Article highlights

The additional security measures won’t stop at Calstores. Caltex is sharing what it’s learned with franchisees, who have an obligation as principal operators to ensure a safe working environment for their employees

In this issue:

Getting the jump on thieves

Carmen Kutlya, Store Manager at Caltex North Adelaide, feeds the “Intellivend” machine.

A man enters the Caltex Star Mart on Scarborough Beach Road in Perth at 1.30am and takes two soft drinks from the fridge. After placing them on the counter, he pulls a red beanie with eye holes cut out over his face. With a screw driver in one hand and a knife in the other, he demands money. The Customer Service Attendant (CSA) places cash and the drinks in a bag and the man flees.

Since the bollards were introduced there hasn’t been a single successful smash-and-grab at Caltex-operated sites

It’s a depressingly familiar incident in the 24/7 fuel and convenience retail business, but in Caltex stores it’s becoming a lot less common.

Thanks to a program of preventive security measures designed to protect staff and property, Caltex-operated convenience stores (Calstores) have experienced a marked decline in robberies and drive offs over the past year.

Initiatives like new night operations policies, safety pendants, anti-jump wires, night windows, bollards in front of ATMs, security door procedures and “Intellivend” smart safes for handling cash are drastically reducing the incidence of hold-ups, according to National Manager Retail Leo Pucar.

“We’ve had recent cases where robbers were so frustrated they left the site because it was all too hard,” says Leo.

The bollards installed last year along the shop-front of Caltex stores are a good example of how well the policy is working. Their aim was to deter smash-and-grab thieves who drive into shop fronts, seize ATMs and load them into vehicles before driving off.

Since the bollards were introduced there hasn’t been a single successful smash-and-grab at Caltex-operated sites, according to Calstores Operations Manager Craig Beck. “All of these moves are designed to improve safety of staff,” he says. “They’ve worked extremely well – our incident rates are now much lower than those of our competitors.”

Feedback from employees is they’re understandably happy about the trend. “It shows we care about their safety,” adds Craig.

Petrol theft is a separate problem which has obviously become more of an issue as prices have risen. But here, too, new measures are making a difference.

Each site now sends in details of drive-offs to a retail analyst at Caltex’s head office. Information includes times, days and a watch list of cars and registration numbers to keep an eye out for. The information is collated and used by Calstores so staff can be extra vigilant at certain times.

“In New South Wales we targeted a decline in drive-offs of 25 per cent this year and have already seen a decline of 18 per cent, an excellent result,” says Craig.

“As franchisor we’re committed to a culture of safety and loss prevention across our retail network,” says John. “While franchisees have absolute discretion to choose safety and security measures to suit their businesses, Calstores are reporting significantly fewer security incidents than stores in our franchise network. So we encourage franchisees to be proactive when it comes to getting it right with security.”

More measures, fewer risks

Here are some of the initiatives helping to keep Calstores employees safe:

Bollards. Sturdy pillars along the shop-front and in front of ATMs prevent smash-and-grab bandits from seizing machines and driving off.

Night drawers. At night, after prescribed times, customers use the wall-mounted devices to pay for fuel and goods without coming into the stores.

New operations timetables. These show employees times at which store doors should be manually opened, then on full lock, after which they should not venture outside until relieved the next morning.

“Intellivend” machines. Introduced last year, these are safe-like devices between consoles into which customer service attendants place takings and which are opened only by Armaguard security people. They “read” notes and print out a report each day of how much money they contain. (A $200 cash limit for tills also means less risk for staff.)

Safety pendants. Employees wear these round their necks for added peace of mind. The pendants have two buttons, one for opening and unlocking the front door when a staffer sees a customer approaching, another to send an emergency signal to the security company if there’s an incident.

Shields. The newest measure currently being trialled in several stores is a counter shield for console areas. The movable polycarbonate screen is left open during normal business hours. After 8pm it’s lowered three-quarters of the way down. After midnight it’s lowered fully and staff serve customers through a chute.