The post How to Reduce Fleet Fuel Costs with Booster appeared first on BOOSTER.
]]>As Booster CEO Frank Mycroft wrote in Work Truck magazine, “You’re likely spending much more on fueling than you realize. The time, fuel, and wear and tear associated with endless treks to and from the gas station add up quickly, adding significant stress to already tight budgets.”
To keep these costs low, fleet managers can look to mobile fueling with Booster, which can save fleets an average of $1,600 per vehicle annually on the costs associated with fueling.
Most fleets depend on gas stations when filling the tank, requiring drivers to go out of their way to fill up during their shifts. The typical driver spends about 61 hours per year on off-route gas station errands, which eats into paid labor time and interferes with productivity. Labor expenses associated with trips to the gas station can add up to $1,436 per vehicle annually.
The added miles burn more than just time – they also contribute to unnecessary fuel burn. For vehicles that deviate from their planned service or delivery routes by adding gas station stops, traditional methods of fleet fueling may reduce efficiency. The average fleet of 20 vehicles will burn about 460 gallons of fuel on gas station trips alone.
With Booster, fleets can save on wasted time and fuel by fueling onsite during non-operating hours. This means drivers start their shifts with the fuel they need to focus on essential tasks like delivering packages or making service calls.
Vehicle depreciation presents another hidden cost associated with fueling at the gas station. At an average of more than 400 off-route miles spent on gas station trips annually per vehicle, the additional miles driven by fleets reliant on gas station fueling contribute to significant wear and tear.
This means more oil changes, more tire services, and more vehicle maintenance overall — all of which pile on to already astronomical fleet prices. In fact, according to a report by the American Trucking Association’s Technology & Maintenance Council and Decisiv Inc., fleet maintenance costs in 2022 were up 10% from 2021.
The cost of vehicle depreciation accrued by trips to and from the gas station averages $162 per vehicle per year. For a fleet of 20 vehicles, that’s more than $3,200 annually in wear and tear expenses that could be avoided. By fueling onsite with Booster, fleets can minimize wear and tear on their vehicles by eliminating the need to travel to and from the gas station
Fleet operations, including traditional methods of fleet fueling can have a significant environmental impact, particularly in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country, responsible for over 28% of total emissions. Fleet operations are a significant contributor to this problem, with commercial vehicles alone accounting for over 20% of transportation-related emissions.
Mobile fueling services like Booster can help reduce emissions and promote more sustainable fleet operations. Booster uses modern, efficient fueling equipment and practices to reduce emissions and improve fuel economy. In addition, Booster offers a fuel management portal that allows fleet managers to track their fuel usage and emissions in real-time, enabling them to identify areas for improvement and reduce their environmental impact.
Fleet managers must also take safety into account when planning fueling operations. Traditional gas stations can pose various safety risks, such as accidents, spills, and theft. Mobile fuel delivery services like Booster can provide a safer and more secure fueling option for fleets.
Booster’s mobile fueling service eliminates the need for drivers to visit gas stations, reducing the risk of accidents. The fueling trucks used by Booster are equipped with state-of-the-art safety features, such as spill-proof nozzles and automatic shut-off systems, to prevent fuel spills and overfills. In addition, Booster’s drivers are trained to follow strict safety protocols, ensuring that fueling operations are performed safely and efficiently.
Different types of fleets may have unique fueling needs and challenges. Booster offers a range of fueling solutions for different fleet types, including gasoline, diesel, renewable energy, and DEF. In addition, Booster’s fuel management portal allows fleet managers to track their fuel and charging usage in real-time, enabling them to optimize their fleet’s fueling operations and reduce their costs. By providing tailored fueling solutions for different fleet types, Booster helps fleets operate more efficiently and effectively.
To avoid losing money to hidden fleet fuel costs, fleet owners should consider implementing a fleet fuel management system like mobile fuel delivery by Booster. In this model, fleet vehicles are fueled onsite in one session during fleet off-hours. This way, drivers begin each shift with the fuel they need, and the labor costs that would have gone toward fueling at the gas station can be redirected toward more productive tasks.
