Making An Oil Business An Institution

Silver Flash, Western Oil Refining Co.

National Petroleum News - December 6, 1922

By V.B. Guthrie, Staff Representative

Making an institution of an oil jobbing business. Recall to your mind the towns, big and little, to which your travels have taken you the past few years and count on your fingers those where the Independent oil dealers’ places of business are pointed out to visitors, along with the First National bank, the library, the new high school, the big department store and another point of local interest or so.

You may argue that this is a position to which an Independent oil dealer can hardly aspire.  But the experience of the Western Oil Refining Co., has been to the contrary, if the conclusions of a more than casual observer are anything near correct.

When a young hurricane blew J.H. Trimble out of the lumber business and into the oil business 12 years ago he undoubtedly had no such ideal in mind.  He set out to sell good goods at a fair profit and treat his customers so they would come back.  His business policy and the enthusiasm and resourcefulness he and his associates, put into their work built up something around that business that is even more than good will, as the ordinary business firm defines it today. It is good will with and added to it, something of pride on the part of that share of the public in Indianapolis that comes in contact with that business.

The Trimble family- for the Western Oil Refining Co. is rather a family affair-diligently try to foster that intangible substance. For example, the headquarters of the company are located on property worth, probably, a quarter million within three blocks of the center of the city on the principal thoroughfare.  Meridian Street. Just a few doors farther out from them the framework is reaching up of what you are told is to be the finest athletic club in the country. Directly across Meridian Street from them is the city’s downtown park.

That property, with better than 150 feet fronting on Meridian street is improved-the word is used advisedly- with a service station that is more than ordinarily attractive; a fine old residence that has been made over without detracting from its appearance to house the company’s offices; and something that is an innovation for any oil company, a glass, arched-roofed oiling and greasing station covering about 3000 square feet.

The whole layout catches your attention and approval, even with the competition of business firms on Meridian Street.  In fact if your attention is taken with something else, whoever is doing the honors of the town for you is quite likely to catch you by the arm and vigorously direct your attention to it. It is one of the institutions of downtown Indianapolis and it gives every indication of being there to stay.
The same atmosphere, partly the result of conscious effort and partly unconsciously, has been built up around Silver Flash, the company’s principal motor fuel product. If you are a customer you are made to feel that this is something more that merely gasoline; that it is a commodity that has won its spurs in competition and is to be treated with respect and even consideration.

The uniformed pump boy at a Western Oil Refining stations does not slouch from the office to inquire nonchalantly, “How much gas?” or “How many gallons this morning?” when the motorist turns into the drive.  He steps out briskly and asks, “How many of Silver Flash?” He isn’t selling gasoline, he’s selling Silver Flash.

Attractive and imposing electric signs-they cost $600 apiece- bear only this message at every service station, “Silver Flash.” They do not tell you it is gasoline nor extol its qualities. The customer’s imagination, spurred by that sign and the general appearance of the station does the rest and gives the product some of the intangible attributes of an institution.

Certain features in connection with the style of architecture the company has adopted Mr. Trimble is seeking to restrict to the use of his company alone, solely for the purpose of giving it atmosphere and individuality. Ornamental pillars of brick and concrete, topped with artistic light globes, which are used at all stations are manufactured solely for this company’s use by agreement with the manufacturer.  Somebody else might copy them, but he would have to get some other manufacturer to design and make them. Again a peculiar and artistic type of roof bordering on a Japanese effect, which Mr. Trimble worked out himself, he is seeking to patent, entirely for the purpose of restricting its use to add to the individuality of his own stations.

When you are first ushered into Mr. Trimble’s own office, looking down on the bustling traffic on Meridian Street, your first impression is your cue to the methods on which he would build up his business. It’s an office, in that it was designed for efficient work, but it is artistic as well, with a few good pictures, such features as a concealed coat closet and hangings at the window your wife would make a mental note of, were she along with you.

Even before this the reader may have begun to chafe restively and interrupt in thought that this may all be very fine indeed, but what about the profit and loss side of the question? In confidence, he can have the writer’s word for it that the showing in recent months, the only record he has seen, is very well on the right side of the ledger.

