Wayne Lines Up Kroger Fuel Pump EMV Transition And Earns First Data EMV OK

By Kevin Woodward
@DTPaymentNews

With the deadline for EMV compliance for fuel resellers a year away, fuel-pump maker Wayne Fueling Systems LLC is readying its products for the transition from magnetic-stripe payment cards.

Wayne says its NAMOS point-of-sale system is now available for EMV transactions on First Data Corp.’s network, and it will provide the EMV upgrade for 10,000 fuel dispensers at more than 2,100 U.S. locations operated by The Kroger Co.

The Kroger deal sees Austin, Texas-based Wayne providing an EMV-compliant retrofit kit that works with many fuel dispensers. Wayne is providing full installation services for the project, which is getting under way this week. Of Kroger’s more than 2,700 supermarkets, 1,387 sell gasoline, and the company operates directly or through a franchise 784 convenience stores, as of the end of 2015 according to the Kroger 2015 Fact Book.

The NAMOS POS system is available now for merchants processing EMV transactions via First Data. Wayne has been testing the service, which includes POS hardware from Diebold Nixdorf, with several independent retailers since March.

Among the 150,000 retail fueling sites in the United States, 125,000 belong to convenience stores, according to Chicago-based W. Capra Consulting Group.

Meanwhile, fuel pumps account for a healthy chunk of electronic payments. Of all fuel sales, 75% are paid for with debit, credit, fleet, and private-label cards, accounting for 12% of all U.S. card-based dollar volume, the consulting firm says.

Fuel marketers were given two additional years beyond the POS EMV liability shift because of the complicated nature of payment acceptance at fuel dispensers. Their pump-management systems have to tie into POS software that receives payment data from in-store and at-the-pump card readers.

That complication increases EMV costs for operators. Complete replacement of dispensers with brand-new EMV-capable models could cost $50,000 to $80,000 or even higher, depending on the age of their dispensers and related infrastructure,” says Terry Mahoney, a partner at W. Capra, in “How Ready Are They?” the cover story in the October issue of Digital Transactions magazine.