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Today we're here to celebrate the installation of Fuel Call.
And we'd like to thank Atlas and Marathon Oil for taking the steps to put in a system like
this to help drivers with disabilities to do something simple like getting gasoline.
Or quite frankly, to buy something from inside the store.
For people with disabilities, it's difficult to get in and out of our vehicle.
We can do it and we will do it if we have to.
But if you think about it, something as simple as getting gas it slows us down, our day is
already taking longer than the normal guy and this enables us to participate in life a little
bit more fully.
We come up here you reach out and touch the fuel call button.
Someone comes out from the inside and they're always cheerful and they want to offer
us something to drink.
Which, I'm either going to buy here or have to go down the street.
So it's so much easier it makes my day go a whole lot easier and more timely.
I can get all my stuff done and it's not just for me.
It's for seniors, it's for people who have difficulty with their hands who maybe they just
can't unscrew the fuel cap, or lift the fuel nozzle, or credit cards are hard to handle as
well. So when you look at something that simple, well why doesn't everybody do it?
It's not that expensive of a deal to do, there's tax credits to do it.
And we would just like to see every gas station put something like this is.
There used to be service gas.
Everybody did it and we got away from that.
And so what we have today is a self service environment.
And it's not full service, it's accessible service.
And I have yet to run into a convenience store worker who doesn't like the opportunity to
come out and give us a hand.
Well it's our Grand Opening but we're also trying to tell people that we have now installed the
Fuel Call at two of our pumps, pump one and pump two.
So that the handicapped or people who have trouble pumping their gas they can hit this
button and we provide the service, Monday through Sunday eight am to six pm.
And we'll come out and pump your gas and get anything else that you need from inside the store,
pop or soup.
or any of our hot items.
And we'll provide that for them and bring that out for them as well, so they don't have any
troubles getting out of their vehicle.
Well since we just took over ownership about two months ago, I'm from Waterford, so coming
into Farmington you try to feel your customer out and see what they need and stuff.
We do have a lot of elderly people that do come into the gas station.
So on top of the handicap part of it, just the elderly part, it's just a very nice service
for them.
To come out and be able to help them and kind of give them the customer service back as well.
I would hope that somebody will have facilities like this when I'm older or if something
happens to me.
I just think it's a great thing all around.
Basically it's a good thing and I mean my customers enjoy it and we've only had it a month and we
have at least three people a day that enjoy that service and people are amazed that we
provide that as we tell them about it.
Even when comes into the winter time, people don't want to get out of their cars, people that
have problems with it, or people with babies and stuff so it's a nice thing to provide your
customers.
Well, if you're like myself in a wheelchair it's almost impossible to pump your gas
cause a lot times the pumps are mounted on an island like these and so you can't get close to
the nozzle and then you need so much room to get in and out of your vehicle and sometimes your
vehicle is too far away from the gas nozzle.
And so you're almost at a huge disadvantage trying to make it work.
And so the beauty of the program is it allows you to communicate with gas station attendant in a
dignified manner.
In the past they would ask you to beep your horn or something, you no longer have to do that.
We have a website called the pump guide dot com.
And what we have done is work with the Michigan Department of Transportation and the petroleum
industry in Michigan and were have identified a thousand gas stations throughout Michigan
that are willing to provide refueling assistance at self serve prices.
The only dilemma we've had in the past is how do we communicate to them.
Say we're not in an are that we're familiar with or that their familiar with you.
And historically they've asked you to beep your horn but we prefer not using that option so
the fuel call is a more dignified means of communication between the driver and the gas
station attendant.
Well fuel call was developed by a company out of Chicago, Inclusion Solutions.
And they have about fie hundred of them throughout the United States.
We have about sixty of them here in Michigan.
The goal is to eventually have one in every community.
At least that's my goal.
And that would at least get people an option in their local communities so they won't have
to travel long distance to find this type of service.
We're a ways from being there and I just ask that anyone watching this program if they go
to a particular gas station to go up the people that operate that station and let them know
about this program and that there are tax incentives that are available and hopefully that
will encourage them to install one of these in that particular gas station.
Well the advantage that businesses get out of this are the tax breaks that help them or
tax incentives under the American with Disabilities Act.
When they passed the law they didn't want to just leave it as an unfunded mandate for the
businesses that would be left solely responsible for making their place accessible.
So they come up with tax incentives and one of those incentives allows a business to
deduct fifty percent or five thousand dollars.
And so let's say the item is ten thousand, two hundred fifty dollars, they can deduct five
thousand dollars from that and so they're getting it at a reduced rate.
You know when you look at the Iraqi Afghanistan conflicts, soldiers are surviving injuries
that they've never survived before because of the advancements in medical field
technology but with that comes the responsibility on our part to be able to compensate for
them.
And one of those responsibilities is that they want to be able to
independently, not only live in their communities but access to services that are in those
communities.