volatility, an electronic price sign is becoming a must, not a luxury,” says Joe Tewell, vice president of sales for Sunshine Electronic Display Corp., St. Joseph, Mo. “They offer instant and unlimited price changes, coinciding with onsite or corporate decisions. Customers can change prices as often as they like.”

That may be a necessary evil for drivers forced to pay ever-higher fuel costs, but at least they are assured of getting correct, up-to-date information.

“One of the benefits of the electronic signs over traditional hand-switched units is always having accurate current prices displayed,” says Vanessa Gonzenbach, wholesale account representative for Visiontech Electronic Message Displays, Springfield, Mo.

In fact, some stations are using the quick-change capabilities of these signs to increase profits.

“There are already retailers that change their prices multiple times a day,” notes Joe Wilson, president and CEO of FutureMedia Displays, Carrolton, Texas. “It has actually become a significant part of the justification for these systems.”

He uses the example of a service station on the side of a busy highway that sees the majority of a day’s business come during the morning rush hour commute.

“Under those circumstances, now you have the capability to maybe charge a few pennies premium for the times of the day when the station is more in demand. That can go straight to the bottom line,” he says. “If it takes two to three hours to change the price, obviously you can’t do that. But if it takes you a minute to change it, then retailers are looking into that. We have some markets where we see price changes as often as four or five times a day.”

‘Easy to Use. Easy to Read.’
Electronic fuel price signs are available in a variety of sizes and styles to suit a wide range of applications.

FutureMedia’s lineup is manufactured in the U.S. and features a variety of sign styles and fonts in digits from 6 to 96 inches in red, green, amber and soon-to-be-released white LEDs, Wilson says. Specialty units include changing signs that can run through a station’s various price offerings for unleaded, premium and diesel, as well as those that can accommodate different prices for cash or credit purchases.

Visiontech also offers LED fuel price changers in several versions from 10- up to 84-inch digits in red, amber and green, with single-face or master/slave configurations, single or multiple fuel products, and with or without the 9/10ths digit, notes Gonzenbach.

Tewell says Sunshine’s program includes LED and motor-driven numeric displays for billboard, high-rise and on-premise applications in a variety of colors and sizes, as well as a retrofit program in which LED modules are attached over existing outdated signage.

And what is the reaction from gas station owners and drivers once they are installed?

“Easy to use. Easy to read,” says Gonzenbach.

That’s particularly true, notes Tewell, when diesel fuel comes into play alongside unleaded. “Owners and drivers we’ve spoken to are very pleased with the [electronic signs],” he says. “They are big fans of the red LEDs for unleaded and green LEDs for diesel, because the color contrast is instantly recognizable. The alternating cash/credit diesel price module is also a big hit with owners and drivers.”

The signs also portray a professional image for the service station itself, he adds. “The updated look of the signs gives the station a state-of-the-art, newer and cleaner appearance that is more inviting to customers. You have to see it to believe it—to say it captures your eye is an understatement.”

FutureMedia has heard similar accounts. “They definitely improve the look. The signs can be considered the business card of the station,” Wilson says. “They are built to draw attention to the station in all light conditions, so you have something that is more visible in a competitive marketplace. Often there are several stations at an intersection, and you want to draw attention in a professional manner.”

Straightforward Installation
The signs can be mounted independently on the side of the station, on canopies, in lighted cabinets and monuments, on billboards and in many other configurations.

“Our price changers are simple to install, and require no training [to use],” notes Visiontech’s Gonzenbach. “Just run power and hang the display.”
They can then be updated from up to 1,500 feet away with a handheld wireless keypad, or linked to the Internet for automatic networked or corporate changes, she says.

That’s good news for owners who have signs located in difficult-to-reach places.

“You can remotely operate them from across the country, if needed,” says Sunshine’s Tewell. “This is especially helpful in billboard and unmanned station applications.”

It also results in decreased liability for stations by eliminating the manual changing of signs, where employees might have to climb a ladder or use a pole to change sharp plastic digits, the manufacturers note.

The static nature of the displays also means that permitting or municipal sign code issues are usually not a problem, both Gonzenbach and Tewell say.

“We have had very few problems in the way of oppositional codes and statutes, though there is the occasional blip on the map—[a municipality] that has an issue with illumination or technology in general,” says Tewell. “Fuel pricer updates usually only change a couple of segments of one digit and it takes only a second or two—basically it changes so fast that no one even notices.”

FutureMedia is among the companies that offer fully integrated systems that often connect seamlessly with a retailer’s point of sale program. If a price changes at the pump, the sign is automatically updated at the same time.

“A lot of retailers are interested not only in having the digits look good, but in a fully automated means to display pricing information, including the capability to control multiple stations from a centralized location,” Wilson says. “It boils down to connectivity.”

That is also leading to an increased interest in accompanying electronic message centers or similar electronic signs that complement the fuel price changers and entice people inside the store, he adds.

‘Mission Critical’
The importance of the signs to a fuel station’s business, and the inherent 24/7 operational demands they must meet, make reliability a key component of electronic fuel price changers. The manufacturers encourage electric sign shop owners to do plenty of research early-on to find the products that will best-ensure long-term success.

“We view this application as mission critical,” Wilson says, “meaning that fuel price signs cannot operate with being lit. So, if you have a system that, for whatever reason is not performing, the question isn’t just how much is service going to cost, but what is going to be the revenue loss during the time that it is down?”

Therefore, any cost analysis with a customer needs to take into account not only a starting price for the sign, but factors such as longevity and serviceability, he explains.

When it comes to LEDs, 100,000 hours is often the magic number for life expectancy. However, that can vary greatly, depending on a wide variety of factors that can range from internal power settings to an area’s annual weather patterns.

Wilson says his company has products in the market that have been up and running for more than nine years with no noticeable drop-off in performance, boding well for the market in general.

Which is one of the reasons why the manufacturers of electronic fuel price displays believe it won’t be long before traditional hand-changed signs are a thing of the past.

The LED signs “are reliable, simple to install, and there is an abundance of opportunities,” Gonzenbach says.

Plus, Tewell adds, they can help increase sales. “We’ve been told by some of our customers that sites have experienced 15- to 35-percent increases in volume after the installation of our sign,” he says. “It started with truck stops and now C-stores are recognizing the benefits. Before long, these signs will be the rule, not the exception.”

Wilson believes the same. “We’ve had people say that as soon as they turn these signs on, they see a dramatic positive impact on sales,” he says. “I don’t think this would have become such an industry-wide trend if the payback wasn’t there. The results, obviously, speak for themselves.”

This article originally appeared in Sign Tech. Click here to download a PDF of this article.

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