Mobile fuel delivery services represent a significant opportunity for small fleet businesses to reduce operational costs, prevent fraud, and increase efficiency. By bringing fuel directly to vehicles rather than requiring drivers to visit gas stations, services like Booster’s eliminate several hidden expenses and streamline operations.
Leaving Money In Traffic
Fuel alone is a costly expense for any fleet. Last year, diesel fuel averaged $3.59/gallon. But that is just an average, and fleets that rely on their local fuel providers are beholden to the prices set locally. Many mobile fuel providers offer volume-based pricing models that can result in per-gallon savings compared to retail prices in your area.
Now let’s talk about the actual costs of refueling done by your team. Our research shows that on average, refueling trips require 2.2 miles of extra travel and upwards of 20 minutes per round trip. For some locations, the closest station with a reasonable price could be 10 miles away. Likewise, you may sit in traffic in LA for upwards of an hour, idling away precious resources while you make your way to refuel. That fuel costs money, and you’re leaving it on the roadway.
Depending on the size of your diesel engines, you could be spending as much as $350 on a full tank of diesel fuel. Assuming your vehicles are getting 18mpg, the fuel you need to get you to the gas station and back can cost your company $80 per vehicle per year. If your fleet has 20 vehicles, that’s $1600 per year just to get to and from a gas station to refill.
Unfortunately, you aren’t seeing $1,600 in value for that fuel if your drivers are sitting in traffic or spending their time hunting for the most affordable diesel in your area. Time is money, and every refueling trip requires an employee to stop doing the work you hired them to do so that they can drive out of their way to fill the tank.
Idle Hands Waste Money
Actual physical price of fuel aside, mobile fuel delivery further reduces your expenses by transferring the time spent by your employees, and how much that sets you back, from your P&L to your delivery company. Except for us, employees are doing exactly what they are being paid to do, making spend efficient and worthwhile.
Across our customer base, the hourly wage of drivers averages $25.24/hour.
With that in mind, we calculated a few fueling trips for you:
- An average round trip of 20 minutes costs you $8.41 per employee
- A long round trip to the gas station that lasts for a full 90 minutes because of traffic and distance costs $37.86 per employee
Do you landscape? Or send emergency medical techs out to save lives? It’s likely you have 3-5 employees in each van or truck because it takes that many people to do the job.
2 employees on an average trip just went from $8.41 to $16.82.
5 first responders deviating from the most efficient route back to the lot to fill their tank? $42.05
Now take these numbers and add in the average number of refuels per year. Booster’s research indicates that each truck needs to be refueled an average 183 times each year. You’re paying more than $1,540+ each vehicle, each year in the money you spend on labor alone, assuming only one employee is in the vehicle per trip.
For your employees at the home office, mobile fueling offers streamlined learnings with detailed analytics and consumption reports, giving fleet managers greater visibility into their fuel usage patterns. This data enables more accurate forecasting and helps identify vehicles with poor fuel efficiency that may require maintenance.
The Cost of Driving on Your Vehicle
Many fleet managers focus primarily on fuel prices while overlooking the cumulative impact of vehicle deterioration that occurs with each mile driven. Traditional fueling models require drivers to divert from their routes to find gas stations, often resulting in unnecessary mileage and vehicle wear-and-tear. When multiplied across an entire fleet, the losses can be substantial.
Remember that every vehicle on your lot is an asset of value that requires protection. Fleet vehicles represent capital investments that continue to impact your bottom line long after the initial purchase. Preserving these assets through strategic operational decisions directly affects your financial performance and competitiveness.
Outside the initial purchase price, your vehicles require regular oil changes, new tires, and attention to the general wear and tear that comes from driving – think windshield replacement from stray rocks, rust protection from tire churn, and all the fluids that keep your vehicles running. And every unnecessary trip to a gas station creates opportunities for accidents, undercarriage wear from road debris, and other avoidable damage. These maintenance requirements increase in direct proportion to mileage accumulation, creating a cascading effect on your maintenance budget. According to AAA’s 2019 Your Driving Cost Report, maintenance costs average $0.24 per mile while depreciation adds another $0.09, totaling $0.33 per mile in wear-related expenses. For fleet vehicles making frequent refueling detours, these things can really add up when you’re not paying attention.
Across your entire fleet, these extra miles for refueling trips add approximately $134 in additional expenditure per vehicle annually—a figure that multiplies rapidly with each vehicle you operate. This expense doesn’t include the opportunity cost of having vehicles diverted from productive routes or the increased likelihood of mechanical failures that occur with higher mileage.
Mobile fuel delivery eliminates unnecessary miles, extending vehicle lifespans and reducing maintenance intervals. The preservation of your fleet assets not only cuts immediate operational spend but also enhances potential resale values and delays replacement timelines, providing long-term financial benefits that significantly impact your overall fleet economics.
The Nuts & Bolts of Cost Reduction
While there are more factors that can affect your bottom line (like fraud & theft), the basic mathematics behind the expense of fueling don’t lie. By working with a mobile fuel delivery provider like Booster, you can recoup thousands of dollars every single year. We can help companies across the country cut down on wasted time, wasted resources, and wasted money by transferring the onus of refueling from your valuable employees to guaranteed refueling when and where it makes the most sense for you.
Learn more about how Booster can help you save money across your budget by contacting a member of our team.