The service includes a fleet portal to enhance holistic fleet management. It provides a glimpse into fleet performance and fuel spending to help managers keep up with fleet maintenance and better understand their fleet fueling operation.
By minimizing wasted time and fuel, reducing wear and tear on vehicles, and saving on labor costs, Booster’s mobile fuel delivery service helps fleets increase productivity. Drivers can start their shifts with the fuel they need, and fleet managers can identify trends in fuel consumption to help plan for the future. Booster’s fuel insights give fleet managers deeper visibility into fuel consumption across the fleet.
Say goodbye to wasted time, fuel, and money. Say hello to increased savings and productivity with Booster.
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]]>The post 3 Ways Mobile Fueling Helps Your Fleet Do More in a Day appeared first on BOOSTER.
]]>We get it — you and your drivers both need more time in the day to focus on the actual business goals you’re trying to accomplish. At Booster, we’re here to help. Check out these three ways our mobile fueling service can boost your fleet productivity:
One of the most time-consuming tasks a fleet faces each day is fueling. According to Booster customer data, about 61 hours of paid labor per fleet driver are spent going to and from the pump annually — not a great look for fleet efficiency or fleet productivity. But what if you could take this fueling errand out of the equation?
Our mobile fuel delivery platform fuels fleet vehicles on-site during off-hours so your drivers can start each shift with the fuel they need, ready to go. This saves time, simplifies routes, and adds productive hours back into driver days, so they can spend their time on core business objectives like delivering packages or making service calls. It even makes renewable fuels more readily available to fleets eyeing sustainability gains. Plus, mobile fueling with Booster can save fleets $1,600 per vehicle annually on average.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory conducted a study that found that fleets that switched to mobile fueling saved 12 to 15 percent on fuel costs and 3 to 4 percent on maintenance costs. This is because of the disposal of the requirement for fleets to head out to fuel stations, diminishing fuel utilization and mileage on vehicles.
Another way to unlock unprecedented fleet productivity relies on fleet data insights. Booster’s fleet data portal generates detailed reports and analytics that provide valuable insights into fleet operations and fuel usage to give fleet managers the knowledge to make more effective decisions about routing, fueling, fleet maintenance, and more.
Booster’s Fleet Portal also comes with responsive customer care and support. Fleet managers can submit feedback on their Booster service experience and receive product updates, new feature alerts, and maintenance notifications. With this window into fleet performance, fleet managers can optimize routes, identify fuel-saving opportunities, and prioritize maintenance tasks, all contributing to long-term fleet efficiency.
Keeping fleets operating at optimal performance can also mean keeping them safe and free from incidents. Your fleet’s safety and compliance can be enhanced through mobile fueling. Mobile fueling reduces the likelihood of your drivers running out of fuel and being stranded on the road by ensuring that your vehicles are always fueled up. Additionally, Booster mobile fueling trucks are outfitted with cutting-edge fueling technology, which reduces the likelihood of spills, leaks, and other threats to the environment while also ensuring precise fueling. This may assist you in adhering to environmental and safety regulations. For mobile fueling that is both sustainable and enjoyable, partner with Booster.
Managing the finances and logistics associated with fueling takes significant time and creates an administrative burden. Many fleet managers still handle billing with paper filing systems and hundreds of fuel transaction receipts. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Booster’s platform provides real-time access to billing data, enabling fleet managers to track fuel expenses at a quick digital glance. The platform also allows fleet managers to schedule fuel deliveries in advance and all at once, ensuring that fuel is always available when needed — no route changes are required. By automating fueling coordination and finance management, fleet managers can free up more time in their workdays to focus on critical fleet efficiency tasks like maintenance, safety, and compliance.
Fleet managers should consider implementing these three key strategies to realize significant efficiency gains both in the field and in the office. By outsourcing fueling errands, streamlining finance management, and leveraging data insights, fleet managers can increase productivity at all fleet levels to access budget savings, route optimization, and better driver performance.
Partnering with Booster can save your fleet money while ensuring safety and compliance. By eliminating trips to fuel stations, you’ll reduce fuel consumption and maintenance costs. In a nutshell, Booster’s innovative fuel monitoring allows you to streamline fuel management, reduce waste, and make better fleet management decisions, leading to increased productivity.
Finally, since we are aware that every individual has distinct requirements, we provide a fuel delivery service that is adaptable, convenient, and customized to your specific requirements. Fuel delivery from Booster is available around the clock 24/7, so you can fill up your fleet vehicles whenever it’s most convenient for them. In addition, you can tailor your mobile fueling service to your business’s specific requirements, ensuring that your fleet is always fueled and ready to go.
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]]>The post 3 Challenges Fleets Face in the Energy Transition and How to Overcome Them appeared first on BOOSTER.
]]>From electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to ESG reporting and sustainability goals, the energy transition now influences a significant portion of the transportation industry’s day-to-day. And while the long-term benefits of transitioning to cleaner and greener energy sources and operations are plentiful, successfully getting from our current state of energy and transportation to a more sustainable future state will be a long and sometimes arduous journey. This will be especially true for smaller fleets with tighter budgets and fewer resources.
The energy transition poses several challenges for fleets, many born from the need to balance cost-effective and reliable transportation with the growing demand for sustainable and low-emission vehicles. Luckily, convenient, efficient solutions can be found in mobile fuel delivery, data analysis, and technological advancements.
As fleet managers prepare for a smooth transition, here are some of the key challenges they should look out for:
One of the biggest challenges fleets face in the energy transition is the upfront costs associated with adopting zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs). For example, electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles tend to be more expensive than traditional fossil fuel vehicles. This cost is compounded by the added expenses of fueling at different (and often rarer) stations or building the right charging and fueling infrastructure on-site, as well as the costs associated with training drivers on new vehicles with different maintenance and repair needs.
While the total cost of ownership of ZEVs may be lower over time due to lower operating costs, the initial investment can be a significant barrier for fleets, especially smaller fleets with fewer resources. To mitigate the budgetary barrier, fleets may be best served by taking a mixed-energy fleet approach, in which they slowly phase in clean vehicles, shifting the ratio of their ICE vehicles to ZEVs over time.
In the meantime, they can turn to mobile fuel delivery to save money and fuel a range of vehicle types with one simple system. Mobile fuel delivery is the ideal solution for mixed energy fleets due to its adaptable nature and ability to service customers with a vast selection of fuel options. It also saves fleets money over time — on average, mobile fueling saves fleets $1,600 per vehicle annually.
The need for charging and refueling infrastructure for alternative fuel vehicles poses another significant challenge to developing sustainable fleets. While governments and private companies are actively investing in expanding infrastructure, it remains challenging for fleets to find charging or refueling stations nearby or on route, especially in rural or remote areas. This can impact the range and flexibility of alternative fuel vehicles, making it harder for fleets to adopt them.
Again, mobile fuel delivery stands ready to help. The mobile fueling model is infrastructure-light, meaning it does not rely on fixed infrastructure to fuel vehicles. This is a large contributor to the adaptability of the fueling model because there is no construction, permitting, upfront investment, or route change associated with fueling a vehicle with a new energy source. Want to switch to renewable diesel by next week and add hydrogen FCEVs the week after? Mobile fuel delivery has you covered with on-site fueling for all your needs.
Building and maintaining a sustainable fleet entails much more than simply onboarding the vehicles into your operations — you also must relearn many things you thought you knew about maintenance and repair. In most cases, ZEVs require different maintenance and repair procedures compared to traditional vehicles. It may be challenging for fleets to find qualified technicians and repair facilities. This can impact the reliability and uptime of ZEVs, which, in turn also impacts the overall efficiency of fleet operations.
