INTERVIEW WITH NEW BOSS CHAIRMAN

Article reproduced courtesy of "Forecourt" magazine.

With vast experience of the oil industry behind him, Chevron’s Peter Oakford is the new Chairman of the British Oil Security Syndicate (BOSS).

During his “day job” Peter is Manager of Sales for Chevron’s Texaco brand. During more than 20 years in the oil industry, Peter has worked all over. But what can his oil industry experience bring to the world of the UK fuel retailer, and what does he see as the main challenges facing BOSS and forecourt security in the coming years?

Certainly the industry still faces major difficulties regarding crime on the forecourt even though BOSS figures for 2008 showed things are improving. Crime last year at Britain’s petrol service stations fell by 8per cent, compared to a 13per cent rise in estimated losses in 2007. Losses through crime at forecourts in 2008 totalled £29.9million compared to £32.5million in 2007. Driving off without paying, and incidents of motorists who do not return to pay after claiming to have ‘no means of payment’, accounted for 88per cent of losses and amounted to £26.3 million, 8.4 per cent down on 2007. The BOSS figures show that, during 2008, the average value of incidents of driving off without paying increased from £35 in 2007 to over £40 (corresponding to the increase in fuel prices).

So despite success the battle against forecourt crime continues. Here Peter Oakford speaks to Forecourt magazine about himself, BOSS, and how he sees his new role in helping fight that battle:

“I have had 25 years in the industry and during that time my roles with Chevron have taken me to New York, the Canary Islands, and Spain, as well as Central and Eastern Europe.

“My previous roles saw me based in Warsaw to set up a new company in that part of the world, and then I ran operations in 34 countries right through the former Soviet Union, in Israel and Morocco, and down across North Africa, as well as across the former Yugoslavia, into Albania and so on. That period, the early and mid 1990s, was an extremely interesting time working in some extremely interesting countries – and dealing with problems like moving from temperatures of minus 25 in Warsaw to working in Greece and the Canaries!

“I came back to the UK about five years ago and was then given the job of looking at Chevron’s retail strategy for the UK market at a time when we were looking at changing direction, selling off company-owned service stations and going back to our roots as a fuel wholesaler, and in that way helping to formulate the new organisation that we have got now.

“I think that my background in all areas of sales and marketing brings perhaps a different type of expertise to BOSS, perhaps a slightly different outlook on things.” The key says Peter, is that his retail experience plugs into the needs and concerns of the fuel retailer, forecourt manager and forecourt owner. This experience he says will perfectly complement the knowledge already held by the professionals at BOSS.

Peter adds: “A lot of my colleagues in BOSS are from the security side of the industry and can offer huge expertise in helping fuel retailers focus on day to day issues.

“It is also very much worth remembering that all PRA members automatically get membership of BOSS which has got an important role to play. In recent years BOSS has been extremely successful in reducing losses suffered by their members and by fuel retailers.

“For example, we now have much stricter rules regarding drive-offs thanks to a long BOSS campaign calling on the Home Office National Crime Recording Standards (NCRS) to regard making off with fuel from a forecourt without paying as a criminal offence. So now instead of the police initially categorising such offences as a civil debt, they are now recorded as a crime and investigated accordingly until it can be proved otherwise.

“Other major advances have been our development of Forecourt Watch and of our No Means of Payment campaigns. We are now working with the police and asking them to focus on the criminality of the offenders while BOSS works with the retailers to recover money lost through these offences.

“Forecourt Watch will spread much more quickly now and we are also working on a pilot project with the police in Hertfordshire and through that have seen a 50per cent reduction in crime on forecourts, which is fantastic, as well as a 26per cent success in recovery through drive offs and an 81per cent recovery in No Means of Payment.

“During these times of economic downturn there are a lot of people looking for easy touches and forecourts have been seen as a soft touch. The work that retailers are doing to build relationships with their local police force is proving effective and bringing great results.”

Police are also being increasingly motivated to step up their work combating offences such as drive-offs says Peter, because they have realised that many offenders prepared to bilk fuel retailers by taking fuel and then not paying for it, are often involved in other crimes as well.

He says: “Police forces have realised that forecourt crime is just the tip of the iceberg. Drive-off offenders are often involved in other forms of crime. With ANPR systems and CCTV footage available to them, the police find that by tracking down these offenders that they will also be finding offenders that they are looking for in connection with other offences. For instance, the car may have been stolen so it can be used in a robbery or some other criminal activity.

“I have been a member of the BOSS committee for the past three years and have worked closely with Kevin Eastwood and his team. The previous chairman did an outstanding job and we all have our day jobs of course, so my first priority is to carry on the outstanding work that has been done so far and to continue delivering great results from Forecourt Watch and NMP, and working with BOSS members to find ways of reducing financial losses.

“My objective is to make BOSS more widely available throughout the industry as there are still companies that are not participating. We need to expand and look at ways of making BOSS relevant to the widest possible range of fuel retailers.

“We have got a fantastic website with an enormous amount of information in it, but of course we would love to hear from more retailers so as to help them at a time when the police are changing their attitude towards Forecourt Watch and they are working more and more closely with BOSS.”

Former BOSS Chairman Peter Mellins of Total has taken up the role of BOSS Vice-Chairman. Kevin Eastwood, Executive Director of BOSS, says: “Successful BOSS Forecourt Watch schemes rely on strong relationships with our oil company members and Peter Oakford’s appointment reinforces those relationships. As well as welcoming Peter Oakford as our new Chairman, I’d like to thank Peter Mellins for his significant contribution to the development of BOSS.”