How do lubes and fuel distributors continue to add new customers and grow revenue in today’s challenging environment of finding additional drivers and adding delivery trucks? The answer is using two current technologies that integrate and produce significant efficiency improvements and new customer growth opportunities at a fraction of the cost of adding drivers and delivery trucks.
Routing and Mobile Delivery Software
These distributors move from inefficient paper-based routing and delivery with no trip or driver visibility to a digital, paperless routing and delivery solution that optimizes the delivery process and gives dispatch 100% real-time visibility into the trip, driver activity, and truck inventory.
Optimizing delivery routes and enforcing driver compliance will increase driver productivity and result in more deliveries/day/driver.
For example, an optimized, visible, and driver-compliant route can save anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes per day or more of driver delivery time. With the daily driver time savings combined with the ability to see the truck’s real-time inventory, you can add 1 to 2 more deliveries per day per driver. With a fleet of 10 trucks, that is 10 to 20 more deliveries per day which is equivalent to adding 1 -2 new trucks using your current fleet more efficiently.
Tank Monitoring and Forecasting
Lubes and fuel distributors face several challenges in managing their customers’ tank deliveries.
- What’s my tank delivery efficiency?
- How many tanks do I service?
- What percent are keep-full?
- What percent do I monitor?
- How can I determine which tanks I should monitor based on data?
The graph above shows a sample of the average tank delivery percentage of various tank types and all tanks.
Tank delivery efficiency is the percent of tank capacity you deliver. A 500-gal tank can take deliveries up to approximately 450 gallons factoring in the heel and 10% for the max safe fill level. An average delivery quantity of 200 gals is only a delivery efficiency of 44%.
The target goal is a 70% delivery drop efficiency that incorporates the heel and an average safety stock level. How do fuel and lubes distributors get there if the goal is to get to 70%?
First, use their tank management software to manage their existing tank monitors effectively. Second, use the tank management, routing, and mobile delivery software’s historical delivery data to strategically add tank monitors to the proper tanks. Third, the remaining unmonitored tanks use historical data and AI and ML tank forecasting capabilities available through these software solutions to increase the delivery drop percentage while reducing the number of delivery trips.
So, what can lube and fuel distributors gain by utilizing these tank management tools? A 15% increase in delivered volume on 500k/gal per month saves 200 stops and $275k per year.
Suppose your company is still routing and delivering on paper and wants to grow, become more efficient, and increase profits by going digital and paperless. In that case, BizSpeed and our best-in-class routing and mobile delivery solutions are here to take you paperless.
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