Advance Fuels

Fuel distributer makes big advances with vehicle tracking

The South’s fastest growing oil distributer, Advance Fuels, prides itself on excellent relationships with customers and a steadfast commitment to providing an efficient and reliable service. So it came as no surprise when the company recently invested in ATEX-approved vehicle tracking technology to help bolster all three of these essential qualities.

Based in Croydon and Harefield, Advance Fuels has been specialising in commercial, industrial and domestic fuel distribution since 2006 when owners, Nigel Woods and Bob Saw, pooled 70 years of industry experience and ensured the company quickly established itself amongst the region’s leading suppliers.

The company’s core business comes from industrial and domestic heating oil and red diesel which is commonly used in farm and site machinery. In all cases, good response times are absolutely crucial for its customers as without fuel, construction sites can grind to a halt and homes and factories can be left out in the cold.

In January 2010 the company rolled out state-of-the-art vehicle tracking across its entire fleet and has since made a hectic delivery schedule a walk in the park.

Advances in customer service

With 25 high-tech oil tankers on the road around the clock, six days a week, and a 24-hour emergency call-out available, the firm’s commitment to customer satisfaction is beyond doubt.

“Our customers rely on us to provide a timely service but with many located off the beaten track, particularly our domestic customers who depend on heating oil for their household appliances, getting to them isn’t always easy,” says Alex McCombe, Logistics and Health and Safety Manager at Advance Fuels.

“With vehicle tracking we can now find our customers more easily and give them precise arrival times - something which can provide a great deal of comfort and reassurance, especially in emergencies. This has been particularly valuable for our elderly clients throughout the cold snap earlier in the year.

“Live traffic updates on the tracking software have also allowed us to be able to alert our drivers to hold-ups and make sure they are always getting to our customers in the quickest time possible.”

Advances in duty of care

The Qube, the device at the heart of Navman Wireless vehicle tracking, was the first of its kind to meet the strict health and safety legislation of the ATEX directive – a legal requirement for companies like Advance Fuels who operate in potentially explosive environments.

“What we needed was an ATEX approved tracking device combined with an in-cab unit with good messaging and routing capabilities.

“We’d been in the market for such a solution for about two years but it wasn’t until we heard from Navman Wireless that we discovered exactly what we’d been searching for.”

Alex explains how the tracking system, since its install, has been instrumental in improving the company’s duty of care to staff while considerably speeding up time-consuming admin:

“Each driver has his own unique pin code which he needs to enter in the in-cab device every morning. Once this is entered, the system prompts the driver to carry out a mandatory vehicle inspection to make sure the vehicle is safe and road worthy.

“The systems maintenance reporting functionality has also become an invaluable tool as it alerts us to when vehicles are due for services, MOT’s and new road tax – a painstaking task which used to take great deal of time.”

Advances in cost reduction

Only six months into their vehicle tracking usage and the company has already started to see notable reductions in fuel use and tyre wear as a consequence of better vehicle allocation and the elimination of unnecessary mileage.

“We’ve just carried out an annual audit which has suggested that the tracking system is already paying for itself while significantly improving business efficiencies.”