Gasoline retailers could scrap a plan to stop accepting credit cards for fuel purchases if financial institutions agree to revise their processing fees.
The Jamaica Gasoline Retailers Association (JGRA), yesterday put on hold, its decision for members to cease accepting Visa and MasterCard credit cards.
The news came just hours before the scheduled implementation.
The suspension is until November 1.
JGRA President Derrick Thompson says if
The Jamaica Gasolene Retailers Association (JGRA), says as of October 1, service stations will no longer accept Master or Visa credit cards for fuel sales.
However, it said traditional debit cards will be accepted.
In August, members of the association agreed to stop accepting credit cards as part of cost saving measures.
The JGRA has complained that the unacceptable processing fees charged by financial institutions are sometimes higher than profit margins.
editorial@gleanerjm.com
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Debbie-Ann Wright, News Editor
The Gleaner/Power106 News Centre
The Energy Ministry is looking to overhaul the licensing and registration process for gas stations as it seeks to address competitiveness in the sector.
In recent weeks, gasoline retailers have been complaining of dwindling profits with some gas stations even being forced to close.
In a release yesterday, the energy ministry stated that the number of service stations and their proximity to each other was contributing to the low margins.
It said currently the service stations are licensed by the Resident Magistrate Courts and not by the Ministry.
Energy minister Paulwell said a one-stop-shop for licensing and registration of sector participants being worked on by the government will help to resolve this problem.
President of the Jamaica gasoline Retailers
TREVOR Heaven, president of the Jamaica Gasolene Retailers’ Association (JGRA), has said that service stations will be revamping their operations in a bid to save the sector from extinction.
“We are facing an unprecedented financial challenge,” he told Auto. “At this point, there are four stations in the Corporate Area that are already closed. These are the Total service stations in Harbour View, Half-Way-Tree, shortwood, and Red Hills.”
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HEAVEN… four stations in the Corporate Area are now closed |
“I intend to seek audience with the management of the French-owned Total Jamaica to see how we can best resolve the issue,” he said.
When contacted, Paula Duncan, HR manager for Total Jamaica, said she could not comment as the company’s managing director, Dr Michael Faulkner, was off the island.
However, the JGRA president said he has been advised that another two service stations in St Catherine and one in Manchester were on the verge of closure, but refused to name the brands.
Heaven, who met with retailers at the JGRA’s Constant Spring Road headquarters on Wednesday, attributed the current downturn in the gasolene retail business to high operational costs, shrinkage due to temperature changes, reduced gross income (low margins and reduced throughput) and increased bank and credit card charges.
The JGRA president said a raft of new measures would have to be implemented.
“We’ll be moving away from full service to self service. We’ll will have discussions with the unions to see how best we can transition,” he said. “While we [the dealers] develop other income streams, we can divert our employees into other areas of activities rather than dislocate them.”
Heaven said dealers would discontinue accepting Master Cards and Visa Cards at service stations as the bank charges are sometimes greater than the profits made.
“Only the NCB Key Card and debit cards will be accepted,” he said.
Heaven said he would also be seeking a meeting with Dr Peter Phillips, minister of finance, planning and the public service, as well as Anthony Hylton, minister of industry, investment and commerce, regarding an amendment to the Weights and Measurement Regulation.
The JGRA comprises 160 members and celebrated its 61st anniversary in April, 2012.
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TREVOR Heaven, president of the Jamaica Gasolene Retailers’ Association (JGRA), has said that service stations will be revamping their operations in a bid to save the sector from extinction.
“We are facing an unprecedented financial challenge,” he told Auto. “At this point, there are four stations in the Corporate Area that are already closed. These are the Total service stations in Harbour View, Half-Way-Tree, shortwood, and Red Hills.”
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HEAVEN… four stations in the Corporate Area are now closed |
“I intend to seek audience with the management of the French-owned Total Jamaica to see how we can best resolve the issue,” he said.
When contacted, Paula Duncan, HR manager for Total Jamaica, said she could not comment as the company’s managing director, Dr Michael Faulkner, was off the island.
However, the JGRA president said he has been advised that another two service stations in St Catherine and one in Manchester were on the verge of closure, but refused to name the brands.
Heaven, who met with retailers at the JGRA’s Constant Spring Road headquarters on Wednesday, attributed the current downturn in the gasolene retail business to high operational costs, shrinkage due to temperature changes, reduced gross income (low margins and reduced throughput) and increased bank and credit card charges.
The JGRA president said a raft of new measures would have to be implemented.
“We’ll be moving away from full service to self service. We’ll will have discussions with the unions to see how best we can transition,” he said. “While we [the dealers] develop other income streams, we can divert our employees into other areas of activities rather than dislocate them.”
