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70 71 drogen cars, and then, to do it very carefully.“You need to continue to build infrastructure as the cars arrive to provide fueling of hydrogen, but you don’t want to overbuild the infrastructure because then you have stations sitting, and there’s just no way to get a return on your investment,”he relates. Armed with the knowledge of the current volatile state of the alternative fuel market, Bennett Pump has, nonetheless,made a much larger investment in it than its competitors.“It seemed natural for us to take advantage of it, and, frankly, in the past five or six years, it’s been a substantial part of our business and our profitability,”Collier asserts.“In fact,we’re the only company in North America that makes a frame-to-fin- ish range of fuel dispensers for alternative fuels, and the result of that has been very good for us.” Collier adds that some things that are currently happening in the alternative fuels sector are both interesting and, potentially, game-changing: “Toyota, Freightliner, and a company called Nikola–they’re all vying for position in over-the-road transportation with hydrogen.Hydrogen provides an awful lot of energy from a small amount of fuel.And the result of that is, if they can get some infrastructure built, and continue the investment in that product, and if oil prices stay high–a lot of variables–this is a really good time to be in that industry, from every aspect; even for the company Nikola,which is a startup company in Utah that is building a semi-truck that is 100 percent hy- drogen-driven, and is more powerful and cleaner com- pared to the most expensive, elite semi-truck built. It’s just that much better, including the distance that it will go on a load of hydrogen fuel. So, if they’re suc- cessful, and I hope they are, they would revolutionize that part of transportation-not dissimilar to the way that Elon Musk has revolutionized the auto industry with electric cars.” Meanwhile, Bennett Pump continues to develop its current relationships with its traditional fuel custom- ers–both the major oil companies,who some years THE BENNETT PUMP COMPANY HT Global Circuits is a global solution provider of comprehensive printed circuit board technologies delivered from strategically located manufacturing facilities to customer locations anywhere in the world. We are passionate about customer care; our number one goal is meeting our customer’s expectation through flaw- less execution backed by our philosophy of “excellence in everything we do”. We are committed to delivering technologically demanding printed circuit boards with a “best-in-class” quality that is monitored real time, by a leading edge process control system. www.htglobalcircuits.com Phone: 727.327.6236•Fax: 727.369.1223 E-Mail: sales@htglobalcircuits.com Quotes: online-quote@htglobalcircuits.com (Europe offices) sales@htg-europe.com (China offices) china@htglobalcircuits.com (Jordan offices) sales@httalents.com ago divested themselves of their retail operations, but still maintain some control over their branded fuel products, as well as their independent retailers who ultimatelymake the buying decisions about which brand of dispenser they want to purchase.“A Shell retailer, today, isn’t owned by the Shell Oil Company,” Collier avers.“They’re either owned by an independent operator or group.And that’s the same with all major oil companies. So,we still do business with the major oil companies on the basis that they have to approve and determine that the brand that we’re offering to the retailers is one they’re willing to support.” Collier believes that Bennett Pump has an advan- tage in the marketplace because it is nimble enough to manage changes in the industry very quickly with innovative solutions.“For example, some years ago,we heard a lot of complaints from our customers telling us that the grade-select buttons–the plastic buttons on the dispenser that you push to select your grade– were very expensive to replace,”he begins.“Consumers were hitting themwith the nozzle,theybreak,and it’s a pretty significant bill.So,wewent in,determined to change that particular environment so that the dispenser grade-select buttons were indestructible.Andwe are the onlymanufacturer to use a stainless steel,non-moving, proximity-sensing,grade-select button.It’s a non-moving part-you don’t have to touch the button,at all.It was the right thing to do,and it changed thewholementalityof grade-select buttons.It actuallyput a lot of pressure on our competitors to upgrade their grade-select buttons to bemore robust,as well.So,we lend value in terms of the customer having a lower cost of ownership and a higher return on their investment,based on the productivityof their dispenser.”