16 Service Stations

Since that storm blew Mr. Trimble into the oil business 12 years ago the Western Oil Refining Co. has built up a business with 16 service stations in Indianapolis, 20 bulk stations at various points in Indiana with service stations at some of these towns; and has started a subsidiary company in Ohio, the Columbus Oil Co., with 18 bulk stations in that state.
Mr. Trimble is president; C.A. Laubach, a brother-in-law, is vice president, devoting his entire activities to the Columbus Oil Co.; Lucius French, a son-in-law, is secretary, putting in a good share of his time looking after the Indianapolis service stations; W.H. Trimble, a son, is a treasurer, and particularly building up the Indiana business outside Indianapolis and R.E. Trimble, another son, is general purchasing agent.

This year the company’s gasoline gallonage in Indianapolis has been exceeded by the Standard only during one month, and it is about three times as great as its next Independent competitor. The company’s quality motor fuel, Silver Flash, sells now at 24.8 cents a gallon, as against the Standard’s service station market of 20.4 cents. It handles what it terms a commercial grade of gasoline, Target, which sells at the regular station market. It does not push this grade, however, centering its sales and advertising effort on Silver Flash.

This quality of motor fuel is put out to the same specifications the year around. The end point and initial are the same in Winter and Summer. “We did not want to build an artificial gallonage by selling a more volatile product then dropping back to something like ordinary grades in the summer,” Mr. Trimble said.  “We believe that, if we sold a uniform product all 12 months, we could stand a better chance of holding our customers.  Our experience has borne this out.

“We are firm exponents of the doctrine of a quality product at a quality price, which is the only way to indicate to the customer it is a quality product. The farming trade taught us this lesson when I first started in business and we have never forgotten it.”

“We started in the secure kerosene trade from farmers, taking orders for a tank car and then shipping the car to a designated point and having the farmers who had ordered drive in and take the oil away. We first put our price at just half what the Standard was charging them for tank wagon deliveries.”

“The orders didn’t come in, though. The farmers were suspicious. If our kerosene was as good as we said it was, they argued, how could we sell it at such a low price. It looked too much like a confidence game. So we put our price up somewhat, but still at a good margin below the Standard’s price, and the orders began coming in.”

Impresses Dealer With Goods

The experience of the Western Oil Refining Co. with gasoline pumps to dealers has been the most interesting, inasmuch as the leasing and giving away of pumps by the big interests is right now one of the sore spots in the oil marketing business. This company to date has never put out a pump to an Indianapolis dealer on any other terms than direct purchase at the price of that equipment to the oil company.

First, the oil company keeps its dealers impressed with the fact that it is offering to them a motor fuel product which is increasing demand by the public on terms which allow them to handle it profitability.
When a dealer intimates that he has had a visit from an agent for one of the big companies, who has suggested the dealer’s pump equipment was getting shabby and that a new and up-to-date outfit might be forthcoming, the Western Oil Refining Co.’s salesman get after him with a argument that has been developed in the home office. That dealer is shown that, the minute he accepts a pump from anyone, he loses independence and becomes virtually an agent of the company giving him the pump, that he must sell that companies gasoline, regardless as to whether or not it is what the public is asking for.

Those salesmen point out that the dealer may have a hard time explaining to his customers just why he is selling that particular brand of gasoline; that he is in reality, only competing with the service stations of that company which put the pump inform him and that the sales effort of that company is towards pulling trade to its own service stations.

The salesmen point out also that their company is constantly advertising its quality product in paid newspaper space to build up its dealers’ trade. At points where it has no service stations, the names of dealers are carried in that newspaper space, which is, of course paid for by the oil company. Not a week is allowed to elapse at any point where Western Oil Refining Co. gasoline is sold, without the appearance of newspaper advertising, talking the quality of Silver Flash.

