Updated:
09/19/2022
Times are tough for many businesses. If you run a business, you are looking to save money in any way possible. Fuel costs are truly challenging, and every little bit of cost that can be saved helps. This is especially true if your business has a large fleet of vehicles that need to be constantly refueled and serviced.
You may be concerned with keeping your fleet on the road while keeping other costs as low as possible. Many fleet-oriented businesses have opted for wet hosing to control their excessive fuel and maintenance costs.
What Is Wet Hosing?
In this article, we discuss some of the benefits that you will receive when choosing wet hosing as your commercial fuel delivery service.
Fuel Cards Are Risky
For many companies with fleet vehicles, managing fuel costs for the fleet has required the use of fuel cards or other methods like on-site fuel tanks. Fuel cards allow drivers to self-fuel their vehicles at retail or commercial fuel centers. The drawback of this is that it can take up to a half hour to fuel the vehicle. This is a half-hour of downtime not spent on a money-making activity.
Also, consider the time and distance away from the route a driver must take to get to the fueling station. For an especially large fleet, this adds up to greater maintenance costs for the fleet over time. In addition, employers must consider the possibility of drivers misusing their fuel cards. Employee theft is a real issue and costs businesses a lot of money.
Should I Use An On-Site Fuel Depot?
Another choice is to maintain a fuel depot on-site. This solves many of the issues with fuel cards. Fleet vehicles can be refueled from a central site. However, it can create more issues with premise safety, spills, the cost of hazard and liability insurance, and the costs of complying with federal, state, and local laws. In short, both of these fuel management practices have significant costs which are cutting into the bottom line of your business.
What Is Wet Hosing?
Wet hosing, also known as fleet fueling, direct fueling, or mobile on-site fueling, is when a fuel transport vehicle pumps directly from one tank into another. Most typically, this is done with large-scale construction site equipment and farming/agricultural machinery. Wet hosing solves many of these problems. Wet hosing has been used for decades to fuel large construction vehicles which cannot be fueled at any retail or commercial fueling station. First, it’s important to understand what wet hosing is.
With wet hosing, a fuel truck driver comes to your vehicle depot each day and fuels all the vehicles on site. A great benefit of this is that all the vehicles are filled at the same time, usually at night or after business operations for the day have ended. This keeps more drivers on the road because all start off fully fueled for the day.
Direct Fueling
Direct fueling of large-scale and heavy equipment is not something we think of until we actually have to do it. How often do you see a front-end loader or crane being fueled at your local gas station? More than likely, you probably haven’t.
Bulk fuel transport companies, such as Tevis Energy, have tankers of all sizes that deliver to private fuel tanks on farms and businesses’ property, allowing for a private gas station to fuel the fleet. Wet-hosing on-site equipment means the fuel is delivered directly from the transport tanker into the heavy machinery or large storage tanks on private property. Direct fueling to heavy machinery and private storage tanks saves time and money.
Simplify Your Paperwork And Administrative Overhead
The driver scans the vehicle electronically and keeps track of how much fuel each vehicle requires. This is all put into a report which then can be sent to company management for evaluation. This reduces a lot of administrative time compiling receipts for fuel card purchases. These receipts are often times are lost by drivers. This makes accurate fuel consumption reports much more difficult.
An easy consolidated report also helps with tax reporting on fuel costs. Another benefit is that these reports make cost projections and tracking how much fuel each vehicle is using much simpler. Given that a single driver from the wet hosing company is fueling all the vehicles, employee theft or fraud from fuel card purchases is either greatly reduced or eliminated.
The tracking report also makes it simple to see if there are any unusual or unexplained changes in fuel consumption by any given vehicle or its driver. There are also savings by preventing employees from diverting from a route to get fuel. The reduced maintenance costs from the diversions add up over time.
Is Wet Hosing Right For Me?
However, there are some issues with wet hosing to consider. One is that for fleets not based in a central depot, wet hosing may not make sense as the labor costs to go to the other sites is significantly higher. Wet-hosing operators may charge more for smaller fleets as they have to optimize their own routes. Having a single fueling time and place may make a business more vulnerable to missed deliveries.
An on-site fuel tank may not be the best solution either. While you save on the labor and transport costs from the wet hosing, the added costs from compliance with federal, state, and local rules on fuel storage and storage tanks add complications. This may not always be a good solution for your business. Let someone else deal with those issues!
A single driver who fuels all the fleet vehicles exposes the business to lower liability from spills or other safety issues if your drivers did this themselves. This also doesn’t take into account the cost of liability insurance from having a large fuel tank on your property.
Additional Benefits of Wet-Hosing
- Fuel inventory control: Direct Fueling greatly reduces the possibility of theft of products.
- Convenience: Fuel is delivered directly to the machinery in need.
- Increased productivity: Eliminates the need to stop for fuel during work hours.
- Environmentally conscious: Reduces insurance concerns associated with on-site fueling tanks.
Conclusion
Wet hosing can save on costs versus more traditional methods of keeping your fleet fueled. However, these costs have to be strictly compared to the costs of hiring a company to do the fueling for you. If you hire someone, you are paying for expensive labor and transportation in addition to the cost of the fuel.
For your fleet operators to do it themselves exposes you to risks of employee theft, increased wear on vehicles, and lost revenue from downtime. If you have an on site tank, you have the possibility of spillage or other liability costs. Insurance costs from keeping a fuel tank on your business property also add up. In light of all this, wet hosing has to be considered a significant option for saving money in difficult times.
Contact Tevis Energy For Your Fuel Delivery Needs
Tevis Energy is a trustworthy HVAC company and fuel delivery company that services central Maryland and southern Pennsylvania. Our company offers affordable and the most competitive fuel prices in the area. Our goal is to provide you with excellent products and services. When you choose us to be your commercial fuel supplier, you can rest easy knowing that you will have correct and prompt deliveries at the best possible prices. Furthermore, we offer various delivery plans and financing options, so you can customize your deliveries to meet your needs. Be sure to call us today to learn more.
Tevis Energy has certified and highly trained HVAC technicians to cater to all your heating and cooling needs. We guarantee that each of our techs has the experience, skills, and knowledge to provide excellent HVAC services. Our team can assist you with installations, repairs, maintenance, and much more. Our superior HVAC solutions always come at affordable costs.
Call us today to learn more about the products and services our company offers. We provide free, in-home estimates.
You can click here to contact us now or call us at (410) 876-6800 to find out more!
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