Tom Ford of Allstone Speedy Skips told us “We’ve had Merridale pumps here for as long as I can remember, and they are still going strong! A few years ago, we upgraded the system slightly to also include Merridale FuelWorks but the hardware has remained the same.”

“After we realised the benefits of using FuelWorks, and as we wanted tighter control over who was using the new tank to refuel, Merridale were able to add the necessary equipment to the tank and link it with our existing Merridale package.”

As the business has steadily grown over the years, so has the need for new, different, and often much bigger equipment. In order to keep up with demand for their high-quality sand, gravel, and aggregates, Allstone invested in an industrial three-story aggregate recycling and cleaning plant.

“Believe it or not, at times it can be cheaper to run our aggregate cleaning plant using diesel rather than electricity. For this, we installed a new storage tank separate to the existing Merridale system. This was predominantly to power the plant but also gets used for some on-site fleet.”

“After we realised the benefits of using FuelWorks, and as we wanted tighter control over who was using the new tank to refuel, Merridale were able to add the necessary equipment to the tank and link it with our existing Merridale package.”

Alongside their original 23-year-old installation of four Merridale Auditor pumps, Allstone Speedy Skips now use two Merridale MX-M management systems and two Merridale MX-T tank gauges as one complete system. 

By transferring the data to the Merridale FuelWorks web-based service, via the fuel management integration, Allstone are benefitting further from fuel stock prediction, automatic delivery detection, low-level warnings, and order prompts, all accessible on any web-enabled device. 

Merridale’s tank management systems can now also include sudden drop detection, to alert you immediately, via SMS, of an unexpected drop in fuel level. This means that you will be alerted to any severe leak or theft from the tank that occurs, irrespective of where you are at the time.

To find out how a Merridale fuel and tank management system could benefit your company, contact Merridale on 01902 350 700 or visit www.merridale.co.uk.

Callow Oils have been helping to warm our homes, fuel our farms and lubricate the wheels of industry by supplying quality gas, fuels and oil since 1969. The family-run business recently had a Merridale MX-I installed at their depot in Stourport, which is connected to their enormous 6 million litre storage tanks, to refuel their fleet of over 100 vehicles.

Louisa Beasley of Callow Oils said, “We initially had another company’s pump and fuel management system in place, but the software lacked some reporting features and we were having far too many issues with their customer service.”

“After speaking to our sister branch, which already had a Merridale package, we knew we had to make the switch. The training that I had over the phone with Merridale was absolutely brilliant! I’ve not needed to call back since, which in itself is a good sign, but I'm confident that Merridale will be a massive help.”

Built to be the complete solution in commercial fuelling and designed to meet strict ATEX standards, the Merridale MX-I integrates the intelligence and control of Merridale’s MX-M fuel management system with the reliable performance of the Merridale MX-P pump in a single cabinet. Having both systems in one robust unit makes it an ideal and cost-effective solution for fleet operators with limited space.

The Merridale MX-M fuel management system gives fleet operators the control of up to four pumps with several options available to allow access to fuel. They also have the option to unlock the benefits of Merridale FuelWorks web-based software to measure fuel usage, vehicle performance, driver efficiency and environmental impact.

Merridale FuelWorks is the choice of many large fleet operators and local authorities, with over 1400 sites already in the UK. Each week more fleet operators switch to Merridale FuelWorks, taking advantage of this low-cost subscription-based service, securely hosted by Merridale.

The ability of Merridale FuelWorks to be accessed through a web browser on any device gives the user complete flexibility and accessibility, eliminating the need for any software to be installed on office computers. This means that users can access the vital data they require, from anywhere, at any time. Merridale FuelWorks can also monitor tank levels and predict low stock, sending email alerts as needed.

The software has been designed in-house by Merridale to be as user-friendly as possible, without sacrificing any functionality. Merridale also offers unrivalled levels of support and training, with initial training being available remotely, and a help desk on hand to offer ongoing support.

Other features include secure encrypted HTTPS connections, multiple users across multiple sites, real-time capabilities, a range of reporting features (including fuel, cost, vehicle and driver performance, and environmental impact), tank stock reconciliation and costing, stock low prediction and email alerts.

