Environmental Benefits:

HVO is a cleaner-burning fuel compared to diesel. It produces significantly fewer greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide (CO2), particulate matter, and nitrogen oxides (NOx). This aligns with councils' efforts to combat climate change and meet emissions reduction targets.

Lower emissions from HVO contribute to better air quality in urban areas, which is essential for public health. Reduced levels of particulate matter and NOx help decrease respiratory problems and other health issues associated with poor air quality.

HVO can be produced from renewable sources such as vegetable oils and animal fats, which makes it a more sustainable option compared to conventional diesel derived from fossil fuels.

Energy Security:

Councils are increasingly seeking to reduce dependence on fossil fuels for their fleets and public transportation systems. HVO provides an alternative that can be produced domestically, reducing reliance on imported oil and enhancing energy security.

Compatibility and Infrastructure:

HVO can be used as a drop-in replacement for diesel in existing diesel engines and infrastructure, which makes the transition relatively straightforward for councils without requiring significant infrastructure investments. Merridale pumps and equipment are fully compatible with HVO fuel, so whether it’s a brand-new installation or an upgrade to an existing Merridale installation, the chances are we can help.

Long-term Cost Savings:

While HVO can sometimes be more expensive than conventional diesel on a per-liter basis, its price tends to be more stable, as it is less influenced by fluctuations in global oil markets. This predictability can be beneficial for councils' budget planning.

Reduced Maintenance Costs:

HVO burns cleaner and produces fewer engine deposits, leading to reduced maintenance costs and longer engine lifespans, which can ultimately save councils money.

Sustainability Goals:

Many councils have adopted sustainability goals and commitments, such as reducing their carbon footprint and promoting cleaner energy sources. The adoption of HVO aligns with these objectives and demonstrates their dedication to sustainable practices.

Regulatory Incentives:

Some governments and local authorities provide incentives, tax breaks, or regulatory advantages to encourage the use of alternative fuels like HVO. These measures can make the transition more economically viable for councils.

Public Perception:

Councils that transition to cleaner fuels like HVO can enhance their public image and demonstrate leadership in environmental and sustainability matters. This can resonate positively with constituents and stakeholders.

Councils across the UK are moving towards using HVO over diesel primarily because it offers significant environmental benefits, helps meet sustainability goals, enhances energy security, and can lead to long-term cost savings. This transition aligns with the broader global efforts to reduce emissions and combat climate change while also providing more sustainable and health-conscious solutions for local transportation and infrastructure.

To find out how Merridale can assist your organisation with a fully compliant HVO installation, speak to the sales team on 01902 350700 or visit www.merridale.co.uk.

Merridale fuel dispensing equipment has been selected by North Kesteven District Council for use at its new waste collection depot facilities in Metheringham, near Lincoln. Whilst this is a new investment, the case was made that continuity and previous experience with Merridale as a reliable supplier, outweighed the cost and risk involved in seeking alternative tenders.

Merridale has provided the Council with depot fuel dispensing equipment for the best part of a decade. Over this time fuel management by the council has moved from manual records to an office computer reporting system. In its latest iteration, as Merridale FuelWorks, it is now a web-based service, allowing multiple Council departments to access and share the fuel usage information.

An important benefit is that reports can be produced to help make more informed decisions about equipment procurement, driver training and fuel economy. Fuel usage also corelates to vehicle emissions and the fleet operations’ carbon footprint.

In addition to engineering support, maintenance and parking for the council’s fleet of refuse collection vehicles, the purpose-built depot consolidates the Waste and Street Scene service teams. The latter covers car parks, grass cutting, shrubs and hedges. The depot also houses training facilities and a specialist unit dedicated to following up cases of fly tipping.

The Merridale system provides us with the tools and functionality we need to monitor our fuel usage accurately.

“The depot fuelling point is based on a 20,000 litres storage tank which is twice the capacity of the former site,” explains Waste Administrator, Jayne Brown.

