TFCA - Tennessee Fuel & Convenience Store Association

About TFCA

TFCA Members Make Voices Heard in Washington

Several TFCA members took part in PMAA’s Washington Conference and Day on the Hill in May. Those visiting Tennessee’s congressional delegation were: TFCA President John Jewell IV, Mark and Donna McBride, Brittany Fulcher, Mike and Cathy Cox, Betsy Appleton, Rod Issacs, John Kelly, Chuck and Sherry Meek, Ronnie and Cheri Hollingsworth, Allen and Becky Hanks, Mark Radosevich and TFCA Executive Director Emily LeRoy.

Our members visited every office and discussed a number of important issues of importance to marketers, including credit card interchange fees, financial reform legislation, the health care bill and approval of E15.

Thanks to everyone who participated and did such a great job representing all TFCA members. Click here to see more photos of TFCA’s visit to Washington.

TFCA Adds New Resources to Website

We’ve added several new items and links to the TFCA website in an effort to keep our members better informed about happenings in the petroleum industry.

Please check out the updated Resources section at left for information on FMCSA’s briefing on CSA 2010 and the agency’s Webinar on the new Pre-employment Screening Program, as well as the Tennessee Department of Agriculture’s recent Ethanol Fuels Workshop. Members who sell ethanol products will want to share the latter link with their dealers and other interested parties.

The website is updated frequently, so be sure to visit often to stay abreast of legislative trends, regulatory changes and educational events that can have a significant impact on your company’s bottom line!

Workshop Helps Bring Clarity to Ethanol Fuels Compliance Issues

More than 100 fuel suppliers, retailers, terminal operators, fleet managers and other interested parties attended an Ethanol Fuels Workshop co-sponsored by TFCA and the Tennessee Petroleum Council on Wednesday, April 28, 2010, at Ellington Agricultural Center in Nashville. The purpose of the event, entitled "Ethanol Fuels Workshop 2010: Meeting the Demands of Fuel Standards With Ethanol," was to assist those selling ethanol blends with compliance issues and problems.

The daylong workshop - sponsored by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, Regulatory Services Division, in partnership with Clean Cities of Tennessee, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and Tennessee Department of Transportation - was offered free to TFCA members and attracted a large contingent of members from across the state.

Click on the following links to see a synopsis of the educational presentations:

Iowa Association Offers Help to RIN Owners

Reminder to those of you who are blending biofuels: The Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Stores of Iowa has a program to help you market and sell your RIN credits. The RINAlliance can also help you with the accounting, documenting and auditing requirements for RIN owners.

Several TFCA members are utilizing the RINAlliance, and it comes highly recommended. Click here to see a brochure on the program along with contact information.

TFCA Aids Push to Reduce Minors' Access to Tobacco

TFCA is working with a group of state agencies to help reduce the violation rate for minor access to tobacco.

Unfortunately, the noncompliance rate has risen in Tennessee from a low of 13 percent to 17.5 percent noncompliance. This should be of concern to us all. In the next few months, we will be offering a series of ideas to help reduce the noncompliance rate.

Obviously retailers can be a big part of this by TRAINING your clerks. The Tennessee Department of Agriculture offers online training at: http://training.wecard.com/welcome/tda.html

Many of you do have training programs in place - but it's important to emphasize tobacco carding at the manager and clerk levels.

To see a brochure on the online training program, click here.

Bottle Deposit Would Be an Expensive Disaster for Tennessee

Bottle deposit legislation has reared its ugly head again in the Tennessee legislature. In this version, the retailer is supposed to charge the 5-cent deposit to the consumer after sales tax. Also, if the bill passes, it would require retailers with inventory on hand - but not already containing the deposit information - to purchase from the Department of Revenue a 5-cent-deposit sticker to affix to every container.

Bottle deposit is a bad idea for Tennessee. Click here to see why.