The Most Common UST Violation Is Not a Leak

Jeff Lenard and John Eichberger interviewed Clay Moore, our Sr Director of Product, for the episode #380 of NACS Podcast: Convenience Matters 

*The episode was originally published on March 20, 2023, in Convenience Matters. The original article can be read here.

Fuel releases from underground storage tanks (UST) don’t rank among the most common causes of UST compliance violations. Oftentimes, it’s improper paperwork that can lead to fines and negative publicity.

This was one of the findings from our recent industry report: “C” Where It Hurts: Top 10 UST Compliance Violations and their Potential Risks and Costs for your Convenience Store”.

Clay Moore spoke with NACS‘ podcast Convenience Matters about the most common causes of UST Compliance Violations, what C-stores can do to avoid them and why it matters.

“The no. 1 violation was about missing paperwork: it’s not that they were leaking, but that they didn’t have the documentation. So while you could be passing release detection, you could be failing compliance overall,” explained Clay.

“While most C-stores are focused on the customers, paperwork gets left behind. When they have an inspection, they can’t figure it out.”

The challenge here is to change their mindset from “Bare minimum, so I don’t get fined” to “How proactive can I be to fix an issue before it’s a problem?”

Managing compliance is challenging and there are a lot of moving pieces. Many C-Stores are really focused on profits when it comes to selling at the store, but they don’t necessarily see how the fuel side of the business could impact on their profitability.

“Compliance is making sure that you are being effective and managing your fuel loss in a way that you become more profitable in that area. When you talk about reducing fines it’s not just about not getting penalised for doing something you should, it’s about doing what you should to ensure that you are not only profitable but you also avoid fines, which can be very excessive and even lead to the shutdown of your business,” added Moore.

Other compliance violations that ranked on the top 10 are missing inventory reporting (#2) and water ingress (#3).

All these compliance violations could not only result in costly fines but also damage your brand reputation and have a negative impact on your customers.

Listen the full interview to find out more or download the full report from the link below: