A Dynamic Evolution

Kevin’s story with Booster began when he joined as a General Manager tasked with spearheading the launch and management of Booster’s operations in Southern California. His impact was undeniable, as he constructed a robust sales, account management, and operations team.  Wanting to apply this success forward, Kevin took on additional responsibility through the added territory and ended up leading field operations nationwide.

Kevin’s strategic acumen and ability to navigate complex challenges naturally, his contributions quickly grew beyond field operations and progressed into helping shape corporate operations which included departments in sales and operations planning, operational analysis, real estate, supply chain, and fleet management.  Recognizing Booster’s mobile energy platform could span across a variety of energy types, Kevin assisted in pushing forward Booster’s sustainability efforts starting with converting from traditional diesel to renewable diesel which reduced Booster’s customers’ carbon footprint by 70%.  Additionally, Kevin created strategic partnerships to deliver mobile electric vehicle charging and hydrogen via Booster Marketplace placing Booster at the forefront to help accelerate the adoption of renewable energy.

Prior to Booster Kevin’s career originated in corporate finance where he mastered the ability to tell stories with numbers.  “Numbers have a tendency to only tell partial truths, it’s understanding the drivers of numbers is where the real value is created.” Kevin’s unique background in finance when mixed with operations and his relentless drive to  “be in the arena” has continuously driven him to deliver results side by side with his team.

Passion and Purpose

When asked about what fuels his passion for his work, Kevin’s eyes light up. It’s the people he works alongside and the company’s mission that inspire him each day. Booster’s mission, to provide mobile energy by meeting customers where they are and taking them where they’re going, resonates deeply with Kevin. This mission isn’t just about fuel; it’s about transforming the way we perceive energy consumption, shortening supply chains, enhancing customer experiences, and accelerating the shift toward renewable energy sources. It’s a vision that Kevin believes is truly transformative, not just for Booster, but for the world.

Lessons Learned and Growth Mindset

Kevin’s journey has been marked by valuable lessons, some learned the hard way, and others through the guidance of mentors. Two lessons that have become guiding principles for him are “it’s never too early to start working on anything” and the power of embracing failure. The former emphasizes the importance of taking initiative and breaking down daunting tasks into actionable steps. The latter underscores the value of failing fast and turning failures into learning opportunities, fostering innovation, and collaboration, and leading to accelerated growth within teams.

Beyond Booster

Outside of the company, Kevin is engaged in earning an Executive MBA program at UCLA Anderson School of Management to further his personal and professional growth.  He enjoys a life filled with family, music, art, running, and travel. However, at the forefront, he attributes much of his grounding and success to his family. His wife, Sarah, an accomplished architect, has been his cornerstone, and their two children, Molly and Hudson, are his daily reminders of what matters most in life.

A Leader for the Future

Kevin McGee is more than just a team member; he is a leader who exemplifies what Booster aims to be—a company focused on innovation, sustainability, and above all, people. As he moves into his next chapter to lead our Finance and Accounting teams on an interim basis before he finds a new home in Corporate Strategy, we are excited to see how he will blend his expertise in finance, operations, and business development to continuously shape Boosters future.

Join us in celebrating Kevin, a teammate whose journey shows what is possible when you combine passion with purpose and chart a course to influence a new road for the future.

The post Spotlight on Booster Teammate: Kevin McGee – Evolution of Leadership appeared first on BOOSTER.

Accelerating Decarbonization

Booster recognizes the urgency of addressing climate change and has made it a core part of our mission. By actively working towards decarbonization, we take responsibility for their environmental impact and even that of our customers. By offering clean and sustainable solutions, Booster is a leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and transitioning towards a low-carbon future. From promoting electric vehicles and renewable energy sources to advocating for sustainable practices, we take pride in our commitment to decarbonization. We only have one world and we want to help make it better for future generations.

Combining Play, Purpose, and Potential

Booster believes that work should not only be fulfilling but also enjoyable. We know that when our teammates find purpose and meaning in their work, their performance improves, and their commitment to creating positive change is amplified. Every day, we strive to create a work environment that fosters innovation, creativity, and collaboration. This unique approach empowers employees to unleash their full potential and contribute to the company’s overarching mission of stewardship.

Active Listening and Respect for Diverse Perspectives

Diversity and inclusion are not mere buzzwords for Booster; they are foundational values. We recognize the power of different perspectives and actively cultivates an inclusive environment where everyone feels heard, valued, and respected. By actively listening to diverse voices, Booster embraces fresh ideas, promotes innovation, and builds a culture that thrives on diversity. This commitment to inclusivity extends beyond the company’s walls and into the wider community, creating a ripple effect of positive change.

