No, when we talk about correct diesel fuel prices at truck stops this isn’t going to be another article about anyone direct. This article is about truck stop price mistakes and fuel card process mistakes.
Oh, you thought they didn’t make mistakes. Well think again. Even though they all talk about their brilliant systems and all of this great information, let’s really take a look. We will not talk about any company directly or calling out any direct company And please at no point are we saying they are trying to pull one over on fleets. We are just pointing out that mistakes happen and if you don’t realize it, you should. These are all quality truck stop providers and fuel card providers.
A lot of these truck stops and fuel card provides systems are not as up to date for 2013 as you might think. Marketing their product, they can do that real well but actual and real probably don’t equal each other. For them to make fleet fuel price changes in their systems is difficult for a variety of reasons.
It could be old technology, or poor customer service or just pure mistakes. Yes, the old “glitch, system errors, wrong data, data backup, etc.” have you ever heard this?
Good if you have because that means you really knew your fuel data and asked the questions. Even when these ” glitches” happen legitimately, unless you point it out, don’t expect your truck stop or fuel card provider to point it out. Most of the time they don’t even know it happens until it is pointed out to them. Thank goodness, your fuel management system is on top of this.
Could you imagine how bad your fleet management program would look or your diesel fuel prices would be if you didn’t have this stuff down?? You might be spending a lot more money than you should be, but we know everyone watches this information really close.
Just a sample of what Sokolis has seen over the last 8 months. We have discovered and solved over 350 fuel pricing issues. That is almost 40 per week.
Okay, one mistake what does that cost your fleet management budget? Let’s say you were supposed to get cost plus 3.
Instead your deal fell off the table at 1 truck stop and you’re paying full retail. Your diesel fuel purchases there per month are 5,000 gallons at a difference of .28 cents per gallon compared to your cost plus 3 to retail. That mistake just cost you an extra $1,400 for the month in diesel fuel or over $16,800 a year.
That is 1 mistake at one location, with one truck stop that is only buying 5,000 gallons a month. As a company YTD, we have caught (including mobile fueling) mistakes over $400,000.
As a fleet manager, Director of Transportation, VP of Strategic Sourcing, mistakes can really add to your profit/loss. That is a very small sample of what we see.
The trucking, transportation industry is too hard to just flush money down the toilet. Audit, validate, reconcile or possibly go out of business, because your fleet fuel cost ratios will kill a business if no one had a true handle on it.
Be smart. Would you rather spend a $1 to save $5 or would you rather spend nothing and save nothing. Call 267-482-6159 to find out more.
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