Dive Brief:
- RaceTrac has once again upgraded its in-store and forecourt technology amid a broader effort to improve its employee and customer experience, the convenience retailer announced this week.
- Inside the store, RaceTrac has tapped digital imaging firm Epson’s ColorWorks on-demand printers for its shelf tagging and product labeling operations. At the pump, the retailer has introduced a cardless payment option for professional truck drivers with the help of mobile financial services company WEX.
- Atlanta-based RaceTrac has been rapidly implementing tech upgrades in recent years. Since 2023, it has experimented with floor-scrubbing robots and a new edge computing platform, revamped its system servers for loyalty and payment processing and even installed smart toilet seats.
Dive Insight:
RaceTrac previously worked with a third-party provider for its product labeling. But as time progressed, the company “lacked flexibility and control in their shelf tag printing, which caused real business problems," said Rick Schilling, president of Integrated Productivity Systems, which manufactures the ColorWorks printers alongside Epson.
Switching to the ColorWorks printers reduced label production time “from weeks to less than two days,” according to the announcement. The new system lets RaceTrac view and adjust strip files before printing, which eliminates waste, ensures accuracy and saves time and money, said Jonah Whigham, space management manager at RaceTrac.
“Even though our shelf tags are durable, they sometimes get damaged,” Whigham said. “Now, if a store needs a replacement, we can print and ship it the next day. What used to take weeks now happens in real time."
Through its partnership with WEX, RaceTrac has added its travel centers and added the locations of its diesel offerings to the 10-4 mobile app, which lets drivers pay for fuel without the need for a physical card. The platform offers nationwide diesel discounts to truckers. It also doesn’t require a credit check, which makes it useful for drivers who may face barriers to obtaining other payment options, according to the announcement.
“With an expanding variety of payment methods at the pump, we hope to gain loyal customers and offer frictionless transactions with instant savings at the pump for all professional drivers — in whatever ways work best for their business,” said Nick LaFalce, fleet marketing manager for RaceTrac and its subsidiary, RaceWay.
