Ask the Fuel Expert

I’ve always hated math. Then they invented the calculator (yes, I’m that old). And for me and millions of other users that amazing gadget provided the first step into the wonderfully digitized world we live in today. I still hate math, but a lot of this type of automation has made life simpler and helps me make fewer mistakes.

There’s really nothing very fun about managing a fleet fuel budget. Nothing simple about figuring out where all of last year’s fuel dollars actually went. There’s the stack of receipts and the pages of invoices and a few spreadsheets that try to summarize it all. But there’s a lot those papers can’t tell you.

Unless you’ve been living on an island with Gilligan and the Skipper you’ve probably heard about the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. An explosion of the oil rig Deepwater Horizon on April 20, 2010 killed eleven workers and is currently spewing about more than 18,000 barrels of oil per day into gulf waters. The full extent of the damage won’t be known for a long time and the repercussions will be enormous. But what can businesses like ours learn from this?

I just about fell out of my chair. I know gas and oil prices have moved up over the last few months and we are on the verge of the annual summer bump in fuel prices, but when I heard about the possibility of a $7 dollar gallon, I had to do some digging. Where did that number come from?

It seems the prediction was made as a reaction to more stringent environmental controls on emissions coming in the future for both Canada and the US.

I used to cringe every spring when our Chief Accountant sent around the note advising me that it was “that time of year again.” I’m not talking about tax time, but time to plan the annual operations budget. Before resource management software came along we had to wade through a paper jungle just to get a ballpark estimate. Reports, notes, revise and re-revise, then repeat with the revised revisions that came in from all the other regions. And after finally receiving them, they had to be sorted, grouped and entered onto a single spreadsheet for all to read. Remember those days?

Nobody likes hassle. That’s why many fuel-reliant companies made the decision to use on site fuel storage tanks. It made sense. There was the convenience of having the fuel you needed close at hand, no need to drive to a card lock, and access was of course 24/7. What could possibly go wrong? I’ll tell you.

I like a good deal and as a business owner I always try to get the best price from our suppliers, while taking into consideration all of the facts looking beyond just price.

Take fuel for example.

If you are driving a few blocks to save a couple of cents per litre to fill up your car, it makes sense.

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I remember starting my working career as a kid, my employers told me what I was worth. At the time I think it was around a buck or two an hour. As time went on my “working-worth” increased steadily until I became an entrepreneur, then my value grew as a direct proportion to managing costs. So, I had to work smarter, not harder. Today that challenge continues for me, our associates and valuable clients.

How many invoices from suppliers come into your office each month? If you took the time to count them all, I am sure you’d be surprised. Chances are you don’t even see them; it’s likely someone in accounts payable who reconciles all the bills.

If you’re the boss you might sign the cheques or glance at the monthly cash flow statements as a review of where all that money went. But if you’re like most fuel-dependent companies, fuel is your highest expense after labour and when there’s lots of money at stake, mistakes are costly.

Ok, time for an oldie but a goodie…Time is money. How many times have you heard that line? And I did use the word “time” three times in the opening line on purpose, because you guessed it, “time” will be the focus of this offering.