On Merridale FuelWorks, Louisa said “The software is very user-friendly and easy to navigate! Compared to our last system, the ability to export the reports into excel is very useful. It sounds daft but previously we had to print the report from inside the software, scan it ourselves and then email it to where it is needed. It saves me so much time just exporting a file and sending it straight away.”

Fleet operators who wish to upgrade existing Merridale equipment to use FuelWorks need not worry about replacing existing hardware to do so. Merridale can upgrade most existing systems to make them compatible with FuelWorks, no matter how old the system is.

To find out how Merridale FuelWorks could benefit your company, contact Merridale on 01902 350 700 or visit www.merridale.co.uk.

K Rouse Civil Engineers Ltd, who operate across the UK from their Leeds base, have been using Merridale’s equipment and software since upgrading their systems earlier in the year. Before this, they relied only on handwritten accounts of their fuel usage in order to track and report on their fleet of over 150 vehicles.

“Until now we never had all of the data in one place. We calculated the diesel for each job separately and never saw it as a full figure.” explained SEQ manager at K Rouse, John Whelan.

We are currently working towards our FORS accreditation, so we knew we wanted to go digital with our reporting. Previously it was all written down on paper, we had a notebook by the diesel tank and logged each fuel transaction by hand. It has halved the workload for our office staff now that they don’t need to go back and forth between paper and spreadsheets.

As part of the upgrade, which included a Merridale MX-M fuel management system and MX-T tank gauge, K Rouse chose to use Merridale’s web-based software FuelWorks. With this, users can access data from any device connected to the internet and export reports as spreadsheets if required.

FuelWorks has become increasingly popular with Merridale’s current customers. Due to its ability to be accessed through a web browser on any device FuelWorks gives the user complete flexibility and accessibility, eliminating the need for the software to be installed on a single nominated device. As well as FuelWorks, Merridale also offer other great packages to suit businesses who prefer to use a client-based reporting package on a single computer.

When asked why K Rouse chose to subscribe to FuelWorks, John said “The main features we were looking for in a fuel management system was the ability to track fuel usage and spend, and to also be able to report on our environmental impact. As a company we are trying to be much more mindful and environmentally friendly. The emissions reporting in FuelWorks is really helping us to make changes and cut down our footprint.”

FuelWorks allows multiple users to report on and monitor their environmental impact, fuel usage, costs and vehicle performance across multiple sites or tanks. It also has the capability to monitor tank levels and predict low stock, with email alerts being sent in such events.

“We are currently working towards our FORS accreditation, so we knew we wanted to go digital with our reporting. Previously it was all written down on paper, we had a notebook by the diesel tank and logged each fuel transaction by hand. It has halved the workload for our office staff now that they don’t need to go back and forth between paper and spreadsheets.”

To find out how a Merridale fuel and tank management system could benefit your company, contact Merridale on 01902 350 700 or visit www.merridale.co.uk.

Clancy Plant – the equipment arm of the Clancy Group plc, found that its existing fuel controller unit was wanting. “It wasn’t giving us the data we needed,” says head of sales and corporate accounts, David Janes.

The Clancy Group is a multi-utility business, renowned for its expertise in civil engineering for nationwide water distribution pipelines and infrastructure. Clancy Plant is responsible for some 1400 vehicles, deployed throughout the country in support of the group’s operations, delivered by Clancy Docwra.

“For operational reasons, we wanted to allocate fuelling keys to the entire inventory,” explains David Janes. But as the fleet expanded, we simply ran out of capacity on the database of previous fuel controller units. We were having to remove line items in order to make room for new entries. Then of course we had problems that some vehicles were unable to fill up because they were not on the system.”

“It was a case of enough is enough and time to look for a new system,” he said. “From online research we created an initial shortlist, which then led to a subsequent recommendation for Merridale from another user.”

The refuelling point at the Harefield depot is based on four 15,000 litre tanks. These are configured as a balanced storage facility, split equally between road diesel for vehicles and gas oil for the off-road plant. In addition to a replacement for the fuel controller unit, the upgrade included the provision of tank management systems to enable the real-time status monitoring of current wetstock levels.

