Bulk diesel supplies – strategic resilience and cost management

Fuel is the most significant on cost for all transport operators. As the business grows, so does the fuel bill and its potential to impact on profitability.

If there is space for a storage tank on the premises, then there will be a case for purchasing bulk supplies.

• You can negotiate discount prices and save on time wasted, as well as risks involved in using card accounts with retail filling stations.
• Apart from being more convenient, you can also show this as a positive measure to reduce fuel consumption and therefore harmful CO2 emissions within the neighbourhood.
• Having a reserve stock of fuel also provides a degree of resilience should there be any disruption to the national supply chain.

Having made the decision to install a diesel storage tank, the fleet manager’s immediate concerns will be security, fuel usage and stock control. There are strict environmental regulations concerning the storage of oil, so the first point of call should be a qualified installation supplier. As well as a suitable self bunded tank, this should also be equipped with alarms to prevent overfilling and instrumentation for leak monitoring.

An integrated fuel management system provides this facility by reconciling fuel stock against usage. Together with electronic contents measurements this provides a continual check on the integrity of the tank. Depending on usage and the size of the fleet then other considerations such as data analysis and reports will come into play.

Fuel management software is used to record how much fuel is put into each vehicle and how this relates to costs incurred against a particular project or customer account. The information from the pump monitor is relayed to the back office computer.  Only authorised staff with designated vehicle/product keys can access the fuel, thereby eliminating opportunities for theft and abuse.

Wetstock contents are monitored electronically. The overall process involves data collection and communications and as a system, this can be scaled up, enabling multiple depots to be managed centrally.

Every fuelling transaction is validated and the system records fuel drawn and vehicle mileage. The data can be processed to create reports which can be customised to meet the requirements of different departments - depot managers – fleet managers – contracts administrators and finance.