Prosperity for People, Company, Customers, and Community

Booster understands that true prosperity lies in the holistic well-being of its people, company, customers, and community. By prioritizing the welfare of all stakeholders, Booster creates a positive cycle of success. Employees are empowered and supported, resulting in increased productivity and job satisfaction. Customers benefit from high-quality, sustainable solutions that contribute to their own well-being. The community at large reaps the rewards of Booster’s stewardship, experiencing positive economic, social, and environmental impacts. This interconnectedness drives growth and prosperity for all.

If we had to boil it down to one thing, at the heart of it all is unlocking the magic inside people and using that positive energy for good for the world. Booster cares and has a commitment to doing good.

Interested in a career with Booster? We’re hiring! Join the Booster team.

The post Stewardship: A Way of Life at Booster appeared first on BOOSTER.

As society accepts that curbing climate change and protecting environmental health will require a top-to-bottom restructuring of nearly all our societal operating structures — from the way we grow food to the way we get around — Earth Day has become a moment to consider bold innovation. A moment to reprioritize the ways we invest in our planet.

In the U.S., we’re seeing this commitment across the board from the landmark clean energy funding in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and President Biden’s efforts to speed the transition to electric vehicles, to the growth in ESG investing (Nasdaq reports that investments in ESG strategies grew 42% from 2018 to 2020) and consumer-driven shift toward cleaner, greener products.

At Booster, this movement means just as much to us. Not only does a large portion of our mission center on bringing sustainable solutions to the transportation industry (currently the highest polluting industry in the U.S., according to EPA), but our own business practices are also built with sustainability first.

Our Sustainable Business Practices

When building environmental stewardship initiatives into our sustainable business practices, we align our efforts with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — a collection of 17 global goals designed to provide a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.”

Our sustainable business practices span all three pillars of ESG, and are guided by specific SDGs to ensure we remain at the forefront of sustainability’s evolving definitions. But because so much of our core business offering centers on sustainable, decarbonized energy solutions, environmental stewardship naturally is at the heart of our day-to-day and remains one of our largest drivers. We take calculated action to minimize our own energy, water, waste, and environmental impacts, both in our daily operations and throughout our value chain.

Our environmental policies begin first and foremost with safety, both for the environment and our communities. Because fuels can be harmful to the environment when mishandled, all our Service Professionals follow strict protocols to minimize risk of spillage and hazardous accidents. This includes the requirement of a CDL Class C permit with hazmat and tanker endorsements; adherence to the highest safety requirements set by the International Fire Code, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency, and more; and a three-stage Perfect Boost spill prevention protocol with a zero-drip policy. These safety requirements ensure we comply with air quality standards and protect the environments in which we fuel.

Our other sustainable business practices include participation in the California Clean Air Day Pledge, our transition of nearly all diesel-fueled California-based fleets to renewable diesel (which offers up to 85% fewer lifecycle emissions than its petroleum counterpart), and the use of renewable diesel for our own fleet of Smart Tankers in all locations where it is available. We have also developed proprietary route planning software for our fleet, which ensures we get the most productivity out of every fuel gallon burned.

Our Commitment to Sustainable Transportation

Historically, technological limitations have constrained conventional energy delivery providers
to few products and offered limited energy management insights. Identifying the need for solutions to service the growing range of vehicle types among fleets, Booster has invested over $100m to develop the technology necessary for efficient delivery of mixed energy sources such as gasoline, diesel, H2, renewables, EV.

With its unique service, Booster helps fleet customers meet their sustainability and ESG-related goals by saving time, miles, money, and emissions with fuel delivery. It is reinventing the supply chain by eliminating risks, streamlining operations, and decreasing harmful emissions in the transportation and delivery industries.

Mobile fuel delivery reduces emissions in two ways: 1) by reducing overall miles driven (and thus emissions generated), and 2) through reductions realized by the adoption of sustainable alternative fuels. Booster service reduces 587 lbs of carbon emissions per diesel vehicle annually on average.

Booster’s commitment to expanding access to sustainable alternative fuels is another way we support sustainable transportation. Created from renewable feedstocks like biomass, municipal waste, industrial scrap and more, sustainable alternative fuels can serve as direct replacements for conventional fuels with no equipment upgrades or replacements. They offer lower carbon emissions, better performance, and are many times comparable in cost to their conventional counterparts.