The other main hardware element is a Merridale Auditor GX refuelling control unit covering the dispensing of AdBlue (engine exhaust fluid) as well as diesel and gas oil. Set up for use with vehicle ID proximity datatags, this unit authorises and records details of all fuelling transactions.

The data stored by the Auditor unit is polled daily by Merridale using a GPRS communications link. Having secured the data, this is then processed and collated by the Merridale FuelWorks service to deliver customised management reports and an online dashboard presentation which can be accessed from any Internet browser facility.   

Best practice is a top priority for the Clancy Group, since most of its operations are associated with the quality of the natural environment. All Clancy Group commercial vehicles are speed restricted and fuel usage is closely measured in order to understand and manage the group’s carbon footprint.

A full-time data analyst is employed to ensure fleet audit compliance. Important tools to do this include vehicle tracking telematics as well as monitoring plant and vehicle refuelling.

“The new set up has been operational for 10 months and meeting all of our operational requirements,” says David Janes.  “There were a couple of queries in the early days, just testing the Merridale after sales support, which worked very well. Fuel usage monitoring has now settled in as part of the group’s routine procedures. It is there and forgotten about now. So as far as I am concerned it is working perfectly. If I don’t hear of anything it has got to be right.”

Technology developed by Merridale for monitoring diesel fuel usage in the commercial road transport sector, is now being used to measure deliveries from bulk ice production facilities. This new application stems from the fishing industry, which utilises huge quantities of ice to protect the quality of fish products at every stage, from the catch at sea, to the quayside and transportation to the consumers. Ice is used also for packaging, through distribution and of course it is an essential part of the final presentation for sale by supermarkets and other retailers.

“We have issued over 50 ID keys to end user accounts. Apart from reducing the need to man the ice berth for every transaction, the Merridale system has saved a lot of administrative time that would be taken up in keying in manual entries and sorting out the inevitable customer queries resulting from missing records and human error.”

Self service facilities
Ice production facilities have been designed to meet all these requirements. Whilst refrigeration units can be installed on larger fishing boats, many boats are too small to justify the installation of an ice production machine. Quayside facilities, which can provide any amount of ice on demand, offer a more flexible solution. These facilities are usually operated on a cooperative basis or by the local port authority. To do this efficiently, they have been set up as self-service facilities, using automatic billing systems to record the weight of ice dispensed to individual customers.

Ziegra is a world leader in the production of ice machines with products covering diverse requirements from small laboratory machines up to large fully automatic equipment for industry. From its manufacturing base in Germany, the company operates through a number of regional marketing and service support subsidiaries.

Customers in the UK and Republic of Ireland are serviced by Ziegra Ice Machines (UK) Ltd, which is based in Stockport. In addition to the fishing sector, the company supplies machine for other high and low risk ‘food’ applications such as, fresh salad products, meat processing, bakeries and ready meals.  As a specialist in this sector, Ziegra has focussed on the top-end hygiene features.

Ice production machines
“The core technology is intrinsically hygienic,” explains managing director, Patrick Gallagher. “Ziegra machines are designed to use sanitised water and the single pass continuous ice generation cycle minimises the risk of exposure to any potential airborne contamination. Automatic cleaning and other design enhancements have been incorporated to prevent any possibility of water stagnation. These measures ensure that, as far as possible, the ice leaving the machine will be as pure as the water entering the process.”

Growth in the market for these more sophisticated ice generation machines has been driven by the high standards now being set by the leading supermarket chains. Ziegra has made significant investments to position itself at the forefront of this technology. For example, whilst all its competitors rely on UK agencies, Ziegra is the only ice machine manufacturer that has its own UK based sales and service support facilities.

Patrick Gallagher continues. “Customer service is an important differentiator. As a part of the Ziegra network, we provide undivided attention and our dedicated service teams offer far more in-depth knowledge of the machines and customer’s operational requirements.”

Fishing industry requirements
“Over the years we have seen many changes in the needs of different market sectors we serve. None more so than within the fishing industry. Until recently, the traditional approach, particularly for smaller quay-side facilities, would be based on the production of ‘flake ice’ and the users would have to manually scoop out the ice from the bunker. The downside was that the remaining stock tended to accumulate as a solid mass. Typically, maintenance and operating costs were high and customer service was laborious.

