How BigBrother’s Watch-it Reduced Drive-Offs by 80%

After losing almost £30,000 over the last four years to fuel theft, Goran Raven, Director of R J Raven based in Essex, UK decided to take action to protect his business.

R J Raven is a fourth-generation family business based, in Essex, UK. The company operates a busy Shell-branded site with a Budgens convenience store and a car wash.

The Challenge

Over the last 4 years, fuel drive offs have cost Goran’s business around £30,000, a significant sum for a small business. Latest data indicates that driving off without payment offences are on the up across the UK, with many crimes going unreported due to a perceived lack of action from police forces.

The Solution

After the company was persistently impacted by drive offs, Goran decided to act. The site had previously trialled an ANPR camera system several years ago, but it was BigBrother’s ability to link camera data directly to the DVLA database that set the solution apart.

Watch-it technology features automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) software. When the customer lifts the nozzle, the system reads the number plate and car details and matches that up with information held on the DVLA system. If there is a discrepancy, for example the plates don’t match the vehicle type, this is flagged as an issue and dispenser will shut off.

The Results

Since installing Watch-it, Goran has seen an 80% reduction in drive-offs. A large number of the drive offs committed on the site were from repeat perpetrators and once the system was introduced the number of offences dropped significantly.

“The positive impact for me is the financial impact. The system enables us to reduce our losses to an extremely manageable amount.

“The technology is a long-term investment and offers more possibilities with PoS integrations. Often, I’ll have other retailers say to me that the amount I am spending on technology is money that could be in my pocket, but when you consider that this could stop a significant percentage of future drive-offs then the benefits are clear,” explained Goran.

If you’d like to discover how Watch-it can help you safeguard your forecourt from drive-offs, please visit https://www.stopdriveoffs.co.uk/ or contact our team of experts via sales@bigbrother.nl