With police lacking the resources to reliably investigate drive-offs, and no means of payment costing operators tens of millions a year, several firms offer security services for petrol stations looking to stem their losses. But what do these different companies offer, and which is right for your forecourt?
1. How big is the problem?
Endemic, to put it plainly. Around £27m worth of fuel was stolen in drive-offs in 2024 according to the British Oil security Syndicate (BOSS), with a further £55m or so lost via no means of payment (NMoP) incidents, where people fill their car then enter the shop and claim not to have the ability to pay for their fuel, only later to fail to make good on their debt.
No means of payment is deemed to be a civil matter, meaning forecourts are always on their own here, but a drive-off is classed as ‘making off without payment’, a crime under the 1978 Theft Act, and something that should therefore be investigated by police.
Sadly, this tends not to be the case. Forecourt Trader recently discovered that while petrol-station operators reported around 131,000 drive-offs, costing them an estimated £6.5m, to police between 2020 and 2024, in around 86% of instances officers ended investigations without identifying a suspect.
Anecdotal reports indicate that investigations are often ended by way of a templated email or text from police, with forecourts receiving no direct contact from constables. Despite the criminal nature of these incidents, here too the industry is typically left to its own devices.
Some sites are more prone to drive-offs than others (one London forecourt we analysed reported 171 incidents in 2023 alone), but more and more operators are turning to technology to combat losses. As criminals become aware that their previous hunting grounds are no longer soft touches, sites without the latest security systems are likely to see an uptick in theft as crooks seek out easier targets.
This makes it all the more important to know what options are out there, even for forecourts that are relatively unaffected – for now.
2. BOSS
Established in 1991 to help oil-company-owned forecourts tackle fuel losses, the British Oil Security Syndicate operates on a not-for-profit basis and is active in around 75% of large-volume sites.
BOSS has worked closely with police since its inception, coining the term ‘no means of payment’, which was subsequently adopted by authorities. BOSS was also instrumental in working with government organisations to ensure drive-offs were recognised as criminal, rather than civil matters.
The company has operated Payment Watch since 2008. Originally intended to tackle NMoP incidents, it later expanded in to encompass drive-offs as well as ‘failure to pay’, where a driver enters the shop but doesn’t declare they have drawn fuel. As with NMoP this is deemed a civil matter, rather than a criminal one.
BOSS takes different actions depending on the type of incident that occurs. For drive-offs and failures to pay, forecourt operators submit details to Payment Watch, including CCTV footage, vehicle registrations and any other supporting evidence. BOSS then verifies this information, obtaining vehicle keeper information from the DVLA before beginning civil debt-recovery proceedings, which are outsourced to firms that are compliant with Financial Conduct Authority and Solicitors Regulation Authority regulations.
For no means of payment incidents, motorists sign a voluntary declaration saying that they will pay for the fuel within an agreed timeframe (usually seven days), with civil debt recovery only commencing if they fail to honour this agreement.
Payment Watch is a cloud-based system that can be accessed from desktops, smartphones point-of-sale systems, and BOSS recovers NMoP debts in 86% of cases. For drive-offs and failure to pay incidents, the figure is 93% when the company receives what it terms accurate vehicle information.
3. VARS Technology
Founded in 2019, Blackpool-based VARS Technology offers two core service packages. The most affordable involves the provision of an on-site tablet that allows for quick and easy reporting of drive-offs and NMoP incidents at “minimal cost”. Operators use this tablet to submit details of the incident with evidence (typically an image of the tillpoint record, together with CCTV stills), with VARS using this information to implement debt-recovery proceedings.
The second option is more comprehensive and sees an ANPR camera system installed on site. This scans number plates as soon as the vehicle enters the forecourt, liaising with VARS’ ‘blacklist’, which details if a registration is linked to fuel and shop theft, or aggression and abuse of staff. The system also links to the DVLA’s database, showing cashiers the make, model and colour of vehicle that the registration should be attached to, alerting them to any mismatch, which can indicate cloned plates have been fitted to a vehicle.
Staff receive visual and audio alerts as soon as a vehicle with a problematic registration pulls onto the site, allowing them to not authorise a pump, and asking over the forecourt tannoy for the driver to come into the shop and pre-pay for their fuel. VARS says its systems cut drive-offs by up to 90%, while it recovers 80% of lost fuel revenue.
In terms of costs, while these are determined both by the levels of service a site requires, and the nature of the site (unusual entry and exit points mean some forecourts require more complex ANPR camera installations, for example). VARS’ technology director, John Garnett, highlights that his firm is “committed to saving forecourts money, so it just wouldn’t make sense for us to charge them hefty fees for our service”.
The firm says it supplies equipment at cost, while service contracts are on a monthly rolling basis. The firm says it only needs to resolve one drive-off a month for operators of the tablet-only system to see a return on their investment, with sites signing up to the ANPR system seeing this pay for itself “within a few months”, Garnett says.
With parking a problem for some forecourts – those close to football stadiums, for example – firms signing up to VARS’ ANPR system can use the firm’s parking management services at no extra cost. This sees parking revenue split with forecourt operators, with VARS being a licenced member of the British Parking Association. The firm also offers a facial-recognition service to help tackle retail crime.
