Government Fuel Management
There are many areas of fuel management. Today I want to provide you with sound and easy methods to improve your government fuel management program now. There are 3 main keys to success in any government fuel management program.
• Fleet Card
• Controls
• Fuel Audits
With each type of government it is a matter of drilling down to make your fuel management program better.
With state governments they need the 3 main keys from there they need to make sure all of their fleet fueling is done on the same platform, which starts with the fleet card. There are a few good card providers out there such as 360 Comdata MasterCard and WEX to name a couple. A state government needs every fleet card to have controls on the vehicle, pin numbers, who fueled the vehicle, odometer reading, time of day fuelings can take place, how many times a day a vehicle can fuel.
All state government fixed site locations need to be able to accept the same fleet fuel card that can be used on the street at a retail fuel location. This allows all of the data to be warehoused in the same area, with the same controls. It also allows fuel audits to be performed easier. A fuel audit that reviews 30 out of 3,000 transactions is not a fuel audit. All fleet fuel transaction must be audited to be success.
Municipal government has the same needs as state government the difference is they operate in smaller geographic areas. This allows tighter controls to be put in place and improve fleet fuel discounts. A municipal government runs its fleet in certain areas or zip codes, this allows fuel locations out of these areas to be locked down or in other words your fleet won’t be able to get fuel there. Control. In the area that your fleet does buy fuel, your fuel purchasing manager can aggregate your fuel volume and negotiate discounts with retail fuel stations in your area. This will lower your fuel management cost and improve the controls on your fleet.
City governments depending on the size operate more like a state then municipality. In fuel management the biggest problem is theft. Do you read the stories in the internet about the amount of fuel thefts that happen? Most involve governments and it’s due to the lack of controls and processes that are in place. With the fleet fuel cards make it a rule that they pay at the pump, less change to steal off the fuel card if the transactions is happening at the pump. An example of fuel theft that happens off, your employee goes into the station asks for $30 on pump number 4. They go out and pump $20 and come back into the store in most cases the clerk at the store will give them back $10 in cash. And who said there are no free lunches. You have to audit everything.
As you dive into university fuel management you can tighten the controls more and improve your fuel discounts. Your fleet fueling is going to be taken place in a fairly small geographic area. Anything outside of your fuel area should shut off, again limit your exposure. Your fleet is operating in this small area, go to 1 or 2 suppliers and negotiate a discount for your fuel. Direct all of your fleet fuel card holders that these are the preferred locations for fueling. Follow up an audit the fleet fuel bill. Make sure the deals you put in place are really happening. A few pennies here can add up to tens of thousands of dollars real quick.
Fleet fuel cards, controls and fuel audits if your government fuel management program is doing these things you are on solid ground for success in your fleet fueling.
