Owning Your Own Depot in South Africa

One of the toughest parts about starting or owning your own companies, is if you don’t have true guidance or leadership available. This should not be a worry though, as the successful and experienced team at GASPET is always willing to lend a helping hand. Think of the team at GASPET as your mentors. GASPET’s goals within the company is to assist possible potential customers with their experienced and helpful team. Their desire as a team at GASPET is to build long-lasting customer relationships, so you’re in good hands! GASPET has many years of experience in the industry, selling bulk wholesale petroleum within the local South African industry.

To be successful in any industry, it is not a necessity, but rather advisable to have some form of experience to succeed especially long term wise. This is also the case for any person who aspire to own their own depot. The daily activities as an owner would require you to make use of certain requirements to be successful. GASPET offers and could recommend training facilities to prepare any future business owners, including several systems for point of sales such as wetstock management systems.

The first step to start the process of owning your own depot is to determine if it will be a retail depot site or wholesale depot site (Take note: According to South African law you are not allowed to be an owner of both, only either or).

Next, before there’s any confusion, let’s quickly state the difference between a petrol station and a depot. There’s 2 types of depots:

1. Retail Depot Site:

  • Fuel station (Also known as petrol station) are where average cars/vehicles refuel, cars don’t want to see larger vehicles when refueling.
  • Requirements will be exactly the same as retail fuel station.
  • Allowed to dispense fuel to the maximum amount of 1 500L per transaction; any truck can refuel, retail depot is open to public.

2. Wholesale Depot Sites:

  • Heavy vehicles like trucks refuel here
  • Specialises in trucks, therefore time consuming to refill, and requires bigger pumps etc.
  • Only allowed to dispense fuel with a minimum 1 500L per transaction; specific client accounts, so wholesale depot is not open to public.

As you might know, the petroleum industry, like many other industries, has key terms and information which is necessary to pursue a successful operation, read the following for clarification.

  • According to the department of energy South Africa, a petroleum wholesale license allows you to buy petroleum products in bulk from 1 500 litres or more per transaction of petroleum products, from a licensed manufacturer and to sell it to end users, this license is valid for as long as your business operates. Find a consultant who specialises in assisting of acquiring licenses, such as ‘Petro Consult’. These consultants have a list to help you meet the requirements, to be able to apply.
  • A retail licence refers to any licence being supplied to an individual who purchases and sells products such as petroleum, to consumers at an authorised site.
  • A site licence refers to a licence issued for any land or property which is owned by a person with the intent of trading petroleum products. You can contact ‘Petro Consult’.
  • Environmental clearance can be obtained from the South African Department of environmental affairs.

It will be advisable to have a business plan, whether you plan on opening a retail depot or wholesale depot, as you will have to submit a business plan to the Department of Energy of South Africa eventually as part of your application process. Take into consideration the suggested average amount of capital to have to start with the process of owning your own depot, excluding land, is at a minimum R350 000.

With any new depot’s opening, GASPET is prepared to happily assist any new client with tanks, pumps, assistance with installation of policies and procedures, and much more! If the specific requirements regarding certifications and capital requirements are ready and available, GASPET will help you start as soon as possible. Feel free to contact GASPET at any time for more information, and they will gladly help you with this journey!