“Our current usage is around 6,000 litres of diesel a week. The advantage of having a larger tank is that we don’t have to re-order so frequently. This reduces administration and allows us additional flexibility in making purchasing decisions. We normally replenish stock, once a fortnight. These orders are usually around 14,000 litres, in order to keep the tank topped up.

“Most of this fuel is consumed by the council’s fleet of 29 refuse collection vehicles. The system operates on a vehicle identification fob which activates the pump. To complete the transaction each driver enters a PIN and the vehicle mileage odometer reading. Every transaction is recorded, and the data is then collected and processed to create weekly management reports by the Merridale FuelWorks system.

“We were already familiar with the functionality of the Merridale software. There was no need for training, and we could see the benefits of a web-based system in making the fuelling information readily available to the Accounts and any other council departments.

“Since we were already using Merridale vehicle ID fobs, we didn’t have to invest in new vehicle keys. The actual transition was seamless. All we had to do was Zip file the existing fleet database and pass it over to the Merridale support team. This was then pre-loaded onto the new system and all the vehicles were ready to fuel on day one, as the tank was filled and commissioned.

“Additional savings have been achieved by making this depot the principle fuelling point for all council vehicles. These include vans operated by the housing department which were fuelled previously at a higher cost by using retail filling stations. Three other general service vehicles have also been relocated to the new depot.

Jayne Brown concludes. “The Merridale system provides us with the tools and functionality we need to monitor our fuel usage accurately. The data on fuel usage can be used in many ways to help manage our fleet more efficiently and most importantly, as with all public bodies, we have to show that we have procedures in place to manage pollution and the impact our operations are making on the environment.

The upgrade enables fuel status and daily transactions to be tracked online. Merridale FuelWorks is a subscription service, so the transition process is simply by logging- in via any convenient Internet browser. Status is immediately available and reports can be generated as soon as the master database has been updated with reference details for all the relevant plant and vehicles. 

Reports can be customised to meet different operational requirements such as, finance, cost accounting or fleet efficiency and carbon footprint analysis. In effect, the web service outsources the administration normally associated with purchasing software licenses. With a web-service, there are no updates and users are always on the latest version.

With the web-based service, we have concurrent access for multiple users, and I can check status of both depots, whenever or wherever I can access the Internet.

Ceredigion County Council, operates approximately 220 vehicles, between its two operating depots. The fleet ranges from utility vans and light trucks to more specialist plant such as road sweepers, refuse collection vehicles and road gritters.

“We needed to upgrade because our previous monitoring system was becoming unreliable,” explained Fleet Operations Manager, Ben Hopkins.

“After reviewing the upgrade options, we took the opportunity to switch over to the Merridale FuelWorks web-based service. Whilst the previous Merridale system provided the functionality we required, the Council had just a single user license. This set up was becoming increasingly inconvenient and at busy times people would have to wait for colleagues from other departments to complete their session.

“With the web-based service, we have concurrent access for multiple users, and I can check status of both depots, whenever or wherever I can access the Internet.”

The Council uses both road diesel and red diesel. The gritters and other specialist plant use red diesel. Adblue is also dispensed from both fuelling points. All three products are monitored by the Merridale service.

Ben Hopkins continued. “Currently usage is running at around 400,000 litres and 60,000 litres per annum for road diesel and red diesel respectively. The rate varies at different times of the year. The Merridale system enables us to track demand and if necessary, we can adjust the re-order level to ensure that there is always sufficient fuel available.”

“Whilst we are not using the system to track plant efficiency, it does provide useful information to support fleet maintenance. Our priority is operational resilience and the availability of the council services. The essential purpose is to allocate costs against different council departments. Clearly, we have a duty also to ensure that this valuable resource is properly managed. By measuring fuel usage we can also track our carbon footprint.”        

