Selecting the right gas station location

When building or buying a gas station, the location you select has a significant influence on future success.

As consumers, we buy gas when we need to refuel, so having the “right” location is arguably one of the most important factors of your gas station. A great location has high volumes of traffic as well as high visibility to the passing traffic. But a busy street isn’t everything, Phillips 66 suggest;

“Consumers will even pay more to avoid turning into an area that makes entering or exiting difficult.”

You need to consider how the passing traffic will view your site ― how easy is it to access? How visible is the signage?

While traffic levels are important for gas sales, your success doesn’t have to solely rely on passing cars. Adapting your strategy to your surroundings will help you to harness the potential of your location.

Gas stations that are close to a highway intersection tend to attract higher levels of passing traffic, but they are less likely to build a loyal customer base. If your site is in a residential location, focus more on your convenience store or QSR offering and provide services that benefit the local community. You won’t achieve the same fuel volumes as a busy highway gas station, but you can adapt your strategy to fit your location and generate revenue from other opportunities.

When assessing a potential location, you need to consider not only the current surroundings — but future development too. Your local Development Services Department will have information on all planned development in the area. A new residential area, a retail park, and changes to road layouts could all have a big impact on the future success of your location. Select a location that works not just for today, but for the future too.

Consult the data

Site selection isn’t a guessing game. Data is available to help influence your location decisions. Average annual daily traffic (AADT) figures can help you understand traffic levels on the roads around your potential sites. Demographic data provides insight on who your local market is— and what you can do to meet their needs.

Many experienced gas station owners base their site selection decisions on gut feel. Your immediate emotional reaction might tell you whether a location has the potential for success and many profitable decisions have been made this way, but if you require investment for your gas station, you may need to base your site selection on something more robust. Combining multiple factors in your site selection process ― emotion, experience, and science ― will lead to successful site selection.

Kalibrate’s TrafficMetrix® provides AADT counts as well as;

• Connected car data
• Monthly refreshes
• 5-year projections
• Hourly traffic and daily traffic
• Average speed
• Hard acceleration and hard braking data

TrafficMetrix® is the most granular, complete, and accurate commercially available database of connected car data and average annual daily traffic (AADT) counts in the US. Whatever your objective, you need robust, accurate, and granular data to empower better decision making.

Find out more about TrafficMetrix® here.