We have crude oil trading above $85 a barrel near a 6 month high, so you know diesel fuel prices will soon be climbing too. Since diesel fuel prices are out of our control maybe mobile fueling might be the way to fuel savings.
Few things are out of the hands of fleet manager, while diesel fuel prices themselves maybe one of those things there are other ways to still have a handle on your fuel management and fuel savings. Take for instance the way that your fleet fueling. Is it with a fuel card, fleet card or do you have fuel companies delivering you bulk diesel fuel. Have you ever heard of mobile fueling? Do you use mobile fueling or is your fleet companies fueling at a retail station? Mobile fueling could just be of the details that a fleet fuel manager has under control and its convenience is unmatched.
Fueling at retail may not just incur the price of the fueling your driver purchases. Take in to account the miles it may have taken for your fleet companies driver to find or get to that fuel companies retail station. Consider the time and miles used to detour from the designated route to find that station, those miles did not have to be wasted. Those miles add costs to your fleet management while reducing fuel savings. Also the unpredictability of the diesel fuel prices at that fueling station may not accommodate your planned diesel fuel budget. Imagine too if the station was busy and the truck had idled for more than a few minutes, there goes more fuel savings down the drain. Mobile fueling will essentially bring the fuel to you. The trucks will be tanked up and ready to go each day, now there is no reason to have drivers deviate from their routes. Take into consideration that you now don’t have to worry about fuel cards, fleet cards, fuel credit card being lost, misplaced and having to deal with some of the fleet management that these fuel card companies provide. This would save any fleet manager time and worry about fuel theft or a good fuel management system.
Another factor to contemplate is the driver and labor costs. If that detour for fuel took half an hour, including fueling time, how much were you paying the driver as it related back to the diesel fuel prices? If that vehicle had more than one occupant, that would have doubled the wages you paid for a simple fleet fueling stop. Mobile fueling would negate the need for a driver to use precious drive time to use the fleet companies fuel card at a truck stop or station and allow a more efficient and productive trip. We all know how difficult hours of service can be to comply with.
Mobile fueling also would help to keep the fuel budget under control as there maybe volume discounts a possibility or price negotiability. Your mobile fueling company should also be able to give every fuel manager the peace of mind that diesel fuel additives during winter time are being used because you don’t want to be without diesel fuel additives on a cold January morning in Michigan. Invoicing will be easier as all the fuel is from one source. Don’t be overwhelmed by diesel fuel prices and worry about your drivers fueling on the road, in fact mobile fueling may even offer your fleet management more than what it had before.
If you look at the whole picture cost to fuel, that is fuel cost and drivers labor, what are you really paying. If your fuel margin at a retail location is 15 cents and your paying your driver $16 a hour and it takes him ½ hour to fleet fuel, it just cost you $8 in fleet companies cost. Take that one step farther and let’s say he fuel companies fueled that truck with 50 gallons. Your cost for your driver to fuel that truck was 16 cents a gallon. You paid the driver 16 cents a gallon and the retail location another 15 cents a gallon in fuel margin for a total of 31 cents a gallon. You might be able to have a mobile fueling company fleet fueling your fleet companies trucks for 25 cents, saving you 6 cents a gallon on every gallon. On a 50 gallon fuel up that is $3.00 if you have 30 trucks, that is $90 a day and now we are talking fuel savings.
Mobile fueling might not be for every operation or for all areas of the country but it is something to think about as you look toward saving money in total fuel management in 2011.
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