Ben Hopkins continued. “The upgrade and transition went very smoothly. The Merridale service is very user friendly. Adding new vehicles to the database is straightforward and we can easily re-assign fuelling keys to different vehicles. We were also very impressed with the customer service provided by Merridale. Communications were good and the Merridale telephone support desk helped us with any queries.”

Gravesham Borough Council has upgraded its depot fuelling facilities with the installation of a 35K litres storage tank equipped with an advanced stock monitoring system. The package was supplied by Merridale, following a competitive tender and a thorough appraisal of the FuelWorks web-based fuel management service.

“Fuel usage is a significant concern to the council, explains transport manager, Ronnie Helen. “Apart from cost accounting, there are now environmental implications, such as secure storage and methods used for managing carbon emissions.”

“An important benefit of the Merridale service is that there is minimal administrative overhead. The information is always current and we simply pull off the reports - as and whenever required, to track vehicle economy performance (mpg), operating costs and carbon footprint.”

- Ronnie Helen, Transport Manager, Gravesham Borough Council

“The most obvious change is the installation of an above ground tank at the fuelling point. This replaces the underground storage tank which has been decommissioned. Above ground tanks are far easier to maintain and stock control is absolutely precise.”

“Drivers use a tag which identifies the vehicle or plant being refuelled. Every transaction is then recorded and uploaded to the Merridale fuel management service. This enables us to monitor fleet usage and account for every drop of fuel and the subsequent carbon footprint, all of which can be set against each of the council departments.”

Gravesham had been using a competitor’s control system previously but the software was out of date, and the reports involved a lot of cross checking and time consuming effort. An important benefit of the Merridale service is that there is minimal administrative overhead. The information is always current and we simply pull off the reports - as and whenever required, to track vehicle economy performance (mpg), operating costs and carbon footprint.

Ronnie continues. “After twelve months in operation, fuel management has now become a routine process. We have absolute visibility of our fuel usage and when the tank level reaches the re-order point, the system automatically sends out an e-mail alert.

“Currently the council operates 20 refuse wagons and around 90 vans allocated to housing maintenance and parks. Consumption is around 20K litres every month, which isn’t massive but a lot of time was being wasted previously, when drivers were allowed to fill up at the retail service stations.

“Clearly it makes sense to purchase fuel in bulk. We can take full advantage of the benefits now that we have a more professional environment for managing this resource. We have no worries about public scrutiny because we know that we are using the best available practice and everything is clearly above board,” he said.

“Our focus is on customer service and we rely on the council’s transport facilities to deliver these services,” explains transport manager, Kevin Mansell. “With the help of modern technology we are continuously seeking ways in which to reduce waste and deliver these services more efficiently.

“Our new fuelling equipment has replaced manual records with Merridale FuelWorks, an electronic monitoring system that records fuel usage automatically and provides us the relevant operational information. This includes current stock status and usage reports, as and whenever they are required. It’s a computer system but with none of the hassle,” says Kevin.

“This is important, because we can’t afford to have someone just sitting at a desk to play with buttons and look at screens. We just want to know where the fuel is going, our current stock balance and any anomalies in respect of our usage.”

Previously the amount of fuel drawn by each vehicle has been recorded manually. This information had to be collated each month and submitted to the council’s accounts department, where it is balanced against the bulk fuel delivery receipts.

Kevin Mansell continues, “It was a simple enough system and it allowed the council to account for the amount of fuel being consumed across its fleet of refuse wagons, utility pick-ups, vans and lorries. But it was also time consuming, where we have people in the loop, inevitably there are going to be queries and omissions.

“This new investment enables this process to be carried out automatically and the amount of fuel consumed and the subsequent carbon footprint, can be allocated accurately to each of the different council departments.”

The decision to purchase the Merridale system was made after a thorough review, taking into account the equipment currently in use by other councils and the input from the council’s facilities support contractor.