Making careful use of data analytics can help. With telematics and fueling data, fleet managers can easily track what maintenance procedures may be needed and when. Predictive fleet maintenance leverages real-time analytics and long-term fleet data trends to optimize the timing of fleet maintenance activities, keeping fleets running in tip-top shape with their best fuel economy.
Booster’s data portal offers one piece of the holistic data puzzle by providing easy-to-understand insights into fuel type, gallons, pricing detail, cost savings, labor hours saved, miles reduced, emissions prevented, and more, so you can always have the best information about your fleet’s status.
As fleets transition to more sustainable, cleaner vehicles, they can overcome these challenges and more with innovation and creativity. Fleet operators, manufacturers, governments, and other stakeholders must all collaborate to support and drive the adoption of sustainable and low-emission transportation solutions. By overcoming these barriers with mobile fuel delivery, data analysis, and an iterative approach to transition, fleets can contribute to a more sustainable and secure energy future while meeting their transportation and budgetary needs.
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]]>The post Booster’s Fleet Data Portal Offers Real-Time, Actionable Insights appeared first on BOOSTER.
]]>The solution lies in easy interpretation. With Booster’s mobile fueling service, fleet managers can now access deep data insights on metrics including fueling, fleet maintenance, routing, carbon emissions, and more in an intuitive fleet data portal.
If you’re already a Booster customer, you’re likely familiar with our purple Smart Tankers — they’re hard to miss. But they do much more than just fill your tanks, they also collect detailed data on number of boosts per vehicle, fuel type, gallon and pricing detail, map visualization of where each vehicle was fueled, and reasons a vehicle was not fueled. The tankers send this information directly back to your Fleet Portal in real-time with integrated IoT enablement and a tech-forward system, allowing you to make better, faster decisions.
Data analysis can also give fleet managers the insight they need to increase route capacity, expand fleet utilization, and reduce costs. Booster’s Fleet Portal offers a full 360° view of the fleet, including costs savings, labor hours saved, miles reduced, emissions prevented, total gallons fueled, total money spent, and total vehicles serviced by location, so fleet managers can easily optimize fleet performance.
For many fleets, especially smaller ones with limited resources, the administrative burden of tracking and reporting fueling, along with the related billing and costs, can be overwhelming. Booster’s Fleet Portal makes it easy by allowing fleet managers to schedule customizable data reports that arrive in their inbox weekly, monthly, or quarterly. The filter and sort features allow fleet managers to highlight the data they need most, whether vehicle data, fueling data, or financial data.
Data analysis is also essential when it comes to finance management in fleet management. Booster’s Fleet Portal offers industry-leading finance management capabilities that help reduce fuel card misuse and oversight, better control expenses, and reduce administrative time. Fleet managers can access detailed billing history, invoice management, and full billing integration through partners like Comdata, WEX, and Voyager.
Booster’s Fleet Portal comes with responsive customer care and support. Fleet managers can submit feedback on their Booster service experience, receive product updates, new feature alerts, and maintenance notifications. With this support, fleet managers can stay informed and quickly address any issues they may face.
With Booster’s Fleet Portal, fleet managers can access real-time fleet data insights, customizable reporting, industry-leading finance management, and customer support. By leveraging these benefits, fleet managers can make better decisions and optimize their fleet’s performance. For more information on how Booster can help deliver intelligence that can drive efficiencies in your fleet, contact fleet@boosterfuels.com.
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]]>The post How Your Fleet Can Balance the Energy Trilemma appeared first on BOOSTER.
]]>To complicate matters further, they’ll need to structure their new solutions and protocols carefully, ensuring they support the success of fleets that abate each pillar of the energy trilemma.
The energy trilemma refers to the challenge of balancing the interdependent needs of energy security, environmental sustainability, and affordability. These three priorities often conflict with one another, making it difficult to strike the appropriate combination. For example, securing energy supply in the current market may require fossil fuels, which puts environmental sustainability goals at risk.
