While drive-offs hit the headlines, it is no means of payment that is causing forecourt operators most problems, with motorists using them as “forecourt seven-day loans”, British Oil Security Syndicate (BOSS) operations director Bruce Nichol told Forecourt Trader Summit delegates this week.
The organisation’s Forecourt Crime Index, which has tracked unpaid fuel incidents since 2015 to help crack down on these crimes with fuel retailers and police, shows that no means of payment (NMoP) now represents two-thirds of reported incidents, compared with only one third before the pandemic, Bruce said. And worryingly, as with Drive-Off-Failure-to-Pay (DOFP), the amount of fuel taken on each of these occasions is on the rise.
In fact, the average litres drawn in a NMoP incident was 43.24 in the fourth quarter of last year, compared with 43.02 litres in the same period in 2022. And in the case of drive-offs from pump incidents, an average of 33.43 litres per incident was taken in Q4, compared with 32.4 litres in the corresponding three months in 2022. Nichol described this unfolding trend as “a subtle change that lurks beneath the surface”, stressing it is one to watch.
The problem, says BOSS, which also runs a Payment Watch debt recovery service, is that no means of payment is a civil offence and that in the vast majority of cases it is a genuine mistake. But if a motorist is reported as NMoP and has not settled the debt on three or more occasions, this indicates that this is not an oversight and suggests intent to evade payment, and they should be treated as a criminal.
It is currently working with police forces to find out how many no means of payment incidents forecourt operators have reported.
“What we are unclear of is are the current prolific offenders more aware that the drive-off side is criminal and that there are a number of actions taking place by a number of different organisations throughout the UK to resolve the problems and have they then resorted to no means of payment because it is civil,” says Nichol.
Many, believes Nichol, are using the ruse to tide them over until they receive their next pay cheque. They simply fill out a declaration form that they will pay within an agreed period and if they don’t pay they will be contacted for payment, and if the forecourt operator does not run a debt recovery scheme, they know there is little consequence.
“Currently, we’re in a period of falling fuel prices, but crime is at a high level,” said Nichol. “The cost-of-living crisis has an impact, and when we look at Payment Watch returns there is a noticeable uptick before paydays.”
The Payment Watch scheme has also found been that throughout the day there is a steady pattern of when incidents are reported, with one third of all incidents taking place during the afternoon and early evening, few incidents during the night, and highest levels between 12pm to 6pm. Unsurprisingly, London has the highest number of incident reports, followed by Surrey, and then Essex, the West Midlands and Oxford.
“You will notice there is a bit of a trend there, so it is areas with big conurbations and big urban areas and it those parts that are the most likely to get hit with drive-offs and no means of payment,” said Nichol.
Unpaid fuel costs the forecourt industry around £100m a year, said Nichol. That is up from around £30m per annum in 2003. BOSS estimates there are in excess of 1.5 million incidents every year, based on the reports with Payment Watch of 800,000 incidents a year.
Other interesting statistics from the Forecourt Crime Index include that NMoP incidents were 10% lower in Q4 last year, compared with Q3, continuing the decline of recent months, and DOFP saw a slight decline of 0.2%. During Q4 the average number of unpaid fuel incidents per site fell to 29.1 per site, compared with 30.9 in Q3 2023, with NMoP incidents accounting for 59% of all Payment Watch reports.
Also, the volume of unpaid fuel incidents declined in the final quarter of 2023. Incidents of NMoP were 10% lower in Q4 than in Q3, continuing the decline of recent months, and DOFP saw a slight decline of 0.2%. During Q4 the average number of unpaid fuel incidents per site fell to 29.1 per site (30.9: Q3 2023) with NMoP incidents accounting for 59% of all Payment Watch reports.
Since 2020, the Forecourt Crime Index is 28% up. It fell significantly, during the pandemic, but as the economy reopened incident reports grew considerably. It peaked at 259 in Q3 2023 and in the final quarter of 2023, it fell by 6%.
