Barnet Council Builds for the Future

In the on-going quest for improving services and achieving value for money, many local authorities are actively developing strategies for working in partnership with key service providers. For the London Borough of Barnet this has resulted in a number of initiatives, in particular the operation and maintenance of its vehicle fleet operating out of the council's Mill Hill depot in North London.

With some three hundred vehicles on its books the decision has been taken to out-source the procurement and service support for vehicles to a fleet management specialist. Coupled with this the council is reviewing the type of vehicles it operates. Whilst most of the fleet are currently diesel powered, the council is increasing the use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as a cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternative to unleaded petrol.

To support these measures Barnet has upgraded its fuel storage facilities with the installation of Merridale diesel pumps and fuel management systems. The Merridale equipment records all re-fuelling transactions and provides an electronic link to the stores computer management system.

"Diesel fuel is the single most expensive item we stock," explains Barnet Council stores controller, Jeff Hackett. "We have capacity for 30 thousand litres of diesel and at present we are buying 20 thousand litres a week to match consumption. This amounts to an annual fuel bill of around £650K".

Keeping track on fuel usage is a high priority and the council has always used some form of monitoring. Previously the transaction details were supplied on a printed till roll which was time consuming as information had to be transferred onto a spread sheet. It had been estimated that administration of the User accounts takes up around 18 percent of the stock controller's time.

"We are still spending this amount of time, but more effectively in terms of active management as opposed to sorting out queries," says Jeff Hackett, adding. "The information comes straight into my PC in a suitable format for creating supply reports for our various 'User' departments.

The Merridale Auditor system uses a single key allocated to the vehicle and user account. To obtain fuel drivers must input the vehicle odometer reading. So in addition to keeping an accurate record of fuel usage, the system also tracks mileage and can be used to calculate mpg consumption and flag up service intervals.

"The refuse and street cleansing vehicles are our biggest users, followed by social services' mini-buses. All our user departments are required to maintain detailed records of operating costs. There would be serious repercussions if anything should go wrong with fuel monitoring," said Jeff Hackett.

"The new software provides a good audit trail on all our fuel transactions. We can tailor reports to each department's specific requirement. The system is easy to use and update and add details of new vehicles as the fleet changes. We can also provide the transport and vehicle maintenance department with vehicle summaries and information to support service requirements."

Fuel is dispensed from two pumps, the first of which is an integral unit incorporating the fuel monitoring control unit, which controls both pumps. The Merridale system was selected following the evaluation of sample software from several potential vendors including the supplier of the previous monitoring unit.

"We liked the way the Merridale software worked and when it came to competitive quotes it was also the best value for money," said Barnet's senior procurement officer, Philip Evans.

"The purchase of a combined installation from a single source was also an important factor in choosing the Merridale system. The integrity of the system is important and with only one supplier involved service support was less complicated and we felt confident that Merridale could guarantee operational reliability," he added.

"Reliability is important as systems such this are the basic building blocks required for future more integrated networks of resource management and e-commerce procurement facilities."