It is important to consider each pillar in isolation as well as in tandem with the others to build equity and longevity into our changing energy models. As the U.S. continues to pursue the clean energy transition, policy, market structures, infrastructure development, and capital investment must all be made with the balance of the energy trilemma in mind.
Because the transportation sector consumes significant energy and contributes nearly a third of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, fleet operators are pressured to adopt sustainable fueling practices. Whether swapping for sustainable fuels or transitioning to electric vehicles, each fleet’s unique energy transition will require careful consideration of the trilemma’s pillars.
A small fleet relying primarily on diesel, for example, may lack the upfront capital investment capacity to adopt electric vehicles at this time. To make progress toward sustainability while keeping operations affordable, this fleet might be best suited to renewable diesel, which offers up to 85% lower lifecycle emissions than traditional diesel ICE vehicles. But renewable diesel is rarely offered at gas stations, so this fleet may choose to work with a mobile fueler like Booster® to secure a reliable supply of the renewable fuel.
Similar multi-pronged solutions scenarios abound within the transportation sector as fleets find new and creative ways to adapt to the changing market.
Put simply: the major way fleets meet with the energy trilemma is in fueling and fuel burning. In response, fleets can improve energy efficiency while keeping costs low and maintaining a secure fuel supply by switching to sustainable alternative fuels, using fuel-efficient or zero-emission vehicles, optimizing fuel economy, monitoring and analyzing data, and adopting mobile fuel delivery.
Mobile fuel delivery, in particular, helps fleets balance the complex needs of the energy transition by cushioning a customer-centric service model within a flexible, clean, efficient delivery structure to support fleet sustainability while enhancing overall fleet productivity. Here are the ways mobile fuel delivery responds to each pillar of the energy trilemma:
Despite widespread desire to make fleets cleaner and greener, the vast majority of fleet managers are constrained first and foremost by budgets. Unfortunately, many new energy sources for fleets are capital-intensive, requiring infrastructure investment or vehicle upgrades, and this is an affordability barrier for many.
Mobile fueling helps by providing cost-effective and convenient fueling solutions to a range of fleet types. By eliminating the need for fleets to travel to and from fixed fueling infrastructure, mobile fueling reduces fueling costs and unproductive labor time. In fact, mobile fueling by Booster offers higher productivity and lower emissions while saving fleets an average of $1600 annually per vehicle.
Mobile fueling helps fleets reduce their environmental impact by enabling the adoption of sustainable fuels. By providing on-site fueling for low- and zero-emissions fuel vehicles, mobile fueling supports the transition to a more sustainable transportation system by enabling easy adoption of clean technologies.
The mobile fuel delivery model also lowers emissions and improves air quality by reducing vehicle miles traveled to fueling stations or infrastructure, which minimizes the fuel burn and associated emissions and environmental impact of fleet operations. Booster’s mobile fuel delivery service reduces fleet emissions by 525 lbs of GHG emissions per vehicle annually, on average.
When it comes to adoption of sustainable fleet technologies, access to energy sources and fueling infrastructure presents a major barrier. But security of supply is a crucial element to a successful fleet transition.
Mobile fuel delivery enhances energy security by providing on-site fueling for fleets, reducing the risk of fuel shortages or disruptions. By eliminating a fleet’s reliance on fueling stations or infrastructure, mobile fueling can improve the resiliency and reliability of fleet operations, especially in remote or infrastructure-sparse areas.
Mobile fueling also secures energy supply by enabling access to alternative fuels that may be more secure and resilient than traditional fossil fuels. For example, fleets can use mobile fueling to adopt renewable fuels like renewable diesel, which can be produced domestically from abundant waste feedstocks. Similarly, fleets can use mobile fueling to adopt electric or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, which can be powered by domestically sourced electricity or hydrogen.
The key to balancing the energy trilemma for fleet fueling lies in resiliency, reliability, and re-imagination of our current fueling systems. Mobile fueling offers the ability to shepherd adoption of sustainable fueling technologies with a reliable, affordable solution. By working with mobile fueling providers, fleets can develop customized fueling plans that meet their specific needs and priorities across their energy transitions while contributing to a more sustainable and secure energy future.