“We asked three potential suppliers to submit quotations. Although price was important, our overriding priority was operational resilience. We wanted equipment with proven reliability and back up support. We looked into the company’s background, its experience and the resources that were in place to deal with any service issues. Our main concern was the overall lifetime cost of ownership, assuming good reliability.”

“After twelve months in operation, we are very confident of the quality of fuel usage reports provided by the Merridale system. We know that they are accurate because the system recognises every vehicle and someone has to input the vehicle mileage to authenticate the transaction.

“Fuel is a very expensive commodity, so absolute control of this resource is essential. Typically we have up to twenty vehicles drawing fuel every day and amounting to around 30,000 litres consumed by the fleet every month.

Kevin concludes by saying. “Another important aspect is the protection of our environment. As well as recording fuel usage, we are also in effect, monitoring CO2 emissions. This provides a benchmark for the procurement of new vehicles. Every drop of fuel used by the transport fleet is reconciled against the fuel delivered, so we are confident that there is zero waste and no possibility of any leakage from the storage tank.”

The upgrade also includes the installation of electronic contents gauges, enabling each of the storage tanks to be monitored centrally.

“We are spending around ￡1.7 million a year on fuel, so this upgrade was vital to improve our capability for stock control and tracking our operational costs,” explains Fleet Manager, Gerald Rowlands.

“Although the existing pumps were working OK we were not confident about the monitoring side. This has become more crucial as fuel costs have increased and cost accounting audits are also increasingly stringent. We wanted to improve the management  control of our fuel usage.”

Merridale software provides more meaningful reports.

MIS Fuel Monitoring was selected following a competitive tender by Pembrokeshire County Council. Responses were received from four potential suppliers and the final decision was taken after consulting a local bus company which was familiar with the Merridale FuelFX software.

“This was the deciding factor, says Gerald Rowlands. We paid a visit and were able to see a demonstration of the software, and as ‘users’ they were also very happy with the reliability of the Merridale equipment.”

The upgrade went smoothly.  The Merridale Auditor units were simply installed alongside the existing pump dispensers, together with the electronic tank contents gauges. The county has four fuelling points and these are now monitored centrally by the council’s business unit.

The system has been operational for twelve months and it meets our requirement fully. The hardware is robust and the software is user friendly and we are confident that we have a very resilient solution. Data from the fuelling points is collected regularly and we are now able to reconcile fuel deliveries with our current stock and day to day usage.

Data-keys are issued for each of the vehicles and our drivers also enter a PIN number to draw fuel. This procedure enables us to monitor vehicle usage, driver performance and different routes.

“Merridale software provides more meaningful reports. For example, by comparing fuel usage for different makes of vehicles operating similar duties, we are now able to make more informed decisions about purchasing vehicles and how they are deployed. Whilst this is not the only criteria this greater visibility is definitely an important benefit.

Over 400 data-keys have been issued for the Pembrokeshire fleet.  These include 32 refuse collection vehicles, as well as vans, pick-up trucks, pool cars and tractors and all the plant used for grass cutting and grounds maintenance.

Each of the data-keys can be programmed according to the vehicle type and fuel requirements; either road diesel or gas oil for plant and AdBlue.  The odometer entry for each datakey is validated using the Merridale “iProve” function which ensures that only realistic entries are accepted.

The ‘intelligent’ key will also prevent accidental misfuelling vehicles, such as plant and dedicated gritters, which run on duty free gas oil.

Over the last decade many local authorities have introduced private partnership initiatives for various services, such as social housing and waste management. Whilst this is an important development in terms of achieving value for money, there are implications for centralised facilities such as the depot fuelling.

Thanks to current fuel management software, these resources are now being strictly audited so that councils can make individual department managers more accountable for their consumption. Clearly this is essential for services which have been out-sourced to private suppliers. If they continue to draw fuel at the depot, then effectively they have become customers and should be invoiced accordingly.

This raises the question as to whether or not the fuelling point is approved for resale.