Though sustainable fuels are gaining traction as a decarbonization solution, they are rarely available at gas stations. Mobile fueling makes a range of sustainable fuels readily available without the need for the development of fixed infrastructure to support them.

Investing in Our Planet for More than Just Earth Day

In the modern landscape, where decisions both large and small, in business and in the home, are being significantly guided by environmental considerations, Earth Day now stands for much more than the fight for environmental stewardship. At Booster, we recognize this and take concrete steps to invest in our planet through both our internal practices and our service offerings.

“Here at Booster, our greatest opportunity to build a more sustainable world is through the tech-driven mobile energy services we provide our customers — our contribution to that diverse lineup of energy solutions,” writes Booster CEO and co-founder Frank MyCroft in Booster’s 2022 ESG commitment. “But it’s not enough to only look externally; we must also examine our own business practices and operations to ensure we are making the strongest sustainability commitments to the environment, our people, and the governance of our company.”

We are constantly evaluating and upgrading our sustainable business practices and our commitments to furthering sustainable transportation. This Earth Day, we celebrate the call to Invest in Our Planet. Let’s honor Earth for all it provides, by giving back and taking charge to create more sustainable societal systems for our planet and our people.

The post Earth Day Stands for More Than Environmental Stewardship Alone appeared first on BOOSTER.

To us, integrity means doing the right thing, even when no one is looking.

Business Integrity

At Booster, we recognize that examples are set at the highest level of business, and the actions of our leaders and overall company set the tone for the actions of all Booster team members. With this in mind, we hold ourselves and our business accountable with robust corporate governance protocols. Good governance is a critical pillar of any business. This includes complying with all applicable laws, rules, regulations, and policies, all while remaining dedicated to our six core values.

To establish ethical and fair action standards, Booster has a qualified Board of Directors in place and maintains governance through its Audit and Compensation Committees. Each Committee ensures Booster fulfills the highest possible standards for equity, fairness, transparency, and ethics.

To protect the interests — and the integrity — of our employees and company, all Booster employees are expected to avoid any conflict of interest when conducting their business dealings with customers, suppliers, partners, and vendors. Our most prominent suppliers include Chevron, Phillips 66, and other global energy providers that are required to certify the environmental impact of their products and operations.

Personal Integrity

At the team member level, we each work to foster integrity within ourselves and our spheres of influence. We are honest with ourselves, our teammates, and our customers. We take ownership of our actions and have the courage to act with integrity, even when it’s inconvenient.

Integrity can be a daily value that underpins our personal and professional lives. It often means looking in the mirror before pointing fingers and seeking good in other people, even when they make mistakes. Integrity unlocks humility, open-mindedness, and curiosity to new ideas, allowing us to grow the company and move it forward effectively.

Our directors and all employees, including senior management, conduct themselves in accordance with the highest moral and ethical standards, informed by a robust Employee Handbook that contains business conduct and ethics policies. We also have strict policies to protect against discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, as well as an open-door policy to encourage honest and direct communication to resolve issues and concerns expeditiously.

Keeping in line with our high value of integrity requires vigilance and introspection. To ensure our team members maintain the highest level of integrity at all times, they perform self-check-ins, asking themselves:

• How did I act with integrity today?
• Did I verbally take responsibility for my work or actions this week or did I seek to make excuses or blame others?
• When was the last time I did the right thing knowing there were serious consequences?
• Did I treat my internal and external customers with respect this week?

Letting these questions guide our actions with integrity helps us to build trusted relationships and enables us to maintain a constant level of respect and loyalty with our customers, stakeholders, and teammates.

“Integrity is the cornerstone of responsible business. It is doing the right thing and making a just decision even when our personal comfort is at stake,” said Shenna Bradshaw, Booster’s Vice President of Legal. “At Booster, our value of integrity helps us keep aligned with who we are and who we aspire to be.”

Interested in becoming a Booster team member? View our open positions.

The post Acting with Integrity at Booster appeared first on BOOSTER.

Booster’s six core values — Bold, Stewardship, Excellence, Customer, Safety, and Integrity — all combine to uphold the company culture that makes us a leader in innovation and customer service. But excellence is the undercurrent of all these components, setting the standard to which we hold all our values, goals, and work.

“It’s a mindset,” explains Ron Storn, Chief People Officer at Booster. “You have to start by understanding that you want to do the best job that you can do. Then you want to make sure that you can perform the best at any given moment in time, also going through the practice and process of getting yourself there.”

