Abstract:

The Polish gas stations lack labour because of the good economic situation in Poland and the migration of workers to other EU countries, especially those with vocational education. This makes entrepreneurs face the challenge to change their processes to be less dependent on the workforce. It leads to improvements based on technological innovations, e.g. self-service payment for fuel with the use of touchscreens. The aim of this paper is to present an innovative approach - The Smart Payment Terminal (SPT) as an answer to labour problems and as both product and process innovation in the fuel selling process at gas stations in Poland. Basic function and technical information of SPT are presented. The work has R&D character. The main contribution is developing the innovative Smart Payment Terminal that allows payment with cash, credit cards or fleet cards, or using a special code worth the rest of the money remaining in advance cash payments, as the machine does not give change. It prints receipts or invoices, depending on the customer’s choice. This innovation will make the selling process more fluent and user-friendly. Moreover, it will allow the company to reduce costs and be more independent from the lack of labour.