This enables us to provide the department managers an ‘electronic’ report to back up their monthly statement. Before we had to print out the reports but now they can be exported directly from the Merridale system as Excel files which they can use in their own Fleet Management software.

Having taken the decision to upgrade its fuelling point to meet trading standards, Torfaen County Borough Council has achieved a number of operational benefits.  Most significant is the fact that council’s own Trading Standards department also uses the fuelling point for its own vehicles.

“This underscores Torfaen’s commitment for enforcement without fear or favour,” explains depot manager, Rico Cottrell.

The fuelling point is located in the council’s main depot in Pontypool. It comprises three underground tanks one for gas oil for lawn mowers, tractors and gritting vehicles and two for the storage of standard diesel for the road going vehicles.

The pump dispensers and fuel management software were supplied by MIS Fuel Monitoring of Wolverhampton. The main twin Merridale pump incorporates the point’s self-service control unit. Smart keys are used to identify the vehicle and turn on the pump. To obtain fuel, the driver must then authenticate the transaction by inserting a PIN number and the vehicle mileage which is then checked against the system data base.

Approximately 350 keys or ‘Users’ are currently registered. The largest group is the local housing association which has 150 vehicles. This was formerly a council department but is now a privately run entity working in partnership with the council. Fuel is also provided to the contractor providing refuse collection services and for minibuses operated by local schools.

Council departments with fuel accounts include the Street Care and Cleaning, Grounds, Waste and Recycling.

“They are all treated as customers and we supply a complete breakdown of fuelling transactions, by vehicle, driver amount drawn and dates together with the respective mpg performance figures,” says Rico Cottrell.

“Apart from not wanting to compromise the council’s standing, we wanted to assure our users that the pumps are certified for resale and the volumes are correct. The Merridale software creates a detailed report which avoids any waste of time sorting out queries from our user departments.”

“Another important aspect is the need for absolute reconciliation of the fuel stock so that any potential loss will be detected immediately. The recent upgrade included the installation of electronic contents gauges and set point alarms.  Since we are recording usage, we also aware of the stock level required for replenishment without any risk of overfilling.”

Stock management and reports are handled by depot administrator, Jill Francis, who has worked with the Merridale system since she joined the department five years ago. Jill describes the Merridale system as reliable and easy to use. The main benefit of the recent upgrade from her point of view was the improved communications link within the Council’s IT network.

“This enables us to provide the department managers an ‘electronic’ report to back up their monthly statement. Before we had to print out the reports but now they can be exported directly from the Merridale system as Excel files which they can use in their own Fleet Management software,” explains Jill.

In the south west area, Enterprise Mouchel  is responsible for the Area 1 network, which includes the A30 and the A38, the main trunk roads for Devon and Cornwall. Depot facilities are co-located with Highways Agency at the Devon County Council’s Sowton depot, near Exeter.

“The contract includes day-to-day network management, investment planning and budgeting, programming and the provision of strategic advice to the Highways Agency,” explains Clive Stears, Area Operations Manager.

“Apart from proactive measures our role is to deal with emergency reaction. With some 24 vehicles, the core fleet comprises the gritter trucks for winter maintenance duties. We also deploy traffic management equipment in order to implement lane closures etc with the ubiquitous cones. Other specialist vehicles include a truck with Hiab crane for the repair of crash barriers and we also operate a Mobile Elevated Work Platform.

We drew up a requirement for an ‘all singing and dancing system’. This was put out tender and the final selection was an integrated tank filling station supplied by MIS Fuel Monitoring. Basically it ticked all the boxes.

The Challenge

On taking over at this contract, we inherited an ageing fuelling point based on underground tanks and a couple of Merridale pumps. Fuelling information was recorded by hand and transferred to an Excel spreadsheet.

Whilst this was never intended to be particularly accurate, we are now more focussed as attitudes have changed markedly with the increasing costs of fuel. Today we have strict rules about accountability and that requires more accurate measurement.