Instilling excellence in all we do has been a key component of Booster’s business model since the company’s genesis. Our unparalleled mobile fueling service, proprietary Smart Tanker technology, and one-of-a-kind data portal were all born from the unwillingness to accept anything less than the best we could offer our customers, even when this meant starting from scratch to create new technologies and systems.

Excellence is more than just a word we preach to our internal teams; it’s a way of acting to better the experiences of not just our customers, but our teammates as well. When each of us strives to be the best we can be, we all reap the benefits of success.

“If all of us take the collective approach of asking how we can learn to improve, learn to set the standard, and learn to really drive results, that’s going to make us a better company,” said Storn.

Putting Excellence into Action

On the individual level, our Booster team members put excellence into action daily by pushing themselves out of their comfort zones to always bring more than is expected to their teams and their roles.

In action, we know every boost matters and are committed to exceptional service and flawless execution. We hire and develop the best and obsess about operational excellence. We use data to guide our learning and seek simple solutions to complex problems.

In short, we constantly implement the best strategies and practices to drive success, honoring our abilities, our coworkers, and our customers by settling for nothing less than excellence.

When you never settle, you develop a deep sense of pride in your work. To uphold excellence in all we do, our teammates constantly evaluate their effort and performance, using these questions to hold themselves accountable:

• What was the last proactive improvement I made?
• How did I raise the performance bar this week?
• When did I last seek feedback, and how have I used it to improve?
• How did I provide excellence for my internal and external customers?

As Storn explains, company-wide excellence begins when you “really strive to raise the bar of what excellence means in your role.” If we all focus on raising the bar, the effects reverberate throughout the company, driving us all forward.

Interested in a career with Booster? We’re hiring! Join the Booster team.

The post Striving for Excellence at Booster appeared first on BOOSTER.

When his wife was pregnant with their first child, she told Frank she never wanted to go to the gas station again. The customer experience was terrible, and not just for those expecting. Gas stations tend to be dirty, inconvenient, often unsafe and are significant contributors to pollution.

Frank readily took over fueling duties for the family, but couldn’t shake the core of his wife’s complaint: nobody enjoys fueling their vehicles. In a way, Frank’s wife was Booster’s first customer. In making sure she never had to fuel her vehicle again by taking the task off her plate, he realized he could do this for drivers across the country. He knew that consumers wanted and deserved the best experience possible, no matter what the product or service was; even if it was fueling. That was the genesis of Booster’s customer value — one of our six core values to live and work by.

“We’re in this business to serve the customer in their daily work life; to make each driver’s route go a little smoother and each fleet manager’s operations more efficient and sustainable,” says Ericka Ramon, VP of Account Management and Customer Success at Booster. “All that we do — from sourcing a wide range of traditional and sustainable fuels to serve every customer’s needs, to developing a real-time fleet data portal — is with their benefit in mind.”

As Booster has evolved, our service has come to offer so much more value than fueling alone. For some customers, sustainability is king. For others, cost savings and renewed efficiency are business drivers. We recognize that each fleet’s needs and wants are different, and we are committed to tailoring service and working with them to develop the best outcome for their goals.

The Customer-Centric Outlook

As a customer-focused organization, we know that the client is not the only customer. At Booster, our customer-first mindset considers the needs, wants, emotions, and challenges of not only our external customers, but our internal customers as well. Within our own operations, we treat each other with the utmost respect, providing deliverables and centering the needs of our internal teammates in the same way we would our external teammates. It’s one way we’ve gotten so much practice at customer-service.

We pride ourselves in delivering the technology, innovation and operational excellence our customers require to thrive. We offer every customer the best service experience, backed by a safety-first culture that fosters a healthy and sustainable environment. We follow through on our customer commitments in every aspect of every service that we offer. To reach this goal, Booster team members are constantly considering the customers at hand, mapping efforts to these key questions:

• Do I understand my customer’s needs and wants?
• Can I feel the customer’s pain and joy?
• What problem is my customer trying to solve?
• Did I ask my customer for their input before, during and after this project?

Above all, our customer value ensures we continue to innovate, create, and build the right things, for the right people, for the right reasons, at the right time. This creates credibility, compassion and longevity in our customer relationships.

And while we certainly have our eye on changing the world, we’ll never lose sight of what started it all: the person behind the wheel (or at the pump). As Ericka Ramon put it, “We have a lot of lofty goals at Booster, from revolutionizing fleet fueling to driving innovation of sustainable, decarbonized transportation energy. But at the heart of it all, our dedication is and always has been to the customer.”