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]]>The post A Change in Fueling Solutions Could Revolutionize the Fleet Industry 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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]]>The post Battling Fuel Card Fraud? Mobile Fueling Can Help. appeared first on BOOSTER.
]]>Fleet owners and operators know the issue well; fleet drivers adding a snack to their fuel purchase or filling their personal vehicle on the company fuel card is nothing new. But for enterprise fleets with hundreds, or even thousands, of drivers, these expenses add up over time.
Though the relatively small additions to cost at each instance of fuel card fraud may seem innocuous, treating them that way would be a mistake, as fleets see about 5 gallons of attempted fuel fraud per vehicle monthly, according to Fleetcor. For a fleet of 20, that’s 1,200 gallons annually. And with gas prices hitting record levels across the nation, fleet owners and operators are likely to see a correlated rise in fuel card misuse, and in the related costs they incur from it.
To help mitigate fuel fraud and slippage, fleet managers have historically turned toward a range of approaches including implementing fuel limits, tracking purchases manually, and highlighting consequences. While these can be decent stopgap solutions, they are often time-consuming and insufficient, failing to recognize that many fleets lack the administrative resources and budget to effectively track and manage the mountain of incoming fuel card purchases.
In a time when fleet managers are inundated with more difficult choices than ever — between fossil or alternative fuels, how to keep pay competitive amid a national driver shortage, whether or not to bet on electrification — fuel fraud and slippage can feel like just another issue on the pile.
Instead, fleet managers without the significant resources required to track and mitigate fraud associated with fuel card use — or who simply want to avoid the headache by investing in a more effective, efficient solution — should consider outsourcing their fueling errands to a mobile fuel delivery service. Not only does this solution eliminate the potential for fuel card fraud, it offers data integration capabilities that offer visibility into fleet fueling habits, providing the actionable insights needed to keep fleet fueling costs under control.
Outsourcing the Errand
As the pandemic accelerated the rise of our modern “on-demand” culture, which delivers everything from ride shares to food and drink to next-day Amazon products right to your front door, mobile fueling has risen in the wake of other successful delivery services like Uber, InstaCart, Doordash and more — a phenomenon referred to by anyone from tech bros to Cornell University as the “Uberification” of everything. And while the general public has long delighted in the myriad benefits and convenience offered by this cultural development, the fleet sector may just be finding its own take on the delivery of everything: mobile fueling on demand.
Like other convenience delivery frameworks, mobile fueling on demand offers fleets the opportunity to order fuel via a phone call, app, or website. The fuel is then delivered on site to the fleet yard during non-operating hours. The service omits the need for individual drivers to go to the gas station, or interact with fuel purchases at all, eliminating any potential for fuel fraud by drivers with their own fuel cards.
Instead, fleet managers can easily order, monitor and quantify all fuel ordered for each vehicle in the fleet with the click of the button. In many cases, the service saves fleets money overall, not only by squashing fuel fraud but also by quelling non-productive hours usually spent at gas stations — estimated by Booster® to total $748 in labor costs per fleet vehicle annually. And although many fleet managers may be hesitant to forgo the discounts and incentives on fuel pricing offered by fuel card programs, they may not have to; Mobile fueling can be integrated into existing programs. Booster, for example, partners with three major fuel card providers to integrate existing incentives into mobile fueling price models.
Boosting Insight, Providing Clarity
The other part of a successful, modern approach to vanquishing fuel fraud relies on visibility. Part of what makes the fuel fraud issue so difficult to address is that fleet managers often don’t know what they don’t know; in a fuel-card-based system, the volume of transactions is so high that sifting through and identifying misuse is often akin to finding a needle in a haystack. Luckily, detailed data analytics can provide the insight necessary, especially if mobile fueling is used to aggregate transactions. With the advanced telematics devices now on the market, fleet managers can gain crucial visibility into fuel consumption.