Clive Stears continues: “ Initially we intended to upgrade the original installation simply by adding a monitoring system. But this then led to a discussion about state of the underground tanks. These had been in place for over 30 years and were not compliant with current specifications.

It soon became clear that we needed to start again. This gave us the opportunity to rethink the fuelling point and invest in an installation that would meet our foreseeable operational requirements. The specification was drawn up in conjunction with Devon County Council with the view to sharing the facility for fueling the winter maintenance fleet.

The Solution

MIS Fuel Monitoring (Merridale) were consulted because they were already an approved supplier for the depot. The operational requirement was developed in conjunction the Highways Agency. A representative from the supplier was then invited to a question and answer session.

“We drew up a requirement for an ‘all singing and dancing system’. This was put out tender and the final selection was an integrated tank filling station supplied by MIS Fuel Monitoring. Basically it ticked all the boxes,” says Clive Stears.

The Results

At the time of writing this report the installation had been in service for less than twelve months. This initial period has allowed the fleet drivers to familiarise themselves with the procedure for drawing fuel, using a smart key to turn on the pump and the vehicle mileage reading entered onto the keyboard to authorise the transaction.

Clive Stears continues: “Our fuel supplies are secure and we are capturing data so in that respect, we have already benefitted by taking out the manual effort. The next step will be to engage the commercial team who will be using the reports for target costing jobs and doing their profit & loss analysis,”

Conclusion

“Since I am at the operational end of things, my main concern is availability of fuel to ensure that we can fulfil our work programme commitments sufficiently. At the end of the day I have got a job to do and that is to deliver road maintenance services.

“When it comes to renewing our service contract – the commercial team will require good information and fuel costs are a major factor. Indeed if fuel prices continue to escalate we shall require sound data to underwrite any future negotiations.”

The Equipment

The fuelling point at Sowton is based on a dual compartment tank with 20K litres capacity for gas oil and 15K litres for white road diesel. Since gritters are dedicated to winter maintenance, they are excluded from duty and allowed to run on standard (red) gas oil. Other more general purpose, road going vehicles, such as the elevated platforms etc have to use white diesel.

Fuel is dispensed by a Merridale twin pump dispenser with integral monitoring, enabling all transactions to be recorded automatically for the production of fuel usage reports.

Prior to the introduction of Merridale, fuel management at the North Kesteven district council depot in Metheringham was basically a paper chase. Access to the fuel dispenser was controlled by a key and the amount of fuel drawn would be displayed on the pump meter. The driver was then expected to enter this information together with the vehicle registration onto a daily record.

Depot administrator Jayne Brown collected the record sheets each day for checking and to compile a weekly return for the finance department at the council’s headquarters at Sleaford.
“This depot has a bulk storage tank and we are taking delivery of up to 8,000 litres of diesel a week. The finance department need to know where this diesel has been used and it’s my job to reconcile the amount of fuel used. We have to record how much and which vehicles had been filled and balance the remaining stock in the storage tank,” she explains.

By measuring fuel economy we can also check the CO2 emissions, allowing us to monitor and reduce pollution. For instance, if we see any anomalies in fuel consumption this could point to a servicing problem with the vehicle engine.

Essentially this was a manual process and therefore quite laborious and inevitably prone to errors and omission. It wasn’t unusual to have a discrepancy of as much as 200 litres unaccounted for. More time would then be taken up with a forensic investigation to check that the vehicle fuelling records had been updated correctly.

Jayne continues: “As with all public bodies, operating costs are under close scrutiny. Diesel is an expensive commodity and we could see that we needed to update the management process to improve our control of this resource.

“Having been given the approval to upgrade our dispensing system, we looked around to see what solutions were available and how other fleet operators were dealing with depot fuel management.
“Merridale was selected following a competitive evaluation. Testimonials from other users were helpful and in particular, the system was also being used by a local bus and coach operator.

