October 2016 Industry News From Patriot Capital


Can You Learn From McDonald's 2020 Concept?

McDonald's newest concept store employs a wide range of technology and customer engagement strategies to transform their traditional experience.  Are some of these techniques strategies that can improve your sites customer experience, operating efficiency or average sale? 


EMV Card Adoption Continues to Expand, Are You Protected Against Card Fraud?

Visa recently provided an update on EMV adoption in the U.S., including these statistics:

  • Visa has issued more EMV cards (326.8 million) than there are people in the United States
  • Fraud has decreased by 35 percent in 2016 compared with 2015 at EMV-enabled businesses
  • EMV card usage increased 1,500 percent - 483 million compared to under 55 million transactions in the same period the previous year
  • 100,000 retailers installed EMV systems in June alone

"Criminals have realized that their window of opportunity for using counterfeit cards is closing as retailers across the nation replace their mag-strip POS systems with EMV-enabled card readers," Patriot Capital President Chris Santy explained in a recent webinar. "To guard against fraud, retailers need to understand the risks and develop their upgrade strategy for the forecourt."

Liability for fraud at gas pumps shifts to retailers in October of 2017. To learn more about EMV, visit our EMV Resource Center Santy will share insights on the EMV forecourt liability shift at Outlook Leadership 2016, Nov. 9-11 in Scottsdale, AZ. To learn more about the conference click here.


"U.S. gasoline import dependency is on track to disappear in 2016 - marking the first time in 56 years that domestic refiners produce more gasoline than is consumed by motorists."- Lundberg Letter


Federal Reserve Keeps Interest Rates The Same

For Now, despite dissent from three of the 12 members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the group announced after its meeting on September 21 that interest rates will remain unchanged for now.  Economists had predicted that the committee would not increase interest rates until after the November election; it has two more meetings this year, November 1 and December 1, and experts agree that a rate hike is likely in December.

"The committee judges that the case for an increase in the federal funds rate has strengthened...," the FOMC said in a statement. "Although the unemployment rate is little changed in recent months, job gains have been solid, on average. Household spending has been growing strongly but business fixed investment has remained soft. Inflation has continued to run below the Committee's 2-percent longer-run objective, partly reflecting earlier declines in energy prices and in prices of non-energy imports."

For more information, read this article at NBCNews.com.


Tips & Tricks -  Did you know that you can use Google business view to share an image of what the inside of your store looks like on Google Maps? This and 14 other Google tools are listed here


"Section 179 represents a tremendous incentive for small businesses to improve their return on investment of new equipment and provide a positive cash flow impact." - Chris Santy, President, Patriot Capital 


New UST Regulations: A Primer - Part 4

Article Series Highlights Important UST Regulations Changes The new rules for underground storage tanks (USTs) implemented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have added requirements that could require the prompt replacement of many older USTs. We will provide an ongoing discussion of the changes in this newsletter.

Operator training is now required.

One of the biggest changes to the federal UST regulations is the requirement of operator training, which was already part of many states’ regulatory framework. The new rule makes what experts describe as a “minor but fairly substantial change” in its definition of "operator.”

As the planned rules changes were reviewed by the EPA, the initial proposal required that one type of operator had to be an employee, which could have been burdensome for small-business fuel marketers using contractors. The final rule simplified the operator-training requirements and offered more flexibility in the definition of "operator," which potentially will be easier for small businesses to comply with.UST owners have until 2018 to begin complying with this new rule, but industry experts recommend taking advantage of the phase-in time period to make sure owners and operators are ready to comply.

For details on the new UST regulations and an outline of the most pertinent changes, visit the EPA’s website. Patriot Capital provides financing for UST equipment and related installation work, in many cases providing 100-percent financing. To learn more about the variety of financing options, get a quick quote or find an advisor near you, visit the Patriot Capital website or call (877) 527-0383.


Upcoming Patriot Capital Events

Patriot Capital is proud to support our industry and invites you to visit us at these upcoming events:

NACS Conference - Atlanta, GA - October 18 - 21 SIGMA (Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America) Annual Meeting (https://www.sigma.org/events) - Washington, D.C. - November 2 - 4 CSP Outlook Leadership - Scottsdale, AZ - November 9-11 
OPCA Petroleum & Convenience EXPO - Lewis Center, OH - November 16

3565 Piedmont Road, NE Building 1 Suite 430 Atlanta, GA 30305 877-527-0383