AAHoldings - Inquiry into Fuel Drive€¦ · AA Holdings Pty Ltd Page 1 Inquiry into Fuel...

SubmissionforVictoria’sRoadandCommunitySafetyCommitteeInquiryintoFuelDrive‐offs. 

AAHoldingsPtyLtd  Page 1 

InquiryintoFuelDrive‐offsAugust2015

Introduction

AA Holdings Pty Ltd is a family owned, Independent Group that owns and has

Licensed Operators managing 52 BP Petrol Convenience locations throughout the

MelbourneMetropolitanandouterlyingareas.ThefamilyhavebeenintheIndustry

for 45 years and welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission to the

Parliament of Victoria’s Road and Community Safety Committee Inquiry into fuel

drive‐offs.

ThefollowingAAHoldingssubmissionoutlinestheexistingsituationanddifficulties

facedby thenetwork, it discusses the systemsandpreventativemeasures that the

Companyhas inplace todealwithdriveoffs, outlines the issuesofconcernwhich

are now facing the Small Business operators who are losing money without any

chanceoropportunityforrecoveringanyofthatdebtandalsoofferssomesolutions

totheInquiryforconsideration.

EXISTINGSITUATIONANDDIFFICULTIES

DriveoffshavebeenalongstandingissueforallSmallBusinessPetrolConvenience

OperatorsthroughoutVictoria andtofullyunderstandwhatistermeda“driveoff”

andhowtheyhavetraditionallybeenhandledweoffertheinformationbelow:

Matching Plates with Matching Vehicle – including expired registrations,

cancelledregistrationsandsuspendedregistrations

ThisiswhereanoffendingvehiclehasRegistrationplatesthatmatchtheidentityof

thecarandincludescarsthatarematchingbuthaveexpired,cancelledorsuspended

registrations. Prior to July 2013, these were the only drive offs where the

Operatorshada reasonable chanceof recovering thedebt. A phone call was

madetothe localPoliceandthePolicewouldmakeacourtesycall tothecustomer

whowasusuallyunaware,ortheyhadaccidentallydrivenoffduetobeingdistracted

whilstfilling.Inmostcasesthecustomerswouldbeembarrassedandapologeticand

theywouldgenerallycomebackinashortspaceoftimeandfinalisetheoutstanding

debt.SincethechangeinPolicepolicytherehasbeenamarkedincreaseindriveoffs

SubmissionforVictoria’sRoadandCommunitySafetyCommitteeInquiryintoFuelDrive‐offs. 

AAHoldingsPtyLtd  Page 2 

inthisareaasoffendersarebecomingmoreawarethatthePolicewillnotfollowup

thistypeoftheft.IntheperiodJanuary2015toJune2015thistypeofdriveoff

hasescalatedto59%ofallrecordeddriveoffswithintheAAHoldingsnetwork.

Nonmatching plates – Vehicle does notmatch the description of the number

platesortherearenoVicRoadrecordsavailableonnumberplate

The number plates on the vehicles are not matching with the description of the

vehicles,ortherearenorecordsfoundthatmatchthenumberplate‐thisisverified

by either the Police or by a check performed on the Vic Roadswebsite. On these

occasionswhenareportisprovidedtothePolicetheyadvisethatthereisnochance

ofdebt recoverydue tobeingunable tocontact theowner. Inthepast6months

thistypeofdriveoffhasattributedto37%ofallrecordeddriveoffswithinthe

AAHoldingsnetwork.

Stolen vehicles – no chance of debt recovery – report taken by Police ‐

approximately2%ofdriveoffsinthiscategoryoverthepast6monthperiod.

InterstatePlates–nochanceofdebtrecovery–approximately2%ofdriveoffsin

thiscategoryoverthepast6monthperiod.

InJuly2013theVictorianPolicechangedtheirpolicyforfollowinguponDriveOffs

and this has resulted in major concerns for the Small Business Operators as the

Policeno longerconsider the incident ofa “PetrolDriveOff”,especiallywhere the

number plates and vehicles arematching, to be theft. Victoria Police are not

investigatingthistheftbecausetheyconsiderthethefttobea‘civilmatter’,anditis

theSiteOperatorsresponsibilitytoattempttorecoverthedebt.Ourdatashowsus

thattherehasbeenanescalationoverthepast2yearsinallareasofdriveofftheft

leavingtheSmallBusinessOperatorstobearthedebtsincurred. Unfortunatelythe

recoveryofdebtthroughCivilproceduresiscostprohibitiveandnotaviableoption.

SubmissionforVictoria’sRoadandCommunitySafetyCommitteeInquiryintoFuelDrive‐offs. 

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CURRENTSYSTEMSANDPREVENTATIVEMEASURES

AA Holdings and its Licensees have tackled the issue in varying ways, investing

financially in equipment, systems resources, signage and training for its staff.

Preventativemeasuresinplaceincludethefollowing:

CCTV

All AA Holdings sites have CCTV and security cameras installed, ranging from

approximately15camerasinthesmallersuburbansitesandupto70camerasinthe

Freewaycentres.CCTVisaresourcethatallowsthecaptureofdataoftheoffending

vehicleonceadriveoffhasoccurred. Itprovides forpositive identificationof the

carandregistrationplatealongwithfootageoftheoffendingcustomer. Asthereis

no other viable option of contacting the offending customers previously this

informationwouldbeprovidedtothePoliceandinthemajorityofinstancesthedebt

wouldberecovered.

WiththechangedPolicepoliciesinJuly2013,thisevidenceevenwhenprovidedto

thePolice isnownot followedupandalthoughthe Industrywasadvisedthat this

information would be taken as ‘Information Reports’ the Police have little or no

interest in taking the details and continually refer to these drive offs as “Civil

Matters”. The matter of legal costs associated with pursuing a civil remedy far

outweighthebenefitsofundertakinglegalactionandisanunacceptablesolutionfor

SiteOperators, this being primarily due to the need to obtain the driver’s identity

beforebeingabletopursuethecustomerforpayment.

