Efficient transport is vital to Arden Wood Shavings Ltd. of Solihull. This expanding company is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of animal bedding products, which are used to keep animals dry, warm and comfortable. As demand for these products has increased, Arden has invested in a fleet of heavy goods vehicles, including specialised trailers designed to facilitate bulk delivery to customers.
“A fuel storage tank and pump has been in place since the company’s production units were established on this site some 25 years ago,” explains facilities manager, Glen Mosley.
“Currently our fleet is burning around 10,000 litres of diesel a week. The Merridale enables us to monitor our efficiency. This information, in conjunction with our route planning and tracking service, gives us a far better understanding of our performance and possible improvements we can make to minimise our fleet’s impact on the environment.”
“As the fleet has continued to expand, this single pump was coming under increasing pressure and was becoming a bit of a bottleneck at busy times. Our requirements had changed also. The new generation vehicles require Adblue dispensing and we are also using gas oil for trailer mounted power units as well as the fork lift trucks and other load handling plant.
The decision was taken to upgrade the facilities by installing additional pump dispensers onto a new fuel island, allowing two vehicles to fuel concurrently. The new fuelling point was installed with the assistance of Ledbury Welding and Engineering who provided all the pipework and equipment connections to the existing tank.
Access to the new dispensers is controlled from a Merridale GS combined fuel pump and management system which replaced the original tank dispenser. The installation also included electronic contents monitoring for the diesel and gas oil storage tanks.
“Previously we had separate methods for stock control and this investment has provided the opportunity to implement the Merridale FuelWorks web-based reporting service. This has enabled us to bring all our wet stock usage together under a single administration,” says Glen Moseley.
“Another innovative feature is the use of the Merridale vLink cable to identify the vehicle using the fuelling point. As well as providing a means for authenticating the transaction, this allows the system to advise the driver on the need for AdBlue or any auxiliary power requirements.”
“Vehicle data-tags are also used in conjunction with the vLink cable to allow greater flexibility on the fuelling island. To obtain fuel the driver (or staff member) enters the current odometer reading on the master keyboard. The information is then passed back to the reporting software for cost accounting and mpg performance analysis. “
Glen Moseley concludes. “Currently our fleet is burning around 10,000 litres of diesel a week. The Merridale enables us to monitor our efficiency. This information, in conjunction with our route planning and tracking service, gives us a far better understanding of our performance and possible improvements we can make to minimise our fleet’s impact on the environment.”
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