Fuel Management; What Makes a Company Successful!

Why Fuel Prices go up & down, who is watching your Fuel Management?

With the economy still not growing at the rate most people would have expected by this point in time, getting your costs under control is very important. Fuel Management is one of the most difficult to control if you don’t fully understand it. Most companies pretend to think they are managing their fleet fuel costs and have their fleet management under control but do they really?

Over the last 20 years, I have seen more people not know what fuel actually costs; therefore to have a fuel management program becomes almost impossible for them. Proficient fuel management can reduce your fuel spend 5 to 15%. How you might ask? Easy, it’s called management. The same way you would manage your work force or capital expenses, you manage fuel. The problem is most people don’t fully understand fuel cost so they can’t do proper fuel management and they don’t want to seek help because like most of us, human nature says, “Asking for help makes me look weak.” In this economy no one wants to look weak or ask their boss to spend a little money to save a lot of money on fuel management.

What is fuel management? Fuel management is a broad term used by many different companies for different things. Fleet fuel card providers use the term because their card helps customers buy gas and diesel fuel and provide fuel reports, therefore they feel that this is fuel management. GPS companies use the term fuel management because their devices track vehicles and can reduce the amount of miles used and therefore reduce the volume of diesel fuel or gas bought. There are companies that feed information into computer systems and tell the client the lowest priced place to buy fuel, they also call this fuel management. We won’t argue that most of the claims by these companies are fuel management. Let us explain fuel management by Sokolis.

Fuel management by Sokolis is rolling up the sleeves and analyzing how you are currently buying your diesel fuel and gas. It’s creating visibility behind what you are really paying for your fuel; are you paying fair prices? Determining if the way you are currently purchasing fuel for your truck fleet is the best way to fuel management. How much are you paying your drivers? Are your drivers waiting a long time at a truck stop or fuel stop? Do your bulk fuel pumps only have 1 or 2 spots to fleet fuel your trucks and your drivers are waiting? Are you paying a fuel jockey nightly to fleet fuel your diesel units? Plus many other areas determine fuel management just to get started.

Wait for the next blog entry to find out about fuel management or email me directly at gsokolis@sokolisgroup.com.

Sokolis is a fuel management & fuel consulting group that helps companies manage and lower their fuel costs. www.sokolisgroup.com or 267-482-6155.