The post Booster is Customer First, Always appeared first on BOOSTER.

While the realization that fueling at gas stations is inconvenient and inefficient is an easy one to arrive at, the notion that a century-old industry norm could be completely upended and reimagined is bold, to say the least. And yet, Booster is making it happen.

We’ve been bold from the start, unwavering in the face of complications and obstacles, confident that our moxy and hard work could power us through. Now, as a mature startup bringing our innovative fueling solution to cities across the nation, boldness is one of our six core values, guiding our actions at every step.

As Jonathan Moss, Head of Growth, Marketing and Revenue Operations at Booster, put it: “To us, boldness is taking that extra step to close a deal; going out on a limb to make a dream a reality; knowing that you can make a difference, even when the roadblocks are complex and uncharted. Our value of being bold centers innovative audacity at the heart of our actions, driving us to go above and beyond for our customers and our mission.”

Here are just a few ways we’ve led with boldness to break down barriers.

Optimizing Pathways

Booster’s business model — mobile energy delivery — centers on delivery of fungible products, meaning that the same energy or fuel could be delivered to any customer who ordered that type. This makes our delivery system unique to other delivery systems like that of Amazon, whose products (packages) have distinct owners. While fungibility makes our route planning especially flexible, it can be complicated by the events and challenges that pop up in the real world of fleet delivery, like when a customer requires drivers with security authorization to access their fleet yard.

To sort it all out and plan the most efficient routes for our drivers, Booster had to make a bold choice: develop our own routing software. John Carlsson, a published scholar and professor at the University of Southern California in the Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, helped Booster to develop the platform, now known internally as “Kasparov.”

Kasparov overcomes challenges like fulfilling and scoring complicated customers, addressing internal operations needs, and cost optimization for labor. The platform’s algorithm uses complex business logic, taking real world factors into account when evaluating possible routes, while the routing team also works to improve the day-to-day experiences of Booster’s service professionals (SPs) and dispatch team members.

Without our proprietary routing software, Booster’s operations would not be as productive or profitable, and we would not be as well equipped to serve our customers. The initiative taken by Booster team members to identify the need for Kasparov and deviate from the norm by working to create a new solution where none was previously available perfectly encapsulates the bold action that we value at Booster.

Opening Access

Another prime example of boldness in action at Booster lies within our policy team. Given the nature of the fueling industry, Booster’s identity has always been rooted in its ability to succeed in a harsh regulatory environment. To accomplish its mission despite the roadblocks, Booster’s robust policy arm drives state and local regulation change across the country, expanding opportunities for mobile fueling and supporting the communities Booster serves.

For example, our policy team advocated to pass bill HB 2873 in Washington state, now signed into law. The bill streamlines the permitting process for mobile fueling within fire districts by establishing a state-wide reciprocity system for fire permitting, which simplifies the qualification and processes required for a permit.

Boldness is rooted in courage and confidence. The ability of Booster’s team members to look at the complicated regulatory landscape of the fueling industry and carve out a space for the disruptive solution that is mobile fueling encapsulates those very principles. Our team members believed in the technology, their ability, and the desire of customers to find a more sustainable way to power their fleets. More importantly, our team members had the confidence to act on those beliefs, and in doing so created the space necessary for Booster to succeed.

Prioritizing Boldness

Boldness at Booster is encapsulated by one of our key mottos: “Be brave and create the future.” To do this, our employees think big and take initiative, combining courage and action to turn big ideas into concrete steps for success. Each day, they ask themselves:

• Did I share a quality idea that challenged the status quo this week?
• What problem did I solve today that I am proud of?
• How did I challenge ideas without being destructive, dismissive or uncollaborative?
• How am I actively focusing on my customers when innovating and problem solving?

Using these questions as north stars, our teams create the future others just predict. Our boldness shines through in every team member, project, and initiative, from the way we get to our customers, to their ability to work with us. Boldness in the face of legacy fueling infrastructures and systems spurred the inception of Booster, and we know it will carry us through as we continue our mission of creating better energy solutions to power the movement of people and things.

At the end of the day, boldness is more to our team members than just a work value. For many, it is a life value, guiding their action both in and out of the office. Our fearless leader, CEO and Founder Frank Mycroft, said it best: “Bold to me is the mindset — it’s really in the DNA of who we are. I think it plays really well into stewardship and having purpose, play and potential in our daily jobs. If we’re all bold, the wonderful, fun thing is we don’t just get better as a company; it makes us all better as people and as team members.”

