One in ten fuel service stations in Europe will not have any forecourt staff by 2013, and will instead depend on automated payment technology, according to Verdict Research. The company, part of the Datamonitor Group, has said that unmanned fuel service stations are on the rise across Europe, having increased by nearly 5% since 2008.
The company said that the rise was attributable to cost-cutting, and noted that the continent’s network of manned fuel service stations has declined by 3% in the past three years. Tesco, ABC, Statoil, Esso and Q8 are among several major fuel retailers expanding their unmanned operations.
“Unmanned service stations, which typically sell cheaper fuel than regular petrol stations, are a common sight across Europe, especially in Scandinavia, France and the Benelux region. In Finland, for example, 54% of all service stations are unmanned. However we’ll see more unmanned service stations open in the UK, Germany, Spain and Italy, as fuel retailers look to reduce fixed costs such as staffing, while maintaining fuel sales,” said Verdict analyst Alex Jeater.
Petrolworld 25102011
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