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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.
AAHoldingsPtyLtd Page 3
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.
SubmissionforVictoria’sRoadandCommunitySafetyCommitteeInquiryintoFuelDrive‐offs.
AAHoldingsPtyLtd Page 4
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.
SubmissionforVictoria’sRoadandCommunitySafetyCommitteeInquiryintoFuelDrive‐offs.
AAHoldingsPtyLtd Page 5
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.
SubmissionforVictoria’sRoadandCommunitySafetyCommitteeInquiryintoFuelDrive‐offs.
AAHoldingsPtyLtd Page 6
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