For the past 13 years Jonathan Usher has been overseeing 14 service stations across the southern South Island and working as a magician. Residing in Cromwell, Central Otago he continues to perform magic shows every week, while travelling between service stations.
“I started late because I saw my first magic trick at 29 years of age and did my first show at 32. I was a banker at the time.”
This year, he was awarded a King’s Service Medal for services to the community and entertainment. But while performing is a passion for Usher, what really gets him out of bed in the morning is helping people and getting amongst the community.
Myriad groups have benefited from his generous nature including youth organisations, disaster relief, sports, elderly and healthcare charities. It was this aspect of Z Energy’s modus operandi that drew him to the company, he says.
He recalls that when the Middle East crisis flared up in late February fuel supplies kept flowing but some worried customers started buying more than they normally would.
Uncertainty was further fuelled by headlines and rising prices at the pump – driven by ongoing volatility in global energy markets and increasing international refined fuel costs.
While fuel continued to flow, some parts of the market – particularly commercial users reliant on diesel – did feel the strain at times, as teams worked efficiently and safely to move product through the network and restore supply.
Throughout the weeks of supply announcements and daily news footage of enormous tankers idling in a featureless landscape on the other side of the globe, southerners kept their cool and carried on.
The early spell of ‘panic buying’ reduced quickly across much of the region, although demand remained elevated in some areas and sectors for longer.
We’re confident Z Energy’s connection with local communities through our retail sites played a part, with staff and customers taking it all in their stride, says Usher.
“Our customers have been amazing. They know it’s circumstances beyond anyone’s control in this country, it has all been an impact of the war”.
He says staff hadn’t experienced many incidents of behavior changes from frustrated customers, and training and security measures were already a high priority. In all areas, even where there is little crime like Cromwell, sites are fitted with fog cannons, safe rooms, monitored alarms and a multitude of security cameras.
“The other rumour that goes around is more people are driving off without paying. We haven’t seen that either. There’s been a couple of incidents but nothing out of the ordinary. I don’t doubt though, that people are doing it tough right now with the price of fuel and that’s a worrying thing.”
The majority of Z’s service stations have tanks under their forecourts, each holding 30,000 to 50,000 litres.
MOVe logistics, the company that helps distribute Z’s fuel from its terminals to its sites, monitored these remotely, and can get alerts when sites need to be restocked from the closest terminals.
However, there were times where panic buying ultimately caused some stations to run out of fuel as the trucks on the road couldn’t quite keep up.
As New Zealand’s largest fuel importer, Z operates its fuel supply chain independently and sources refined fuel through its parent company, Ampol.
Prices varied from site to site – which is standard practice, reflecting costs such as freight and local market conditions – but one figure that remained the same everywhere was the $5000 Good in the Hood donation handed out from every Z service station in the country.
Usher says four community groups per site are represented in each funding round and customers vote for their favourite. The votes dictate how the money is split between the groups and having a wide range of recipients means it permeates throughout the community.
In Gore, groups like Hug a Rig Day and Good Bitches Baking were among recent selections, in Invercargill there was Plunket, Youthline and Chatbus. Baby and youth organisations featured in Queenstown and recent Cromwell groups include the newly formed Central Otago Resilience Trust and Age Concern.
“I love that stuff. You do it because you should do it and it’s definitely what attracted me to Z.”
Usher says there was no way of knowing how long the Middle East crisis would continue or what the effects would be on fuel but currently the situation was stable, in his patch anyway.
“From a retail point of view it’s business as usual and from a supply point of view, I know the Z team remains focused on ensuring supplying continuity for Aotearoa”.
At Frankton, near Queenstown Airport, the same calm was holding at one of Z Energy’s busiest forecourts.
Fuel fears barely dent Frankton’s daily rush
Z Queenstown is a very busy and cosmopolitan service station which sees queues of vehicles move through all eight pumps most of the day, seven days a week.
Eighty-five percent of customers are tourists and it’s not unheard of for the station to sell 1500 litres of petrol in the space of 45 minutes, site leader Steve Aughney says.
Aughney, who is Southern Irish, leads 10 staff, only one of whom was born in New Zealand. The bulk of customers are also from overseas giving the bustling business a distinct international holiday vibe.
“I’m coming up to three years here as site leader but I actually started with Z when I arrived in New Zealand 16 years ago.”
Situated on notoriously congested Frankton Road, Aughney says traffic comes to a standstill passing the site every morning and afternoon and there’s never a dull moment. Many tourists were experiencing their first time behind the wheel of a campervan or driving on the opposite side of the road from normal.
“If you can drive here, you can drive anywhere!”
The rhythm of day’s business starts with workers commuting from 6am followed by a wave of tourists who have checked out of their hotels in Queenstown around 10am, through a lunchtime rush to the main afternoon and early evening nose-to-tail standstills.
Aughney felt that the tourist numbers were climbing and campervans and rental cars constantly flowed through the forecourt.
“Everybody sort of panics coming out of town and they see us and think I better fill up, so it’s a perfect site for us.”
When the fuel crisis occurred the tourist-dominated site didn’t see much of a difference in daily operations.
“It’s not that they don’t care about fuel prices but it’s just not their main focus.”
One change in behaviour Aughney did witness was when some areas experienced diesel supply constraints across the south and truckies began shopping around for places to fill up. Rubbish trucks, supermarket supply trucks and heavy machinery started joining the queues at the busy site.
The underground tanks ran dry on three occasions, Aughney says, but only for a few hours, at a site where demand is such that supply trucks can be required to fill the holding tanks twice a day.
People took the situation in their stride and behaviour was little different from the fairly unique everyday bustle.
Staff often had to help with things like locating and opening fuel latches and choosing the correct fuel. Drive-offs did happen but were accidental as tourists grappled with autopay systems different to those in their home countries.
The site can serve around 200 barista coffees every day and happily answer as many “random” questions.
“We try and get people through as quickly as we can. Most people are fine, the odd person will get a bit grumpy but that’s just customer service. If you’re on holiday you’re generally here to relax; most things don’t bother you.”
Aughney thrives on the humour and lively atmosphere of the site and says despite prices still fluctuating, having a fuel crisis in the background had become the norm.
“I like it here, as a site leader I’m one of those who will jump into any shift. I like customer service and I’ve always been in customer service. You never know what’s going to happen day-to-day. You might have the most randomist of questions or you might meet the most randomist of people and that’s probably the best part of the job.”