“Demand, from the leading supermarket chains for higher food hygiene standards has led also to the development of more sophisticated ‘granular flake’ ice that is now a common sight at food hall and retail outlets.

Ziegra understood these requirements for this technology was being used already, to meet existing food industry requirements.  It was simply a matter of scaling this up to meet the anticipated usage demand requirements of the fishing industry,” said Patrick Gallagher.”

Quayside installations
On receiving its first enquiry for a quayside dispensing unit, Ziegra UK approached Merridale to provide a self-service billing solution. Similarly, this was simply a matter of applying an existing solution. The Merridale Auditor control unit is used widely for multi-product fuel dispensing within the haulage and road transport sector. Customers are issued with an ID fob which enables them to switch on the ice dispenser. All details of the transaction; such as the date and amount of ice delivered, are stored by the control unit. The information can then be downloaded, as required, to the back-office computer for billing.

Out of four systems in use one of these is used to monitor both ice deliveries and diesel. For another more recent installation in Plymouth, the installation of a new Ziegra ice production plant is part of an on-going investment by Sutton Harbour plc, to upgrade and modernise all the quayside hook-up services, covering fuel supplies, fresh water and electricity, as well as ice.

Sutton Harbour, Plymouth
In 2015, Ziegra UK supplied Sutton Harbour with a quayside ice production silo, incorporating four 7.5 tonne ice machines. Together, these allow 12 tonnes storage capacity and replenishment output of up to 30 tonnes per 24 hours. The swept base design strips ice from the underside of the silo – in effect, harvesting the earliest ice stock to the conveyor-weighing system. Here it is metered by the Merridale Auditor control unit before transfer to the output delivery conveyors. These conveyors can be configured for delivery of ice either directly on board a fishing boat or alternatively, into separate containers for transportation to the end user.   

As part of this investment, a second smaller Ziegra machine was also installed within the auction rooms where fresh fish is landed for sale and distribution.

“In preparing our specification, we used the manual records of deliveries from the previous ice production facilities,” explains facilities manager, Mick Carter.

“The introduction of electronic metering means we can be sure that all bulk deliveries are recorded and billed accurately. Whilst our forecast wasn’t so bad, we can see that historically there were some discrepancies, which would have resulted in some shortfall on billing. As for anticipating current usage, fortunately this discrepancy has been counter-balanced by the provision of additional capacity now available on the sale room floor. So we got it about right, thanks more to luck than judgement,” he said.

The main benefit of the new ice production facilities has been the significant reduction in maintenance down-time and operational costs, realised by moving over to new generation ice production process, based on a supply-on-demand model.

With the previous set up, fresh ice deliveries were raked off the top of a scale ice stock that constantly froze into a solid block. Consequently, the plant would become costlier to operate unless it was defrosted regularly. This is a laborious maintenance task in which personnel would have to go in with pneumatic drills to break up the accumulated ice block.

The Sutton Harbour Ice Berth and other harbour services are provided by its subsidiary company, Plymouth Fisheries. Described as the fisheries hub of the region, the harbour supports a network of business operations, moving more than 6,000 tonnes of fish every year. About 75 percent of this arrives by road from fishermen across Wales and the South West, who’ve landed their catch elsewhere but send it to Plymouth to ensure it will sell at the best price.

Mick Carter continues. “We have an on-going programme to modernise the Sutton Harbour facilities and introduce more modern payment systems for all the hook-up facilities. We only have a small accounts team so it is important to integrate systems and wherever possible simplify our customer service billing procedures.

“Managing the provision of ice is a key service provided by Sutton Harbour. All of the major customers have been issued with keys, enabling them to draw ice as and whenever required. Previously we had to provide staff to assist in the delivery of ice and customer billing was based on paperwork transactions. Billing has been fully automated thanks to the Merridale self-service terminal. All transactions from any customer key are recorded and uploaded to the accounts department where they are processed for recharging the end-user accounts.

Mick Carter concludes by saying. “We have issued over 50 ID keys to end user accounts. Apart from reducing the need to man the ice berth for every transaction, the Merridale system has saved a lot of administrative time that would be taken up in keying in manual entries and sorting out the inevitable customer queries resulting from missing records and human error.”