Incidents of unpaid fuel are still rising, reports the industry body BOSS (British Oil Security Syndicate), and its latest Forecourt Crime Index has gone up 16.7pc to a record high of 244.1. That’s for the three months to September 30. BOSS started the Index in 2015; it’s a collection of reports of ‘No Means of Payment’ (NMoP) and ‘Drive Off’ incidents made to BOSS Payment Watch, a specialist forecourt fuel loss recovery service.
BOSS has found that during that summer quarter NMoP incident reports went up by 18.3pc (drivers filling up then telling the petrol station that they didn’t have the money), while the number of Drive Off incidents rose by 13.8pc. Incidents of unpaid fuel are 32pc higher than in the same quarter in 2021.
The average number of incidents per site advanced to 24.8 (compared with 21.7 in the previous quarter). NMoP incidents accounted for 65 per cent of all reports, and the cost of each incident averaged £78.37 (the quarter before, £75.54). Meanwhile the average cost of a ‘Drive Off’ went up to £56.63 per incident (£53.82, the quarter before).
Although the cost of fuel eased during the quarter, with a modest rise of 2.5pc to an average of 175.8 pence per litre (ppl), BOSS estimate that the average annual losses per forecourt outlet rose 22pc to £7,026.67 (compared with £5,766.44 the quarter before).
Fuel prices peaked at 188.5 ppl in July before easing to 165.3 ppl during September.
BOSS adds that performance of its Payment Watch debt recovery service improved during that third quarter. On forecourts where BOSS Payment Watch operates 86pc of NMoP fuel debts were collected and where BOSS receives valid vehicle information 97pc of Drive Off incident debts are collected.
Claire Nichol, pictured, executive director at BOSS, said: “Over the summer months the Forecourt Crime Index climbed to record levels. The trend is on the upward curve and even in the face of falling fuel prices, we expect incidents of unpaid fuel to keep growing.
“Forecourts are at greater risk of unpaid fuel incidents during peak periods. Carefully recording information about each unpaid fuel incident means that if a motorist does not return to make a payment, we can be more successful at pursuing those who either forget to pay or deliberately evade payment.
“BOSS Payment Watch provides forecourt operators with a robust process to record vehicle details and recover money owed from Drive-Off and No Means of Payment incidents. The success rate has recently improved thanks to more retailers reporting incidents using our online reporting portal.
“Recovering debts from incidents is dependent on the quality of incident reports. For example, where vehicle information is valid, the BOSS Payment Watch team is successfully collecting 97pc of Drive Off incident debts.”
A copy of a BOSS Drive-Off Prevention guide can be downloaded from the BOSS website at https://bossuk.org/guidance.
