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GS Caltex pushes self-service gas stations in Korea
There are some trends that repeat themselves across the world. One in the fuel retailing industry is that full-service filling stations are being replaced by self-service outlets in line with the development of the economy
In the 1970s, a vast majority of gas stations in the United States and Canada offered full service with employees filling the tanks while drivers remained seated behind the wheel.
Things are totally different now as more than 90 percent of petrol pumps are self service in the world's largest economy. And here in Korea, GS Caltex is spearheading the shift. The nation's second-largest fuel retailer started to install do-it-yourself petrol stations in late 2005 and increased the number to 22 in 2007, 61 in 2008, 123 in 2009 and has 150 at the moment.
The self-service gas stations of GS Caltex account for more than half of the country's 280 such facilities. The Seoul-based outfit plans to increase the number in the future. “Motorists can get substantial discounts when they fill their vehicles themselves at the self-service pumps. In addition, they tend to feel free to refuel even a small amount,” a GS Caltex representative said.
We also gain. With the increasing number of stations offering cheaper fuel, we can expand our market share as amply demonstrated by the one in Samsung-dong, Gangnam.'' GS Caltex set up a self-service gas station in Samseong-dong where the land prices are ultra expensive in early 2009. Critics said that rich Gangnam residents, south of the Han River, would not frequent the facility.
Yet, the outlet flourished to silence such critics to prove that GS Caltex was going in the right direction with its strategies. “More and more people think about how much money they could save if there were more self-service gas stations. But the jitters have been the fears of people pumping gas on their own,” the representative said. “But our self-service pumps are as easy as automatic teller machines. Accordingly, folks continue to use such facilities as motorists in the developed countries are doing.”
In the United Kingdom, the proportion of self-service gas stations has reached 85 percent and in Japan the figure is 12 percent, which is relatively low but has been on a rapid increase.
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