How to increase savings on fuels
Within current intensified competition and more difficult enterpreneurship conditions reducing costs is a fundament of the prosperity.
The price of fuels gradually increases and, in addition to it, it also contains the wholesale margin of the dealer. One of the most effective ways to decrease the costs of operating the fleet is therefore the savings on fuels.
What should we then follow while designing the on-site refilling station? To simplify the matter, we can say that the most important fact is the fuel consumption. As this significantly influences the speed of the return of investments and simultaneously it determines the size of the refilling station.
Most likely, the most important thing in the designing phase is to turn to experts to get the valuable advice and solution made-to-measure. Namely as we are talking about the whole process from the project documentation preparations, getting all approvals, building phase and final installation of the relevant technology. The aim is to design such solution that will easily go through all the building certification, subsequently will have safe operation and long term reliable technology that will allow to keep low prices. That is why we will now interview Mr. Martin Pavlík from the Quitec enterprise. Mr. Pavlík has been working in this very specific field for more than nine years.
It has been already said that the fuel consumption determines the form of the refilling station, but in what way?
Monthly consumption of fuels not only determines the size of the storage tank but also presets the character of the refilling station, i.e. the amount of dispensers and their set up. Small capacity tank forces the operator to plan carefully and repeat the delivery more often and thereby, eventually, cause hindrance to the opening hours as well as increase costs for both the fuels and operation.
On the other hand, the overlarge tank leads to the long term storage that can be undesirable especially in the case of the diesel due to its potential separation. Naturally, if there are only a few vehicles who refuel at the station during the day, one dispenser with the enhanced performance will be sufficient. However, if there is a large number of vehicles, even though only during the morning or afternoon rush hours, it is necessary to furnish the station with several dispensing points. Nevertheless we cannot omit the fact that while increasing size of the tank and number of dispensers the price of the technology rises as well. Therefore an optimum project should be designed by an expert.
Despite the fact that I can save on fuel prices while operating the on-site refilling station, how to prevent uncontrolled losses and thefts of fuels?
As this question concerns practically each operator of the refilling station, we have developed a device - tankomat - that will solve this problem for ever. It is time proved, reliable system that functions on the principle of the local credit. Each driver gets a smart card or an electroinc key that determines him uniquely. Not a drop of fuel will be drawn to anyone not holding this electronic identification. Therefore an operator fully controls the evidence of the refilling. Moreover, this system brings along the sales of fuels also to the contractual partners and customers and thereby it accelerates the returns of the investment and brings interesting profits.
Tankomat is fully autonomous and attendance-free, will save cost on staff and allows the refuelling 24 hours a day. The investment on the tankomat will return fast and it will bring further savings. Just a matter of interest, in the majority of enterprises who had installed the tankomat the consumption of fuels decreased by 10 up to 20 per cent, especially due to the enhanced control over the filling. And everyone can recalculate the direct savings himself.
How many customers turn to you?
We have noted the increasing interest in our technology from the vehicle fleet operators and road carriers recently. They have realized that the investment to the on-site refilling station will return very quickly. The demand has significantly increased in the last months, however it is influenced by the forthcomming EU enlargening, and especially by ever increasing diesel prices.
The number of our new customers has markedly increased from the moment when we had introduced the mobile ecological plastic tanks fitted with our own technology for the storage and controlled discharging of the diesel. The plastic tanks brought along the possibility of cheaper filling for the large number of smaller enterprises that could not have afforded the investment previously. The decisive factors of this new technology are not only its low cost, but also the short delivery terms and easy installation. To erect the mobile plastic tank technology no building approval is required nor labour intensive construction works.
What rate of the investment returns did your customers experience?
It depends above all on the amount of the investment and on the fuel consumption. Larger companies of road carriers who also fill up diesel themselves did get back their refilling station investment within five or six months. However, in general, the investment into the classical refilling station usually returns within one or maximum two years. And the subsequent financial savings is longerm.
Moreover, due to the use of new plastic tanks and their low purchase price our customers can get rapid investment appreciation even if their consumption is low. We recommend these plastic tanks for diesel consumption between 5 and 20 thousand litres per month, for higher volumes of diesel or for petrols we usually choose the classical steel tank technology.