The post At Booster, Bold is in Our DNA appeared first on BOOSTER.

During a recent podcast interview with Biodiesel Magazine’s Anna Simet, I looked back at where Booster began, and where we’re headed as the energy market continues to evolve. As it does, Booster is committed to helping fleets of all sizes, resources and vehicle types access flexible, sustainable energy solutions.

A New Take on Fueling

The idea for Booster came to me at home. When my wife and I were expecting our first baby girl, she asked me to be the ‘Chief Fueling Officer’ for the family. Essentially that means she never wanted to go to a gas station again. They are dirty, inconvenient, often unsafe and are significant contributors to pollution. And yet the majority of the transportation industry and almost all passenger vehicles have no choice but to rely on them.

I knew there had to be a way we could help our communities solve this problem. I wanted to develop a fueling solution that was safer, sustainable and cost-effective. Over time, we honed our vision to really focus on the fleet industry, especially as the boom of last-mile delivery has accelerated the need for sustainable solutions in fleet transportation.

As I discussed with Simet, there has long been an industry that has delivered conventional diesel fuels to large vehicles. But I wanted to take a more modern approach, one that targets the market of smaller, everyday vehicles like delivery van fleets, ambulances and school buses — the vehicles that really enable the backbone services of our communities. These vehicles had for too long had no option beyond the gas station, and I knew I could create a tech-forward solution. The vision was to bring simplicity to the work lives of those drivers and fleet managers by offering delivery of various fuels and energy types along with data-driven efficiency insights to really bring these fleets into the sustainable future we are all working toward.

Thus, our mission was born: bring mobile energy to the world, meeting fleets where they are to take them where they are going.

Sustainability Through Flexible, Reliable Fueling

As idealistic as we might all be about the altruism behind sustainability and decarbonization initiatives, we must recognize that business decisions are rarely simple, and must be made with the bottom line as a top priority. Often, the need to make money obscures desires for sustainability because, in reality, a company can’t do anything — let alone drive positive environmental, social and governance (ESG) change — if they can’t stay in business.

At Booster, we are committed to making sustainability work for fleets, not the other way around. That is why we center the customer’s needs at every turn, working tirelessly to ensure that with our service, sustainability is the easy, cost-effective option. It really sits at the heart of our business objectives; we want our customers to derive value from our service across the multiple objectives of efficiency, sustainability, and cost-savings.

In short, our mobile energy delivery service provides customers with a range of fuels delivered directly to their fleets. We work with customers to decide what fuels they want, how much they need, and where they need them. Then our dedicated service professionals come to their fleet yard and fuel the vehicles during non-operating hours, so every driver can start their day with a full tank, ready to go.

The labor shortage is real, cost of labor is high and anything fleets can do to maximize paid driver hours is crucial to sustained success. By utilizing mobile fueling, fleet managers save the time and labor costs they would spend on drivers’ individual gas station trips, freeing up that time for execution of business objectives, like package delivery.

Driving Adoption of Renewable Fuels: Education and Access

Meeting fleets where they are now means jumping in at a time which, for many fleets, is volatile. Sustainability is a major focus, but a tight economy facing a driver shortage means decisions around ESG are fraught with compromise. They don’t have to be. Not all sustainability solutions are time- and capital-intensive; renewable fuels can decarbonize quickly on a budget. They just needed to be available and well-known.

We quickly recognized the gap between renewable fuel production and consumption: there are plenty of renewable fuels being produced, but few traditional fueling stations offer them to customers. Given the increasing number of government incentives aimed at stimulating production and adoption, and the market-wide push for sustainability, this will be a huge market for ICE fleets to decarbonize while they electrify and integrate other zero-emission vehicles. But to drive this change forward, fleets need education and access. That’s where we come in.

There has been a lot of misinformation about renewable fuels around their efficacy and cost, but these fuels have come a long way in recent years. Many of these fuels perform better than traditional fuels, and with current production scale and incentives, they can even be offered at price parity with their conventional counterparts. To bridge the gap between perception and reality, education is the first step.

We take a two pronged approach to driving the adoption of sustainable alternative fuels. One prong focuses on getting the word out there, educating our customers and really encouraging them to adopt these lower-carbon alternatives. The other focuses on making these sustainable alternative fuels not just accessible, but the more convenient choice through our mobile energy delivery service.

