subject: What Is Service Station Maintenance? [print this page] To understand service station maintenance requirements, it is essential to gain a fundamental understanding about these establishments. Service stations are commonly referred to as gas stations. There isn't much difference between the two terms. Both of them essentially refer to facilities where fuel for various kinds of motor vehicles is retailed at defined prices and other automobile services are offered. The fuel could be either gasoline or diesel and even natural gas-based commercial fuels.
Quality-intrinsic gas station maintenance includes the various services that are provided to consumers besides fuel refilling. However, there are no defined guidelines for the nature or number of such services on offer. Usually, every service station will provide some vehicle-maintenance oriented technical service such as repair/replacement/tuning of:
1. Lighting and Illumination System
2. Oil Change & Maintenance
3. Transmission Tuning
4. Tire Balance or Repair & Rotation
5. Gasket Installation
6. Suspension Dynamics
There are many aspects to service station maintenance and it is vital to establish:
(A) What kind of activities will be directly associated with the sale or dispensing of gasoline or related products? Will the activity be performed only in the outdoor area?
These include vending products such as motor oils, air filters, coolant and compressed air, water and minor accessories, besides the main fuel.
(B) What kind of services will be provided, strictly within the realm of a close-building environment?
Usually, this includes services such as engine tuning, oil changes, lubrication, battery installations and tire changes. Another common example of indoor-type services is wheel alignment or balancing.
(C) What kind of services will not be undertaken?
Usually, gas stations refrain from offering services that include exhaustive body/fender repairing, painting or dismantling.
Displays
One essential part of service station maintenance is creating clearly readable signs along the entire facility that helps customers:
- Locate the fueling facility.
- Understand the location of dedicated fuel-pumping platforms.
- Comprehend ingress/egress routes.
Service Station Repairs
Periodic repair is one of the most common factors necessary for service station maintenance. It could be in any form such as the usual infrastructure renovations or large-scale improvements. The usual routine in gas station structural maintenance includes mending or repairing of:
- Canopy raises (fascia, soffit or fabrication changes).
- Roofing (single ply, modified, asphalt).
- Steel doors, handrails, guardrails and counters.
- Warehouse facilities.
- Equipment and building components such as garage doors, downspouts, trashing enclosures and walk-through doors.
Service Station Maintenance & Sale of Merchandise
When a gas station displays and sells other products for that is not associated with necessary or usual needs of motorists, and then the spaces used for displaying such items will surely be cleared. Supervisors of service station maintenance are tasked to determine which areas should be used for displaying goods other than the vehicular items and the kind of personnel assigned for its operation.
Reason these areas don't require the presence of employees having technological expertise of running a service station. Instead, they can be well served by sales representatives and those who are adept at handling cash counters. Hence, the kind of service station maintenance and supervision needed is decided by the format in which goods unrelated to vehicular or fueling needs are sold. Some common examples include:
- Gas stations that have small convenient stores as a part of their campus area.
- Gas stations that put-up racks displaying goods such as sunglasses, location maps and fast-selling consumer items such has soft drinks, cigarettes and candies.
- Gas stations that use vending machines for selling such merchandise that are set-up in the outdoor area.
Service station maintenance is an ongoing and demanding process and it is recommended to seek the services of companies that specialize in handling such multifaceted activities.
