Hounslow's Key to Fuel and Security

All local authorities are major consumers of diesel fuel and the London Borough of Hounslow is no exception. Deliveries to the Environmental Direct Services' Bridge Road depot are currently running at 20,000 litres every two weeks.

The majority of the Council's vehicles are diesel powered. Fuel is purchased in bulk and dispensed from the depot storage tanks. Fuel for petrol vehicles is purchased from retail sites using agency cards. Petrol facilities at Bridge Road have been refurbished and converted for diesel use. Currently there are five tanks giving a total capacity of 64,500 litres. Plans are in hand to commission an additional fuelling facility off-site, which will also serve as a strategic reserve, providing another 30,000 litres' capacity. Lessons are being applied from the experience of the fuel crisis of 2000.

With an annual fuel bill of around £500,000, managing the usage of such a valuable asset is a serious responsibility. Strict accountability is the rule and every litre drawn from the Council supplies is recorded and allocated against the vehicle and its operating department.

Council departments such as Waste Collection, Housing, and Social Services all operate a variety of different types of vehicles. In former times, fuel distribution relied on local meter readings and laborious manual records.

Nowadays budgets are more closely controlled and each department has to monitor its operating costs closely. They all have a budget for fuel, and the department managers want to know exactly what went into their vehicles. As well as developing individual department responsibility, the Council's Vehicle Fleet Management team is also getting more detailed management information such as vehicle economy by calculating miles per gallon (mpg). This is important in that it allows better-informed decisions to be made in the procurement of new vehicles.

These improvements have been helped by the installation of Merridale pump control units and software supplied by MIS Fuel Monitoring of Wolverhampton. Operated by keys, these units record details of every fuelling transaction, as authorised by driver and vehicle ID keys, and the entry of the vehicle mileage reading. This data, together with time and amount of fuel drawn, can then be downloaded as required to the fleet administration computer via an electronic link.

Functionality within the Merridale software allows this data to be sorted and analysed before being passed over to the central accounts department for recharging to the 'customer' departments. This processing stage includes the addition of any external transactions by fuel cards, and service charges such as engine oil, which can also be monitored by using Merridale control units.

Currently, the London Borough of Hounslow operates over 300 vehicles in a diverse fleet ranging from four axle roll-on, roll-off lorries; three axle refuse vehicles; gulley emptiers; eight-tonne trucks, light commercials with flat backs and cages; 17 and 15-seat minibuses; and a number of light vans and a couple of estate cars. The entire fleet is supported from the Bridge Road depot, which is fully equipped to provide workshop and cleaning facilities.

As in other areas of the Council's administration, computer systems have been introduced for greater efficiency and to reduce the clerical workload involved in former procedures. For diesel fuelling, each vehicle is allocated a key into which its fleet number is programmed so it will be recognised by the system. Keys are also issued for long-term hire vehicles. Transactions for short-term hire vehicles are processed by registration number. Drivers are issued a separate key that confirms their personal identity details.

Staff in Vehicle Fleet Management say the use of keys has worked very well. "The system hit the ground running and it has never let us down. The software is simple to use and has been well tried and tested, and the hardware is also very robust."

Building on this success in managing the refuelling process, the London Borough of Hounslow has also installed Merridale FR units for controlling gate access into the depot facilities. These have replaced a swipe-card system which had become uneconomic to maintain. An important advantage is that vehicle drivers can use the same key to obtain access to the site. Since the keys are programmable, access can be preset to distinguish between different facilities. As well as providing 24-hour access, the system provides a historical record of every movement, a further benefit in improving management efficiency. Plans are now being considered for extending the Merridale system to cover the vehicle wash facilities.