Fuel Savings on the Buses

Buses are normally fuelled during the night as part of a routine turnaround procedure in which vehicles are cleaned and prepared for the next day's services. During the process, accurate data must be logged for the fuel drawn and vehicle mileages. This is required for maintenance schedules as well as general fleet administration.

One of the most important tasks is the calculation of the fuel duty rebate, which is allowed by the government to offset the costs of providing public transport to communities within rural areas.

As part of a major investment to improve fuel management, East Yorkshire Motor Services (EYMS) has installed Merridale fuel dispensing systems at its main headquarters depot in Hull. Three fuelling islands have been equipped with Merridale FS Auditor pump and integral fuel monitoring control units supplied by MIS Fuel Monitoring of Wolverhampton. The installation work was undertaken by Harden Pump & Tank Company.

The new system allows fuel usage to be correlated against service routes, a feature which has provided immediate savings by eliminating the need to transfer data into the computer from handwritten records.

"Since key details are entered automatically as the fuel is dispensed, it also removes any possibilities for errors in recording fuel usage," explains John Ellis manager of the EYMS parts supply division.

"Vehicle turnarounds are usually against the clock and having to update manual records in the small hours of a freezing cold night is asking for trouble. Under software control, our new system is absolutely foolproof. Each of our shunter drivers is allocated a key to activate the pump and information required to authorise the transaction, such as fleet vehicle number and mileage, must first be entered by keypad before the fuel can be drawn off."

"Keys are allocated to individuals, so we know which operative has used the pump. And every vehicle in our fleet has to be registered on the database in order to draw fuel from the Hull facilities. From this starting point we now have complete management control over the allocation of our fuel supplies."

John Ellis stressed the need for accuracy in preparing returns for fuel duty rebates as this will clearly reduce queries and enable claims to be processed as quickly as possible. "An important factor for choosing the Merridale software was that it was fully compatible with the accounting system used by the EYMS fuel duty auditors," he added.

Currently East Yorkshire Motor Services operates around 360 buses of which 160 are fuelled routinely in Hull. The remainder operate from ten outer depots serving a region covering the North Yorkshire Moors and seaside towns such as Scarborough, Hornsea and Bridlington. It is intended eventually to bring these depots in line with the Merridale system so that vehicles can draw fuel from any part of the company network. The information from all these transactions would then be downloaded by GSM data links, as required for analysis and the production of management reports.

In addition to the fuel duty rebates other benefits of the system will provide the means of recording vehicle economy performance with average miles per gallon for the fleet. This will highlight any vehicles which may be below standard. The EYMS fleet comprises a mix of buses and coaches based on Volvos, Leylands, Dennis and Mercedes. By classifying similar makes and specifications, the software can be used to benchmark vehicles against different routes and traffic conditions and assist in future buying decisions.

The Merridale system has been in service at Hull for nearly twelve months. "Like all new equipment, there was a period of change and some problems as it was being implemented, however these were managed very well by Harden Pump & Tank," said John Ellis. "We also received good training and support from Merridale."

John Ellis provided the link between the suppliers and all the EYMS staff using the Merridale system. "It was important to have the shunter drivers on side as they were at the point of entry for data. I was surprised how easy it was adopted. It just went in as a new system. We had to make some adjustments to allow greater flexibility in the levels of control but if everything else went as smoothly when making changes to working procedures, then I would be quite happy."