Who owns the most petrol stations in South Africa?

CAPE TOWN – Sasol appears to the be petrol station of choice for most South Africans according to the latest Explore findings, by data and research group Lightstone, who partnered with Tracker to conduct the study.

The report showed that Sasol is the most popular service station in the country.  In a joint venture, Lightstone Explore with Tracker, analysed about 2.5 million vehicle trips Tracker customers take every day.

Across the country, Lightstone Explore has built up a database of 3,155 service stations.

The trip data provided to Lightstone by Tracker revealed the following:

1.Where vehicle users fill up their vehicles

2. Which service stations they rather drive past

3. How long they spend at a service station on average?

According to the data, Sasol service stations attract the most consumers, despite not having the highest number of service stations in South Africa.

Lightstone has said that over the past three months, Sasol has the highest visit ratio of 4,221 visits to each of its 294 service stations.

“Considering the number of customers stopping at service stations, compared with those opting to drive by a service station – called the conversion ratio – it appears Sasol is the most successful in ensuring drivers pull in at their forecourts,” said Lightstone.

In second place, Shell service stations are deemed the second most attractive brand with 3,505 visits at 528 sites. In the past three months, the mentioned service stations have had 9.8 million vehicles fitted with Tracker devices, pull up at the pumps, which is an average of 3,117 visits per service station.

Here are the ratios of each station:

– Sasol at 6.2%;

– Shell at 5.8%;

– Engen at 5.3%;

– BP at 4.9%;

– and Caltex at 4.3%.

In SA, Engen has the largest service station network in South Africa with 861 sites. However, it only received a conversion rate of 5.3%.

A new joint venture between data and research group Lightstone and car tracking company Tracker, has provided insights into the driving habits of hundreds of thousands of motorists in South Africa, and related industries.

Lightstone Explore formed a 50/50 joint venture with Tracker, in which Lightstone analysed the 2.5 million vehicle trips Tracker customers undertake every day.

This amounts to 450,000 vehicles and 37 million km a day throughout South Africa.

While the data collected by Lightstone and Tracker is only reflective of motorists who have Trackers installed, the data group says that the numbers are high enough to be statistically reflective of the wider motoring population in the country.

Lightstone Explore has built up a database of 3,155 accurately plotted service stations across the country. Combined with the data from Tracker – which comprises the start and completion points of every trip, vehicle IDs and values – it is able to determine which service stations in the country are the most popular.

The trip data provided to Lightstone by Tracker reveals where vehicle users fill up their vehicles, which service stations they rather drive past, and how long they spend at a service station on average.

Unsurprisingly, the busiest service stations are around populous regions, and are often found on main routes along national highways – particularly in and around Gauteng.

Shell Ultra City Jacaranda in Midrand, along the N1 north, drives the most traffic in the country having seen 35,249 Tracker owners visit between August and November 2017.

Its ‘partner’ station, Shell Ultra City Golden City in Midrand along the N1 south, attracted 33,107 drivers over the same period.

Looking at the 20 busiest petrol stations, Shell accounted for seven of the most visited, followed by Engen (5), Total (4) and Sasol and BP (2 each).

It should be noted that the figures reflect absolute numbers and don’t take into account the different Tracker penetrations in the country.

These are the 20 busiest service stations across the country: