Many fuel companies look for ways to grow their businesses. How can you better leverage your equipment to do more? Where can you increase efficiency? How can you maximize your profits? We sat down with Eric Bunts of Mirabito Holdings and Stephen Nantier of Wine Energy as they discussed how fleet fueling, also known as wet hosing, provided the perfect opportunity.
What is Fleet Fueling?
Fleet fueling is a service that saves your customers time and money by having you fill their vehicles or equipment with fuel, eliminating the time it would take for their employees to drive to a retailer to fill up themselves. The service also includes the sharing of information about fuel usage per vehicle to help them better track and plan.
Growing the Business
The benefit to you, a fuel distributor, is to gain sales from a service that is not seasonal. Fleet fueling is a year-round business, so you can increase sales during the normally slow summer season. Also, fleet fueling is often performed in the evening hours, when your trucks are typically done for the day and available. This service lets you maximize the use of your own equipment.
Stephen noticed significant growth in Wine Energy since offering fleet fueling. Previously, slow seasons forced the company to perform commercial work during the summer in an attempt to offset the loss of heating oil sales. Fleet fueling helped to create work during that slow period.
The Benefits of Technology
The service alone can help grow your business, but technology is a key ingredient for success. The greatest growth, Eric emphasizes, stems from the ease of reporting. Raven® Fleet Fueler, ADD Systems mobile solution, adds reporting capabilities that make it easier to meet your customers’ unique needs. Eric explained, “the more you’re able to report, the more you’re able to automate, and the more you’re able to satisfy your customer requests.” The reports from fleet fueling are flexible to accommodate diverse customer billing and reporting requirements, which leads to a more successful business with more customers.
Navigating Challenges
Much like any other transition period for a business, there are challenges. Eric and Stephen shared some best practices.
Since fleet fueling requires availability 365 days of the year and work outside of the normal eight-hour workday, it can put stress on your workforce. The best way to combat this situation, according to Eric, is to identify and anticipate challenges and communicate well with your team. Mirabito provided greater time allotment at the beginning of their new fleet fueling program, like any other new endeavor, until successful processes were in place.
Along the same lines, Stephen stressed the importance of hiring more staff to avoid overburdening current staff: “You have to dedicate real resources to it if you’re going to succeed.” To that end, Wine Energy hired a new member strictly to focus on fleet fueling.
Intentional Training
Eric expressed the importance of technology coupled with proper training. “The technology will get you 80% of the way there. The training, support, and cultural changes will take you the last 20%.” That’s why, for Mirabito, the emphasis is put on training and a thorough understanding of the process. He shared that it is important for everyone to fully understand the solutions on the delivery and back office side to ensure the entire business runs efficiently.
Raven Fleet Fueler
Wine Energy and Mirabito both identify the necessity of running the latest technology, Raven Fleet Fueler, to truly satisfy your customers and meet their requirements. When asked if you can be successful without technology, Stephen replied, “No chance, that’s why we went to Raven. We got to the point where customer expectation is just way too high.”
Mirabito implemented Raven Fleet Fueler because of its ability to remove friction: “We wanted to ensure that whatever solution we went with, it was going to make it easier on the driver, easier on the back office personnel and that it was going to drive value for the customer.” They needed it to help with efficiency overall, both in the field and the office.
ADD Systems’ Raven Fleet Fueler provides this efficiency and accuracy to help you succeed. With Raven Fleet Fueler, you can:
- Minimize your driver’s onsite time
- Eliminate the need for a second employee in the truck to track gallons delivered
- Easily and accurately identify each piece of equipment being filled
- Automatically capture all the delivery detail and print it on the delivery ticket
- Easily capture a customer signature
- Efficiently tag new assets while out on delivery
Eric’s final remarks reiterated the importance of planning for the initial implementation. Stephen followed up by emphasizing that, while there will be challenges, fleet fueling’s ability to strengthen your company will make the process worth it.
Learn More
If you’re looking to implement fleet fueling at your company, or if you already offer the service but want to maximize efficiency, look at Raven Fleet Fueler. Contact your ADD Systems account representative today for more information or to schedule a demo.
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