Upgrade enables central management to support UK network.
Tuffnells Parcels Express operates a fleet of around 750 vehicles out of 26 depots across the United Kingdom. The distinctive green livery and strap-line The Big Green Parcel Machine….People Who Care, underlines the company’s approach to fuel management.
“We do express parcels overnight and fuel therefore represents a significant variable cost for our operations,” explains fleet director, David Joyce.
“Most of our regional depots have their own bulk diesel storage tank, some of which have been in place for over ten years. The fuel monitoring units were out of date and we had no central management capability.”
“Previously our depot staff would be responsible for the fuel records. This was time consuming as it involved manual intervention to dip the tanks and download the fuel usage records. This was old hat and we wanted a more efficient approach to the management and control of this valuable resource.”
Another important factor was in having full control of our data. Especially now with the way fuel prices are going we need to monitor fuel usage much more closely. That’s a core administrative function and far too important to be sub-contracted to a bureau service.
“We looked at the current proprietary software reporting systems on the market and made the decision to switch to Merridale. Our experience with the previous system enabled us to set out clear priorities for a replacement. Reliability was crucial, not only for the equipment but also our confidence in the supplier and on-going support.
“Another important factor was in having full control of our data. Especially now with the way fuel prices are going we need to monitor fuel usage much more closely. That’s a core administrative function and far too important to be sub-contracted to a bureau service.”
“Most depots will typically be consuming around 30K litres of diesel a week. Multiply this up across 26 sites and it becomes clear that we are talking about managing stock worth well over a million pounds a year. We wanted a robust, good quality system so we applied the rule – buy once then buy it well.”
“Merridale is easy to use and it provides the reports we need for cost accounting and the analysis of fleet economy performance.”
Tuffnells Express is now using Merridale monitoring across the board for all depots that have storage tanks. These include Andover, Brierley Hill, Coventry, Crawley, Felling nr Gateshead, Haydock, Ipswich, Leighton Buzzard, Newark, Newport, Northampton, Perth and Sheffield. Data from each of these installations is polled daily by the headquarters administration staff. The data is used to monitor stock and produce fleet usage reports for the depot managers. Details for depots with cards for external fuelling can also be imported into the Merridale software so that we have a complete picture.
