Additional depot fuelling facilities for Ennstone

Ennstone plc has installed a second depot fuelling point, serving vehicles operating out of its quarry products distribution centre at Breedon near Derby. The new installation comprises a 55K litres storage tank with a Merridale dual hose dispenser and electronics contents monitoring. The turnkey installation was purchased as sole source procurement from MIS Fuel Monitoring of Wolverhampton.

We bulk purchase and provide fuelling services for all company vehicles and that includes staff cars, visiting group vehicles, contract owner drivers, as well as around 60 trucks based at Breedon.

In addition to providing additional capacity, the new tank, which is located at the Cloud Hill quarry, has improved fuelling efficiency generally, by relieving peak time congestion at the existing fuelling point at the group’s headquarters nearby at Breedon-on-the-Hill.

“We bulk purchase and provide fuelling services for all company vehicles and that includes staff cars, visiting group vehicles, contract owner drivers, as well as around 60 trucks based at Breedon,” explains transport manager, Steve Quinn. “We are providing a distribution service to customers in the Midlands region, and since most vehicles return to base each day, there is no need for external fuel card accounts.”

“Drivers usually fuel at the end of the day, which previously led to some congestion. So an immediate benefit of this second fuelling point has been a reduction in the amount of time wasted by drivers having to queue to refuel. The dual hose dispenser also allows two vehicles to refill simultaneously, allowing faster turnarounds.

Ennstone’s existing fuelling point is equipped with a Merridale Auditor FS dispenser, and both fuelling points are monitored centrally, using Merridale FuelFX management software for analysis and reports.

This commonality and the fact that administration staff are fully conversant with the Merridale software analysis and reporting tools provided the rationale for choosing Merridale on a sole source basis. Merridale equipment is used also at other Ennstone regional depots and the reliability and service support provided by MIS Fuel Monitoring has already satisfied Ennstone’s high standards.

Fuel is accessed by the drivers using a smart key allocated to each of the vehicles. Each transaction is then further authenticated by entering the vehicle mileage from the odometer. The computer system records all the fuelling transactions and provides the administration staff with stock control with data analysis for cost accounting and mpg economy performance figures.

Should any member of staff decide to fuel externally, this will show up immediately as an anomaly on our vehicle mileage records.

Another advantage of central monitoring was the visibility to enforce the company policy for depot fuelling. Since it purchases fuel in bulk, Ennstone can use its purchasing power to negotiate lower fuel prices – currently equivalent to a saving of around 5p per litre compared to retail prices available at service station forecourts.

“Should any member of staff decide to fuel externally, this will show up immediately as an anomaly on our vehicle mileage records. Effectively then we can not only advise staff on the cost benefits of using depot fuel, but also we can monitor our users to ensure compliance with the policy,” says Steve Quinn.