Service Stations Standardized

When that storm blew Mr. Trimble from a lumber dealer to an oil man and he lighted in Indianapolis he started first to develop business in the farming districts, but early saw the possibilities in gasoline service stations. “I turned over in my mind my idea of what a service station ought to be and finally called in an architect to draw up some plans. He could not visualize my idea, so I turned to an artist,” Mr. Trimble started. “We staked out a lot and he painted what I thought ought to go on that lot to make an attractive and yet efficient station property.

“He repainted it several times, as my ideas changed.  Then I took his picture to my office and kept it there a month studying it.  Then I figured it was ready to go ahead and build a station.”

The company has now standardized not only the station building itself, but decorative architectural features as well, such as pillars with lamps, designs for drives and curbs, fences at the rear of properties and so on. Decorative features are extensively carried out at its stations on boulevards and in exclusive residence sections. One station has a pretentious fountain with electric lighting features, and summer arbor effects.

At all stations a point is made to have extra room for grass plots and these are kept closely trimmed and scrupulously clean, the contrasting effect with the station drives being particularly pleasing. Mr. Trimble impresses on his employee’s cleanliness and order about all station properties to such a degree he himself says he is called a crank on the subject.
“But it makes me money,” he says, “and I can well afford to be called a crank.” I want everything I have to be put out of sight and not tucked away in some basement or back of a building. If I insist on everything being kept in order, there is no place for stuff to accumulate that is not moving. If it is out in plain sight we are going to keep after it and move it, sell it, or dispose of it some way and turn over our investment.”

All filling stations employees are uniformed. In the winter they wear khaki with leather puttees.  The words Silver Flash are in red across the front of the shirt. The uniforms are changed three times a week. The company pays for the uniforms and launders them.  They last about eight months. In the summer white shirts with short sleeves and black ties are substituted for the heavy khaki shirts worn in the winter.

The company uses cashiers at all stations, the cashiers working in shifts of six hours each and each having his own crew of pump boys. The cashier is the sole operating head of the station when he is on duty.

There is a station auditor who checks over the preceding day’s business the first thing in the morning and makes the rounds of the stations at six in the evening to collect the receipts. By a special arrangement with a bank these receipts are carried direct to the bank’s vaults.  This arrangement was adopted when station robberies were numerous. If a cashier’s accounts at a station on any day do not check with inventories almost to the penny, the cashier is called to the main office for an explanation.

All station business is cash or on coupon books. No accounts are carried even for employees. Mr. Trimble cites with pride it would be impossible for even his wife to drive to a station and get gasoline without cash or coupons. A meter inspector checks pumps daily, and a mechanic is kept to inspect piping at stations and the company’s bulk station.

The company has adopted the plan of painting telephone poles and light poles fronting on station properties white for about six feet from the ground, topped by a bright red band a foot or 18 inches wide. It is surprising how far down the street those painted poles can be seen.

Mr. Trimble is particularly proud of his bulk station, situated along the Illinois Central. His light oil storage is entirely within brick walls. In fact, not a storage tank can be seen on the property. Small storage tanks at the truck loading rack are also in a fire proof housing. The grounds are as spick and span as at any of his services stations.

Delivery of lub oils in special trucks is featured. For the use of its country dealers the company is putting into service specially designed trucks holding six heavy 60-gallon drums with large faucets, the drums being carried on their sides on the trucks so that three faucets are on each side. Deliveries are made to rural garages and other customers with these trucks which has done away with shipping by freight to these customers and has thus let the oil company put this class of business on a cash basis.

Oh, yes – that storm put Mr. Trimble into the oil business. About all his capital was tied up in standing timber 12 years or so ago, after he had spent many years accumulating it. A heavy wind blew about all his timber down one night. He decided he didn’t want to stay in a business so hazardous as this; so he looked around and decided to try the oil business and picked on Indianapolis as his scene of activities. Mr. Trimble’s selection of the Independent oil businesses as one less hazardous than lumber might be looked upon as humorous by some in the former business; but Mr. Trimble is satisfied.