“Now that the Merridale system is operational our fuel management process has moved onto a different level. We are measuring fuel usage far more precisely and that has given us more insight and therefore potential for making savings in the future. The system is easy to use, information is collected automatically and the emphasis has shifted to education of the drivers.

“The Merridale reports enable us to compare vehicle mpg performance which has revealed some interesting insights – for example we have noticed that the later vehicles with low emission engines do not appear to be as fuel efficient as the older vehicles in the fleet.

“By measuring fuel economy we can also check the CO2 emissions, allowing us to monitor and reduce pollution. For instance, if we see any anomalies in fuel consumption this could point to a servicing problem with the vehicle engine.

“We can also evaluate the comparative performance for vehicles over different routes and for drivers to see how much fuel they were using – doing the same route.

“Observations have also shown that a driver with a more relaxed driving style uses less fuel than a driver who is inclined to push on quickly to finish the route as soon as possible.

Jayne Brown concludes by saying: The Merridale reports will allow management to make informed decisions about vehicles and routes and re-assess our approach to shift timings in order to optimise operating costs, which is an important benefit.

Outlining the project, Hounslow’s head of vehicle fleet management, Rod Willis said, “This upgrade was needed to bring our diesel storage facilities into line with current regulations for the protection of the environment. The new tank provides additional capacity to meet on-going and future operational requirements.”

Merridale fuel monitoring software has been used for stock control and fuel usage reporting, since it was introduced ten years ago. This effectively makes our user departments accountable for their fuel budgets, and it has now become part of our standard office procedures.

“The old tanks have been emptied and filled with foam. The area – close to the main gate was then resurfaced and a concrete base laid for the installation of the new tank. This was effectively a self-contained filling station - delivered off the back of a truck and commissioned within a matter of days.”

Fuel is a one of the major consumable costs for the council and it relates to the growth in services. The fleet comprises 230 vehicles, mostly general purpose utility pick-ups, small vans and a couple of cars and about 80 minibuses. Overall the fleet gets through around 30K litres of diesel a month, so this needs to be managed very carefully.

The new tank complements an existing 35K litres capacity tank located within the area set aside for parking contractors’ waste and recycling vehicles. Having two fuelling points allows greater flexibility and minimal vehicle movements on the site to ensure the safety of pedestrians.

“This additional storage gives us the extra reserves we need to ensure that customer services can be continued, should we have any disruption to supplies. It is easier to plan future needs and because we have fully compliant resale standard dispensers, we can enter into fuelling arrangements with our various PFI service partners.”

“Merridale fuel monitoring software has been used for stock control and fuel usage reporting, since it was introduced ten years ago. This effectively makes our user departments accountable for their fuel budgets, and it has now become part of our standard office procedures.”

“It is reassuring then that this investment maintains this continuity. Indeed we have further enhanced the installation by integrating both fuelling points into our central computer network. This provides our administration staff with up to the minute status on current stock levels, thus allowing them to make better informed decisions when reordering.”

“This overall visibility is also an important security measure. My staff and I will quickly pick up on any anomalies and take appropriate action to investigate this further – whether this is loss of stock at the tank or excessive consumption recorded by any of the fleet vehicles.”

Operational requirements are also changing as the council reviews its service delivery arrangements. A PFI service agreement is currently being set up to cover the Highways, Street Cleansing and Drainage. In most of these cases to service provider will continue to make use of the depot fuelling facilities.

“It is important therefore to use high specification dispensers which will meet the requirements of trading standards for resale and invoicing. Merridale pumps set the standard as far as we are concerned,” says Rod Willis.

Looking ahead we may consider installing a separate tank for gas oil for plant and machines but this is on hold pending the appointment of the new PFI service partner.

Essentially this project has brought our fuel management facilities into the 21st century. The only afterthought was the provision of hose reels. We are using long hoses to allow better flexibility but these can also get in the way. We have ordered reels to be fitted to help keep the fuelling point clear and they also make life easier for the yard staff when shutting up the cabinet.