On-Site Fleet Fueling: What Is It and What Are the Benefits?

Whether your business offers package deliveries, transportation services, or any other job requiring your drivers to travel long distances, you need to ensure that your vehicles are fueled efficiently to keep your schedules. Trucks and other motorized vehicles need fuel to run.

We have not reached the point in time where all of our road vehicles run on electricity, so businesses like yours need to come up with sustainable solutions that keep trucks fueled throughout their drive. This also needs to be done without wasting time and resources to do it. Luckily, one solution has been rising in popularity over the years. This solution is called fleet fueling.

What Is Fleet Fueling?

The basic idea behind fleet fueling is to bring the fueling to your business rather than taking your business to other retail locations. In other words, instead of having your drivers find the nearest gas station (which on long drives can be quite a ways off of the scheduled route) to fill their tanks, you get a fueling service to meet your drivers when they need the fuel.

There are a couple of different ways that your business can employ a fleet fueling company. There are also a few different services that these companies may offer. One common type of fleet fueling service is called a fleet card. This card essentially acts as a specific credit card with personalized limits and restrictions to ensure that your fleet stays fuel-efficient over their drives. These cards provide fuel savings and will often send money back to your business in reimbursement when used.

Another prevalent type of fleet fueling is mobile fueling. Essentially, mobile fueling is meant to eliminate wasted man hours and downtime anytime your drivers need to fuel their vehicles. Mobile fueling services do the fueling for you on-site at any time of day — even overnight — so that your drivers can come and go much faster and increase their productivity.

Why Choose Fleet Fueling Over Traditional Fueling Methods?

Fleet fueling is an incredibly effective alternative to traditional fueling options — such as going to a gas station or installing an on-site fuel tank. When deciding what fueling method to use for your vehicles, it is essential to consider all of the factors that go into what makes a fueling method effective.

Take traditional gas station fueling, for example. You can say that it allows the driver to have more flexibility and control over their schedule, which can lead to a better relationship with your drivers. However, this means that your delivery and transport schedules can be a lot more variable than if you had designated fueling times and locations.

Dedicated on-site fuel tanks would solve the problem of drivers filling up their fuel at different gas stations that offer different prices and can also help regulate transport and delivery times. However, on-site fuel tanks can be difficult to maintain and prone to break-ins and fuel theft. This can lead to a lot of lost revenue and costly expenses.

Rather than relying on external fueling stations or incurring additional expenses by maintaining your own fueling station, you can get the best of both of these traditional options by opting for mobile fleet fueling services.

To help you understand what fleet fueling can bring to your company, let's dive into the benefits of this fueling method.

Advantages of Fleet Fueling

There are many benefits to fleet fueling for a business like yours. This is because fleet fueling provides more personalized and customizable fueling schedules and options and can be much easier to handle as a business.

So, without further ado, let's dive right into some of the most significant benefits of fleet fueling.

Increased Productivity

The first advantage of fleet fueling over traditional fueling techniques is that it increases driver productivity. As a business, you are probably painfully aware of how much the productivity of individual drivers affects your total ability to meet your delivery deadlines and achieve your goals per day.

Since fleet fueling takes away the need for your driver to create downtime when refueling their vehicle, you can make more time for productive tasks and possibly even more deliveries overall.

Time Savings

One obvious benefit of fleet fueling is the time it saves your drivers from having to refuel their vehicles. If your drivers do not have to fill their vehicles, then they can spend their time driving and making deliveries which leads to more profit overall. Opting for fleet fueling also means you do not have to pay your drivers for standing at a fueling station and waiting for the tank to fill.

Space Savings

On-site fleet fueling is an incredible alternative to an on-site fueling tank. A fueling tank can take up a lot of space and require a lot of maintenance over time, which can add to unnecessary costs for your business. But, on-site fleet fueling can be contracted out to another company that will handle all of the fueling responsibility for your fleet, wherever you need them.

Financial Savings

Because fleet fueling is a private type of business, you do not have to worry about your drivers simply getting gas from the closest gas station and being incredibly overcharged for the tank. Instead, partnering with a fleet fueling company allows you to take advantage of competitive pricing. Some services will even provide you with percentage-based reimbursements for fuel that your drivers get at gas stations, so you are not losing money on every trip your drivers take.

Many fleet fueling companies will offer bulk fuel discounts and wholesale pricing. This means you can save money on the fuel you know you need to keep your fleet running and making deliveries.

Security

As mentioned before, having a dedicated fueling tank for your fleet to use can be an excellent way to eliminate some of the problems with going to a retail fueling station. However, this method brings its own challenges — such as security and fuel theft issues. In addition, fuel is expensive, and having a huge fuel tank can result in unwanted attention that is ultimately very costly.

With fleet fueling services like mobile fueling, you will not have to worry about these issues.

Overnight Service

One of the most significant advantages of fleet fueling is the ability to fuel your vehicles overnight. Unfortunately, when your drivers are responsible for fueling their vehicles, they cannot take advantage of this downtime. This is because they need to get rest to safely transport their cargo to its destination.

If you work with a fleet fueling company, overnight fueling is not only possible but incredibly easy to do. This means you can lump together essential tasks, like fueling your vehicles and resting for the night, and have more time to make your deliveries in the long run.

Reduce Human Error

Traditional fueling practices also bring the risk of inaccuracy and human error. When drivers refuel their vehicles manually at a gas station, it is too easy to incorrectly calculate what part of a receipt was for fuel and what was not. It can also be difficult for drivers to accurately recall how much a refuel costs at a particular location if they lost the receipt. As a result, because of human error, sometimes your business may not be getting the most accurate representation of what refueling costs.

But, if you opt for a fleet fueling service, you can know precisely how much fuel is going into your tanks without even needing your drivers to hold on to receipts.

Minimize Fleet Downtime

Rather than relying on drivers to efficiently refuel their vehicles without wasting time, you can use a fleet fueling service to provide fuel to your fleet at a predetermined location and time. In other words, fleet fueling can reduce the difference between your drivers' schedules and create a more efficient delivery schedule for your fleet as a whole.

Enhanced Reporting

When you know exactly how much fuel you are getting and where that fuel is coming from, it is much easier to make informed decisions on the budget you need to keep for fueling. In addition, fleet fueling can help you streamline your fueling system for your entire fleet. Fleet fueling can also create a basis and approach tailored to your individual needs that can evolve with your business as you grow.

Conclusion

Whether you have used fleet fueling before or this is the first you have ever heard of the idea, fleet fueling is an incredibly effective option for any company that relies on a fleet of vehicles to make deliveries and shipments. As a result, fleet fueling can improve your overall efficiency and productivity while helping you save time, space, and even money.

Now, if that doesn't sound like a good deal, we're not sure what does! If you want to learn more about fleet fueling and the different types of services you can get for your fleet, check out Pilot Thomas Logistics’ Vehicle Fleet Solutions today.