Glass-Domed Oiling Pit Has Space for 20 Cars

Indianapolis, Nov. 29 - The latest idea in lubricating and greasing stations, a rapidly expanding development of the oil marketing business, has been opened to the public within the last few weeks by the Western Oil Refining Co. This is a 20-car, arched roof station, the sides and top being made entirely of glass, making the station appear at first glance more like a large conservatory than anything else.

This station is about 66 feet deep by 45 feet wide giving a ground floor space of nearly 3,000 square feet. Both ends of the station are open about two-thirds of the way to the top of the arch. There are five driveways, each with a capacity of four cars. The station is located in the Western Oil Refining Co’s main downtown property at Meridian and New York streets in the very heart of congested traffic. It is entirely fireproof, of course, and its unique appearance has already attracted much attention among Indianapolis motorists.  J.H. Trimble, president of the company, says the station is already operating at a profit, despite its high overhead cost.

The company advertises a free crankcase drainage service at the station; but all other services are put on a flat basis, the charge including both the oil and the grease.  The rates it has adopted at present are:

• Replenishing transmission for all cars without draining, 50 cents.
• Cleaning with kerosene and refilling transmission, for all cars, $1.50
• Same charges apply for differential as for transmission service.
• For filling oil and grease cups and holds the charge for Fords is 75 cents. Cadillacs, Pierce-Arrows, Locomobile and Peerless cars, equipped with the pressure lubricating systems are charged $1.50, without pressure systems $2. All other cars, if fitted with pressure systems, cost $1, if not so equipped $1.25
• For applying penetrating oil to springs with brush, Fords are charged 25 cents, all other cars 50 cents.

Mr. Trimble is very decidedly of the opinion the oil company should charge for the service as well as the oil and grease, except for crankcase draining and replenishing, which takes but little time and means the purchase of a sufficient amount of oil to make the deal profitable for the sale of oil alone.

He has put the charge on a flat rate, for various grades of cars, regardless of the amount of oil or grease consumed, on the theory that this is most satisfactory to the customer and also because it very much simplifies the matter of accounting at the station.

A sales ticket is filled out in duplicate by the operator, for each car handled, and signed by the customer, giving all items of service rendered the car. One ticket is given the customer as his receipt. The amount on the ticket must tally with the amount rung up on the cash register. The sales ticket bears the license number of the car. Record is kept at the main office of the oil company of the date the car was given service and what particular items of service were rendered. After enough time has elapsed to allow the car to run up 500 miles, if driven about as the average driver handles his car, on Oiling Notification Card is mailed the owner, which reads: “We believe you have undoubtedly driven your car more than 500 miles since we have changed the oil in your crankcase. The (name of make of car filled in) factory recommends that the oil be changed after that distance. For your information your speedometer read____miles when you were last at our Crankcase Station, so you can readily check your mileage. This notification is supplied as a part of our regular service and to assist you in properly caring for your car.”

“Our idea in sending out these cars was to impress the motorist with the service we were ready to render him, but not to give him the idea we were trying to force the service on him,” stated Mr. Trimble. “If history shows any inclination to let the matter drop our sales force makes no attempt to keep after him.”

The chief feature in the operation of the station is the elimination of the conventional type of oil pit with a pit under each opening. The basement is one room, with facilities provided to allow the attendant to work on a car as conveniently as possible. The old oil is drained into swing basins allowing cars to be driven to any point on the runways. Wooden platform two feet or so higher than the basement floor can be quickly slipped into place at any point under the runways and adjusted for height, allowing an attendant to reach differential and transmission housings with greater ease.

The swinging basins catching the old oil are all connected by pipes carried on the basement ceiling to one storage tank. Oil can be pumped from this tank to tank trucks and this old oil is sold for fuel, no effort being made to reclaim it.

All attendants are uniformed, as at the company’s filling stations. The man in charge of the lubrication station has had much experience in automobile repair work. He gives the attendants special training before they are allowed to handle cars alone.

Special lighting arrangements, with lamps under the glass roof, provide for attractive display at night and a 60-foot electric sign is mounted at the peak of the roof.

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