As I explained to Simet, this model offers an incredible opportunity to convert fleets overnight from conventional fuels to renewables through direct delivery of fuels not offered by most gas stations. Because many of these fuels — like renewable diesel — are drop-in replacements, they are fully fungible with their traditional counterparts and can even mix with them. You don’t have to perform any modifications on internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles for these fuels to work, and they’re often cleaner from an emissions perspective.

We’ve done these overnight conversions with many customers and found great success. As of September 2022, we have converted nearly all our California-based diesel fleets to a renewable diesel and biodiesel blend offered by Chevron Renewable Energy Group, which offers significantly lower emissions than traditional diesel.

Fleet Fueling Across the Energy Transition

Booster aims to work with fleets of all sizes to ease their journey across their unique energy transitions. A local landscaping fleet will decarbonize in a vastly different way than an Amazon delivery fleet, for example, and we want to be the adaptable solution for all of them. That is why reliability and flexibility over the long-term are really at the forefront of our business. We believe in flexible, modular energy as a complement to conventional infrastructure for fleet decarbonization. This means we are looking at creating mobile energy solutions of all types, including electricity, hydrogen, and renewable fuels.

As always, our customers come first. Our business began with the customer in mind, on the goal of offloading the undesirable task of fueling from drivers’ to do lists to make their lives easier and more efficient. Across the ongoing energy transition, and throughout any market shifts and changes it may bring, we will continue to center ease and efficiency for our customers, driving a more sustainable future for fleets everywhere.

The post A Change in Fueling Solutions Could Revolutionize the Fleet Industry appeared first on BOOSTER.

For unlicensed new hires, Booster offers a paid, in-house training program called CDL Academy, to help trainees gain the necessary certifications while training to work as an SP. The program is currently offered in California and Washington.

Brandon Arnold, a Lead Service Professional, started his journey with no prior CDL experience. Now, he leads and trains Service Professionals (SPs) across the nation. Here’s what he has to say about his driver journey, his time with the CDL Academy, and the opportunities he has found at Booster:

What has your journey at Booster looked like?

I began my work with Booster in July 2021 as a student in the CDL Academy and SP trainee. By that September, I had obtained my CDL and soon was offered the opportunity to work in the Washington, D.C. market as an intern supervisor. The following November, I began my position as a lead in the Orange County Market.

I still work as a lead and have trained SPs in several markets where I had the chance to get the market up and running, to implement the “Perfect Boost” spill prevention protocol, and provide guidance to new SPs.

In March of this year, I upgraded my CDL to a Class B and passed the test for removal of my airbrake restrictions through Booster. I have just completed Booster’s “Shifting Gears” program, a training path for aspiring supervisors.

Why were you attracted to Booster in the first place?

When I first learned about Booster, I had never driven a CDL, but I had worked with delivery services and driven box trucks. At the time, I was working in a warehouse. I enjoyed what I did, but I didn’t see the type of upward mobility that I was striving for. I knew the doors that a CDL license could open in the industry, but I also knew that a lot of the programs offered by different companies to obtain your CDL are predatory and costly.

When I heard about Booster’s CDL program, and the opportunity to train and be paid while earning your CDL, I jumped at the chance. Getting a CDL is rarely easy, and at that time it was even more difficult due to the pandemic, when truck driving jobs were in high demand. The CDL Academy offered me a clear pathway to my goal and had defined growth opportunities for me once I had gained my license — that ended up being a deciding factor for me.

What was it like to balance the CDL Academy with your Service Professional training?

It definitely keeps things interesting. We would bounce back and forth between CDL test-prep classes and field training. Usually, we would spend about an hour each day in class, where we would discuss the test and what would be on it, and also dive into test-taking strategies. Once we received our permits, we would move on to learning about the tanker and all its components. This part we studied very extensively — I like to say that we knew that material so well, if it was a broadway play we would’ve gotten a standing ovation.

For the field portion, we would ride along with seasoned SPs to get a sense of what a shift would be like. We would also run our own routes with 200 gallon capacity pickup trucks to get used to filling vehicles, providing customer service and using the related software.

What has kept you at Booster for so long?

The opportunities. Working with Booster is such a great opportunity to get into the fuel game and to grow with something from the ground up. I believe in this company and its potential. It’s an opportunity to be a part of something completely different.

Every job has its ups and downs, but for me at this company those ups and downs have come with distinct growth and purpose. There is a lot to work toward. In growing with this company, I have found so many opportunities to better myself and move forward with my career.

What is your favorite thing about working at Booster?