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VARS Technology offers the highest recovery rates for drive offs and no means of payment incidents in the UK, as well as returning every penny recovered straight back to forecourt operators.
VARS Technology’s market-leading ANPR system has consistently delivered a reduction in drive-offs of over 80%, while the business recovered over £2.8 million in stolen fuel costs for forecourt operators last year. Forecourt staff are provided with the insight needed to spot false plates, while notifications for blacklisted vehicles within milliseconds of their arrival on the forecourt stamps out repeat offenders.
Able to flag up blacklisted vehicles in just 300 milliseconds, as much as 20 times faster than some competitor systems, the VARS ANPR system collectively saves fuel retailers millions in stolen fuel costs by preventing drive offs before they happen.
Powered by advanced AI, the VARS Technology system defers every final decision to a member of the VARS team, ensuring that decisions are fair, accurate and compliant with data protection requirements. Forecourt staff receive full training in the use of the system, giving them a clear procedure to follow in the case of fuel theft or blacklisted vehicles, using a system they can trust to deliver market-leading forecourt protection.
4. BigBrother
Security technology company BigBrother operates in 21 countries counting 8,000 retailers among its clients, and the firm offers module-based packages allowing operators to sign up to the services they need.
BigBrother’s Watch-it service integrates with existing forecourt CCTV and POS systems, alerting staff when a blacklisted vehicle pulls up on the forecourt, while liaising with the DVLA’s database to highlight registrations that are mismatched to a car’s make, model and colour.
If a drive-off occurs, BigBrother’s software dashboard links pump and till CCTV footage with tillpoint records, allowing for the automated creation of a theft record that can be sent to the firm’s debt-recovery department. The firm says its systems cut drive-offs by 80%.
As well as pursuing the debt, BigBrother also issues a fine to fuel thieves, allowing retailers to recoup more than the original amount they lost.
Offering local, and cloud-based services, firms with multiple sites signing up to the latter can view real-time images from any forecourt camera, inside and out, while integration with on-site POS systems allows operators to identify cashiers who may be carrying out unusual interactions with the till, such as making corrections on a frequent basis.
Firms that operate their sites unmanned are also catered for, with pump authorisations linked to DVLA registration checks, or being manually activated by a remote human overseer, if required.
5. Forecourt Eye
Leeds-based Forecourt Eye has been operating since 2017 and says its vehicle blacklist, which contains 260,000 registrations, is the largest in the industry, while the firm is active at over 2,000 filling stations, and its systems oversee around 38% of fill-ups.
Forecourt Eye estimates that operators signing up to its services see an annual return on investment of £5 to £1, recovering up to 65% of all money owed from unpaid fuel incidents. The company also reports that installing its ANPR system brings about a 77% reduction in repeat offences.
It’s chief executive, Nick Fisher, says his firm’s mission ”is to make recovery easy, efficient and compliant”, with the real “game changer” being ”how dramatically our ANPR service changes offender behaviour”.
Forecourt Eye’s system links directly to the DVLA’s database. Drivers who fill out NMoP information on the Forecourt Eye tablet automatically receive a text message containing digital records of the incident, and a link to the firm’s payment portal.
Drive-offs are automatically reported to the police and pursued via Forecourt Eye’s fuel-loss process, which the firm will take all the way to court if necessary. Recovered losses are repaid to operators every seven days.
Firms signing up to Forecourt Eye get access to its data-management platform, which tracks the progress of each incident, and allows operators to analyse fuel-loss data based on times of day and year.
6. A retailer’s perspective
Guy White is managing director of Laurels Service Station, an independent forecourt in Horncastle, Lincs, that has used VARS’ system for some years.
“The majority of our business is local”, White says. “But we’re on the main route to a holiday destination, and that’s where most of our problems arise from – it’s a bit seasonal, so March to the end of September is when we get hit more.”
White says the system saved him around £1,000 over the weekend that preceded our conversation thanks to it flagging blacklisted vehicles, and estimates his site suffers 10% of the drive-offs it once did.
“The VARS system allows vehicles to be blacklisted by sites for a variety of reasons, including NMoP, if customers are aggressive, have stolen from the shop, or there’s been a drive-off recognised on those number plates.
“As soon as that vehicle enters the forecourt, staff suspicions are aroused. We glue a senior member of staff to those people without putting anyone at any risk; we look busy very near them, around the business.”
If a vehicle with a flagged number plate arrives White says his staff wouldn’t authorise a pump. “We would wait for them come into the shop to ensure they have means of payment – that’s giving us more CCTV, IE head and shoulders – or a senior member of staff would go out and ask if they have means of payment.”
Laurels was one of VARS’ early adopters, with the system being in place for around four years, and since the technology has only improved. “The thing with VARS is they’re such great people to work with, and proactive”, White says, adding: “If there’s a problem, or they can make the system better, they listen to retailers and make it system stronger.”
“Their recovery is excellent – they’re paying me back each month where we have had drive-offs.”
