Tuffnells Parcels Express is one of the UK’s longest serving national freight carriers with over 100 years’ experience in driving businesses forward.
As part of the £billion Connect Group, the company has built an enviable brand reputation for the provision of competitively priced services for customers throughout the UK and overseas. Their vehicles, branded ‘Big Green Parcel Machines’, are a familiar sight on British roads.
Tuffnells Parcels Express continues to update and expand its operational network and there are plans to open six new depots during the next two years.
“Fuelling the company’s road transport fleet is key to the company’s commitment to reliability,” explains head of management services, David Emsen.
“We want to ensure that the business has absolute control of this vital resource. This includes the provision of a contingency buffer against any possible disruption of fuel supplies because of events beyond our influence.”
Depot fuelling has been an integral part of the company’s infrastructure for more than 25 years. Currently 40 Tuffnells depots are equipped with diesel fuelling facilities. Merridale fuel management was introduced ten years ago as part of a group initiative to standardise this important administrative process.
David Emsen continues “This infrastructure is under continuous review to ensure that it meets the current operational requirements, not only locally, but also as part of the national network. Historically, fuel management was localised and the depots were responsible for their own vehicles. A separate ‘visitors key’ account was set up to cover fuelling of vehicles from other depots.
“We have made the switch over to Merridale FuelWorks, which is a common web-based platform serving the entire network. This means that the driver of any Tuffnells vehicle can draw fuel at any of the group’s depots. As well as tightening up fuel usage monitoring, this measure has eliminated the risk of unauthorised fuelling, by taking out the need for a ‘visitors key'.
“Fuel is now being procured on a group basis and the depots are charged on the usage of their vehicles irrespective of where they fuelled. Depots are required to monitor stock levels and inform the head office when to reorder. We have achieved further economies by installing larger tanks at the hub depots. This additional capacity enables us to obtain best possible bulk prices for complete tanker deliveries instead of partial loads.”
“Fuel is the life blood of our business and the Merridale service enables our Fleet department to account for every litre. Using Merridale FuelWorks we can create fleet statistics to analyse vehicle fuel consumption over different routes and combinations for trunking, rural or urban deliveries.“
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