Heaven said dealers would discontinue accepting Master Cards and Visa Cards at service stations as the bank charges are sometimes greater than the profits made.
“Only the NCB Key Card and debit cards will be accepted,” he said.
Heaven said he would also be seeking a meeting with Dr Peter Phillips, minister of finance, planning and the public service, as well as Anthony Hylton, minister of industry, investment and commerce, regarding an amendment to the Weights and Measurement Regulation.
The JGRA comprises 160 members and celebrated its 61st anniversary in April, 2012.
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There are signs that the petroleum retail trade is beginning to shrink with the Jamaica Gasoline Retailers Association, JGRA, reporting that nine of
TWENTY-ONE-YEAR-OLD Kimarley Stewart still shudders when he remembers the cold muzzle of a gun pressed against his abdomen. Stewart said he had the frightening experience as he pumped fuel at a service station on Old Hope Road in St Andrew two Sundays ago.
According to Stewart, about 11:00 am three men travelling in a white motor car drove into the station and told him to fill the car’s gas tank. Stewart — who had been serving as a pump attendant there for eight months — complied, but when he tried to collect payment for the gas, he was grabbed by one of the occupants, who, along with his two cronies, brandished guns and threatened him into silence.
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According to the JGRA, service stations are reeling from losses due to employee dishonesty. |
The thugs, he said, then robbed him of his cellular phone, about $3,000 in cash, and drove off without paying for the fuel, which was valued at about $3,000.
According to Stewart, who said the ordeal lasted about five minutes, he was the only attendant serving outside at the time of the heist. Another employee and a security guard were both inside the gas station’s convenience store.
The Cross Roads Police confirmed that the robbery was reported to them and an investigation has been launched.
But even with that done, Stewart is not happy.
The owners of the service station, he said, accused him of organising the robbery, and demanded that he repay the stolen money.
“I asked my supervisor if I would have to pay for the loss and she went to talk to the manager,” he told the Jamaica Observer. “She came back to me and told me that I would have to pay back the money for what had happened.”
That, Stewart said, pushed him to visit the manager, but his employer, he alleged, confirmed the information related to him by the supervisor.
Stewart said he got angry and an argument developed between himself and the manager.
“I said ‘no, I couldn’t pay for that. How can I pay for something that I could not prevent? That does not make any sense at all,” argued Stewart. “His comments were that somebody had to pay for it, and that it was going to be me.”
“I got robbed at gunpoint. I was looking into three guns — one on my belly and two pointing on me,” he said. “And now they are going to ask me to pay back money? These people don’t care about anything but their money,” he said, citing this as his reason for taking his story to the media.
Reflecting on the robbery, he said, “All I was saying was ‘please Lord, don’t let them shoot me’. That was all that was in my mind. I was even preparing to take a gunshot.”
Stewart, who is the eldest of his mother’s four children, said one of his major concerns during the robbery was being killed and leaving his mother behind without his support.
Since last Tuesday, when the argument occurred, Stewart has not returned to work. He said the trauma of the hold-up and the accusation have been too much for him.
But when contacted by the Jamaica Observer last week, one of the owners of the family-operated service station denied Stewart’s claim that he was asked to repay the stolen money. That couldn’t be the case, the operator said, as the robbery was still being investigated.
“We have not had any arguments with him in terms of payment. We are doing our internal investigation, as well as the police are doing their own investigations,” stated the operator, who asked not to be named.
The operator noted, however, that Stewart may have breached standard service procedures, for which he can be held liable.
“When a customer comes up, you ascertain how it is that you are going to be paid and you try to collect the money up front or during the dispensation of the gas,” the owner explained.
“If it is you decide to give the gas and then collect after, then that is at your discretion. If you do not know the person, or if you have any reason to be suspicious, then you try to collect the money up front,” the owner added, questioning Stewart’s reason for not collecting payment before he began serving the men.
A second breach, the owner claimed, was that Stewart had his cellular phone on him at the time of the incident.
Employees are not allowed to have in their possession jewellery or cellular phones while working, he said.
“But we have not drawn any conclusion as to what happened,” the operator continued.
Last Thursday, Derrick Thompson, first vice-president of the Jamaica Gasoline Retailers Association (JGRA) — while noting that he was not informed enough to speak about the incident — said service stations were reeling from losses due to employee dishonesty.
“We have about 300 gas stations locally, and within the network every day or every other day we suffer a robbery, and it comes in many different forms,” he said.
“One, we suffer from employees. Every day that I talk to a [JGRA] member they are losing from their employees. The second thing is that we are being held up by many different people,” he said, noting that despite the employment of security guards and bolstered efforts by the police, gas stations remain targets.
Last month, police arrested three men, seized two illegal firearms, and recovered about $2 million in stolen cash and cheques, following a heist at the Total Service Station on Spanish Town Road in Kingston.
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