The people and the travel opportunities have been my two favorite parts of my time here. In the Orange County market, specifically, a lot of us SPs came through the CDL Academy at the same time and have been working together for a while now. We message with each other on Slack during every shift, making jokes and keeping each other motivated. Night shift isn’t always easy, and having that camaraderie makes it much more enjoyable.

Beyond that, the opportunities I have had to make new relationships with people across the country have been very rewarding. To go into a new market and work with a bunch of new people, earning their trust, guiding them through the Booster way and helping them plan and further their own career paths and purposes within the company has been an experience I really cherish. And it’s always a bonus to get to explore a new city along the way.

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It’s no secret that fuels can be harmful to the environment when mishandled. That is why we take extra care to ensure we are always operating under the highest safety standards, and are constantly reevaluating our policies and processes.

Our dedicated team of safety advisors build our safety standards around three main pillars: employee, compliance, and environment. Their considerations begin with site visits to each Booster yard, where they observe actions taken, ride along on Service Professional (SP) routes, note hazards that SPs and communities might be exposed to, and talk to SPs and supervisors about their safety concerns and experiences. Based on their findings, they revise the existing protocols to ensure they are always up to date with on-site conditions.

To ensure we always create positive change, leaving communities and customers better than we found them, we center safety at the heart of every interaction, service, procedure, and conversation.

Employee

At Booster, our team members are the heart and soul of our culture. We value each and every employee, and we want to ensure we keep all of them safe. We are constantly checking in on procedures and processes to confirm they follow the best practices of workplace safety. We take immediate action to remedy unsafe conditions or behaviors. This instills absolute confidence in each other, our customers and our community — providing all of us with a healthy, safe, and sustainable environment.

Our team of safety advisors centers their on-site visits around face-to-face interaction with employees, building relationships with SPs and supervisors so they can feel comfortable reaching out when there are safety concerns. Our employee safety procedures and policies take a range of forms, from the protective clothing our service professionals wear, to the way they fill vehicles, to the stretches they do to begin every shift. We also require that SPs obtain a CDL Class C permit with hazmat and tanker endorsements.

We measure our safety in a variety of ways to ensure we hit the necessary benchmarks — for example, by tracking driver safety. In 2021, we rolled out an upgraded telematics system that allows our drivers to maintain safe driving through automatic in-cab technology.

Compliance

As a mobile fueler, there are significant regulations which guide our business model and operations. Our policy and safety teams are constantly keeping up with fueling and safety standards to ensure we remain compliant at all times. Booster has worked with all levels of government and regulators to design and maintain the cleanest, safest delivery of fuels.

Our compliance provisions include on-board refueling vapor recovery (ORVR) standards with technology-enabled compliance, automatic shutoff nozzles on all Smart Tankers, a 30-gallon fuel-limit switch, and overturn spill protection certification for all tankers.

We also hold an executive order from the California Air Resources Board validating our high standards for emissions reduction as the industry benchmark. Our procedures are compliant with National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) requirements under NFPA-30A, meet all requirements of the NFPA Flammable and Combustible Liquids Code, and are compliant with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and International Fire Code (IFC). Booster is also certified by the Advanced National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), meeting all federal DOT, EPA, Weights & Measures, and Air Resources standards.

Environmental

Because sustainability is a priority at Booster, our safety considerations also prioritize environmental health and safety. Many of the same protocols we have in place to keep our employees and communities safe also protect the environment.

We take seriously our responsibility to the planet and the people inhabiting it to handle fuels with extreme care. All our service professionals follow strict protocol to minimize risk of spillage and hazardous accidents, and we take company-wide precautions to keep emissions at a minimum for the long-term safety of our planet.

Our environmental safety protocols adhere to the highest safety requirements set by the International Fire Code, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency, and more. Our service professionals follow a three-stage Perfect Boost spill prevention protocol with a zero-drip policy. These safety requirements ensure we comply with air quality standards and protect the environments in which we fuel.

Creating a Culture of Safety

As the most prominent of our six core values, we put safety first — always. Our company culture places emphasis on taking individual accountability for prioritizing safety as part of our everyday lives.

Our safety culture ensures that we follow through on our commitments in every aspect of every service we offer. We know it’s not only the quality of our product, but also the quality of the people delivering it that makes Booster the safest, most reliable way to get fuel. Keeping our people and communities safe goes far beyond the work day — each and every one of our employees and community members have people who love them, and want to see them home safe. We vow to do all we can to keep the workplace safe, not just for ourselves, but for our friends, families, and communities as well.

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