Reasons To Consider Overnight Mobile Fueling
Providers in the freight and transportation industries pursue the same objective: on-time deliveries. Guaranteeing these for your customers requires optimizing all your available resources. Your fleet’s time and effort are among these. Each is expended in a seemingly simple yet necessary task: refueling your vehicles. Mobile fueling provides a potentially better alternative.
What Is Mobile Fueling?
Mobile fueling service providers bring the fuel for your fleet’s vehicles to you. The volume of fuel needed can be customized for each job. You may arrange deliveries at various times and different locations. A fueling provider can fuel your vehicles at your main offices and meet your drivers at delivery sites within its service area. Such a service eliminates the concern of fueling your vehicles on your own or placing the burden on your drivers.
What Are The Benefits?
Switching to mobile fueling services may alter fundamental aspects of your operations. The decision requires evaluating whether the cost of such a change will deliver greater benefits than simply securing fuel on your own. Here are the main advantages:
Time
Study results shared by Geotab show that commercial vehicle drivers spend an average of 20 minutes on each refueling trip (with 12 minutes spent driving to the gas station and another eight minutes at the pump). Extrapolating that time out over the long term (and amongst a large fleet) results in countless estimated hours lost annually through simply refueling vehicles.
Having that time back translates to improvements in two ways. The first is additional drive time for your fleet. Added hours on the road allow you to take on more business. It may also contribute to improved employee satisfaction as your drivers get to focus on what they do well.
The second benefit is reduced labor time. You can reduce the real cost of fuel to your business by not requiring your employees to expend their efforts on putting it in your vehicles. This frees them to perform those tasks that net a better return on their labor.
Labor time is also recovered when you work with a mobile fueling provider that offers overnight service. Traditional refueling methods are limited to both the time your employees are on the clock and the operating hours of gas stations. Refueling overnight eliminates these constraints and has your vehicles ready to depart when your drivers arrive the following morning.
Efficiency
Mobile refueling can contribute to improved operational efficiency. Fuel costs are an inevitable expense in the logistics industry. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that the current average fuel cost in America is $3.328 per gallon. The Geotab study estimates drivers travel 200-250 miles annually just on refueling trips. Fueling vehicles on-site allows you to put that mileage towards producing a better return on your investment in fuel.
Having a refueling partner makes maintaining your own fuel resources on-site unnecessary. You don’t need to clear space on your work site for fuel tanks, and you conserve the capital needed to buy and secure the materials to build them. When fuel is brought to you, your employees do not also need to take time away from other tasks to pump it.
A mobile fueling partner can provide data on your company’s fuel usage. You know exactly how much fuel you’re purchasing, and you maintain more control over when vehicles are refueled. This could provide you with insight into exactly how your fuel is being used, allowing you to alter your route operations to get the most out of every drop.
The Smarter Way To Refuel
Customers expect logistics providers to deliver on the promise of reliability; those that do so will attract the most attention. Areas exist within your operations where small changes can net significant improvements. Optimizing every minute of your available working hours may be one such opportunity. The more time your vehicles can be out on their routes, the better it is for your business.
Overnight mobile refueling provides a fleet of vehicles with full tanks every morning, allowing your drivers to head straight to their destinations. Thorough route planning can even avoid refueling trips throughout the day, allowing more operational time to meet your customers’ needs. Your mobile fueling provider can offer tips on these and other strategies to realize the full potential of their services.