Return of the Mac

Mac ‘Migraine’ Dennis was back on-site today, looking suspiciously like someone who had just got over a hangover. He said ‘well done’ for coping with yesterday, and then tried to cram in as much information and training into seven and a half hours as possible, to make up for what we couldn’t do while he was off. 
I don’t mean to be flippant or arrogant, but I really think this ‘managing a filling station’ lark is going to be quite plain sailing. A lot of the form-filling and rotas and stuff are very similar to the ones I’ve been using at the supermarket, so I can do them in my sleep if necessary. The amount of fuel we order in is pretty much done automatically by the computer system, which records everything we sell hour-to-hour, analyses the patterns and spikes that have happened on certain dates since the garage first opened, compares it to every other garage in the same company, and orders accordingly. Very, very clever stuff and it makes my life a hell of a lot easier. All I have to do is click on ‘Authorise’, ‘Amend’ or ‘Cancel’ and I’m done. The pricing is all decided at Head Office - I just have to change the amounts on the computer and all signage and pumps are updated instantly - and the guys who deliver the fuel are the ones responsible for its safe transfer into our tanks. I just have to watch them and then deal with the paperwork. Like most garages the booth doubles as a small shop, but that’s all controlled by one of the managers in the big store across the road. They decide what to put on display and how much we should charge, and they send over the stock first thing every morning. I just have to make sure someone is designated to put it all out on the shelves and keep a track of what’s sold, and what’s wasted. There is talk of a car wash being built on the back of our building but until that happens, I don’t have to think about it. For now we’re leaving that to the Bulgarian band of brothers that wash cars manually on the supermarket car park twice a week.
It all makes you wonder why the job of ‘Filling Station Manager’ even exists in the first place, but believe me I’m bloody glad that it does!

RC 15-10-14