NumberPlateRecognitionSystems(NPRS)

All larger, high volume sites have this system installed,with initial set up costs in

equipmentand infrastructurecostingover$100,000to implementthesystem. An

ongoingmonthlysubscription,supportandmaintenancefeeisalsopaidbyallsites

whichworks out to approximately 10 per cent each year of the initial cost of the

system.Highdefinitionnumberplaterecognitioncameras(Vyper)areinstalledand

the system allows operators to record a database of drive‐off offenders. The

Operators are alerted only when a drive off offender has been already been

documented.

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Thedata is then sharedbetween the siteswith thedownsidebeing that the alarm

systemisonlyactivatedonceadriverhasalreadyperformedadriveoffandtheir

numberplatehaspreviouslybeenenteredintothesystem. This isa greattoolfor

preventing repeat drive off offenders, although it is only installed at the higher

volume sitesdue to the costs associatedwith the set up andongoingmaintenance

and service costs. A negative aspect is that once potential drive off offenders are

awarethatasitehasthesysteminstalledmanyofthevehiclesdonotvisitthesehigh

volumesites,oriftheydo,theyreverttousingstolenorunregisterednumberplates.

Prepay

Pre pay has been implemented during high risk times (usually overnight) atmost

locationsdependingontheseverityofthedriveoffproblem.Unfortunatelyprepay

causes additional problems from an honest customers perspective, it is a terrible

inconvenience and sends customer away disgruntled with the customer service

levelsandmanycomplaintsarereceivedthroughBPfromcustomerswhofeel they

arebeingvictimised.Customershavetoguesstheamountoffuelthattheirvehicleis

going to take, there are repeat visitsbackand forth to the console anda refund is

required if the customer has overpaid the amount that their car will take to fill.

There is also the risk of overcharging, the loss of incidental sales, the potential of

reducing impulse sales and an overall reduction to customer convenience and

satisfaction.

VicRoadsWebsite

UpuntilveryrecentlyournetworkwashavingsomesuccessutilisingtheVicRoads

VehicleRegistrationsiteasapreventativemeasuretoidentifyanysuspectvehicles.

By checking the registrationnumbers siteswere ableuse this tool as apreventive

measurebyeliminatingtheauthorisationofthepetrolpumpsforvehicleswhichhad

non matching plates, no records found, expired registrations, cancelled

registrations, and suspended registrations – on these occasions the console

operator would request that the customer approached the console, on many

occasions these customerswould just driveoff knowing that theywill be asked to

prepaybeforethepumpisauthorised.

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UnfortunatelyduetorecentchangestotheVicRoadswebsitetheuseofthissite is

nowtimeconsumingandcreatesadelayinbeingabletoaccessthedata.VicRoads

havereinstalledtheencryptionsthatwereontherepreviouslyandaftertheconsole

operatorhascheckedthatthepersonrequestingtheinformationisnotarobot,then

has to choose a number of pictures which often needs to be entered on several

occasions,duetothepoorqualityoftheimages,bythistimethemotoristhasfilled

theircaranddrivenoff.

Our recorded data for January 2015 to June 2015 shows that out of all drive off

offencescommittedatAAHoldingssitesthereisamassive58%ofvehiclesthatfall

intothecategoriesof:

nonmatchingplates

novalidrecordsfound

expiredregistrations

cancelledregistrations

suspendedregistrations

This information would be vital for Police and Vic Roads records as they try to

enforcethelegalrequirementsofCarRegistrations.Italsoprovidesanotherlevelof

informationinanareathatshouldbeofmajorconcerntotheauthoritiesfordriving

offencesandcrimesthatarecommittedwiththesevehicles.

AlthoughVictoriaPolicehave recordedcrimestatisticsunder3000petrol thefts in

Melbourneduring theperiodbetween,April 2014 toMarch2015 this is not even

closetoatrueindicationoftheamountofdriveoffsthatareactuallyoccurring.Due

to changed Police reporting procedures and indeed the lack of interest and

acknowledgment shown by the Police in accepting InformationReports there are

1000’sofdriveoff’sthatareoccurringthataregoingunreported.Thisissuecauses

extreme frustrationamongst theSiteOperatorsas theyarenotbeingassistedwith

thiscriminalactivityattheirsiteswhileatthesametimetheyareincreasinglybeing

asked by the Local Police to assist them with providing footage on other crime

relatedmatters,inparticularcreditcardfraud.

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FutureDirectionandPossibleSolutions

VicPolicetoprovideadedicateddepartmentthatdealswithdriveoffsand

Registrationoffences–allDriveOffreportstobeloggedcentrally

‐ Theaverage,honestmemberofthepublicdoesnotwanttoreceivea

phonecallfromthePoliceorhavetheirnameattributedtoanyformof

crime

PolicewouldbeprovidedwithadatabaseacrossVictoriaofallcarsthat

havedrivenoffwithmatchingplates(showingrepeatoffenders)

Police/VicRoadswouldhaveanunderstandingandrecords/statisticsof

themagnitudeoftheproblemsassociatedwithalloftheVicRoads

Registrationoffences

Investigatetheprospectofcreatingacivilinfringement/finesnotice

Systemwherebydemeritpointsareattributedtorepeatoffenders

Onbehalf ofAAHoldingsPtyLtd wewould like to thankyou for theopportunity to

providethissubmissionintheinquiryandwelookforwardtosomeworkablesolutions

andfeedbackoncefinalised.

KindRegards

ChrisyMasters

HumanResourcesManager

AAHOLDINGSPTYLTD