But the information gathered by telematics devices is only useful if fleet managers have a way to interpret it, and if they can judge it against easily accessible data on fuel spend, budget, and projected consumption. Mobile fueling often offers that piece of the puzzle, thanks to the combination of advanced fueling technology and integrated data dashboards in the user-interface.
Booster’s digital interface offers an example, as it provides critical information around gallons pumped, amount spent and more. The dashboard can then integrate these insights with those from major telematics providers like Geotab, Samsara, and Verizon to offer real-time glimpses into a fleet’s fuel habits.
Armed with this advanced insight, fleet managers can easily track and manage fuel spend and consumption without advanced know how or extraneous administrative resources.
The Future of Responsible Fueling
As the energy transition continues to progress, fleets face a multiplying range of challenges both new and old, and navigating them is becoming increasingly difficult. But with mobile fueling and organized telematics data, fleet managers can take the fuel fraud variable out of the equation, trusting that their fuel budget will be well spent. In a field where the decisions, responsibilities and future-facing bets seem to be multiplying quickly, jumping on the “Uberification” bandwagon might just be the break fleet managers need.
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]]>The post Mobile Fueling Reduces Pollution From Spillage, Increases Sustainability appeared first on BOOSTER.
]]>According to the Environmental Law Institute, a typical gas station dispensing one million gallons per year would see annual spillage of 70 to 100 gallons. For a large-volume gas station like Costco, which can sell around 20 million gallons of gasoline per year, spillage could reach 2,000 gallons annually.
When spillage occurs at gas stations, the gasoline eventually penetrates the concrete or is washed into surrounding green areas, polluting the environment. A portion of spilled gasoline is also known to evaporate, adding to air pollution. The pollution from gas stations is known to leach into soil, contaminate nearby waterways and affect air quality, harming surrounding communities and wildlife.
In addition to the environmental impact of this pollution, gasoline contains a host of chemicals that are toxic to humans, including the highly carcinogenic benzene. Other toxins in gasoline include toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene, which also carry significant health risks including effects to the nervous system, cognitive impairment, eye and throat irritation, dizziness, hearing and kidney damage, impaired memory and more.
As the rise of ESG and sustainability initiatives drives a desire to protect and foster environmental and community health, we must evaluate and mitigate the significant harms of gas station pollution, including those from spillage. Mobile fueling can help.
According to a study by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, mobile fueling results in less spillage compared to traditional fueling. The study compared instances and amounts of gasoline spillage at traditional gas stations — data pulled from a California Air Resources Board (CARB) study — with gasoline spillage during mobile fueling services conducted by Booster®. The study found that in 30 mobile fueling events, zero ground spills were observed. In the CARB study, 16.6% of fueling events had measurable spillage.
Dr. Markus Hilpert, author of the study, attributed this difference to Booster’s “commendable” refueling procedures. Booster’s multi-step fueling process — known as the Perfect Boost — is unique, taking safety and environmental stewardship into account. As part of the PerfectBoost, trained service professionals use absorbent pads both on the ground and to cover the nozzle while fueling to catch any potential spills. He even writes that this same technique could be applied to traditional fueling infrastructure to cut down on pollution, but that Booster’s dedicated, trained service professionals likely provide the other critical component to success in spillage mitigation.
As the transportation sector continues its journey to become more sustainable, it is imperative we work to stymie the pollution and related health effects related to traditional fueling infrastructure. For fleet managers looking to minimize their environmental impact and increase their fleet sustainability, Booster offers a flexible, healthier alternative, eliminating the need for the gas station altogether.
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]]>Though we’ve already made leaps and bounds toward demystifying decarbonization, amid this sustainable progress, difficult questions linger: Who’s going to pay for what? How do we manage the tradeoffs between today and tomorrow? How do we fund new technologies that have longer-term paybacks? These queries may prove the most consequential in modern history.
At Booster, we obsess about many of the same questions. For context, Booster delivers energy to last mile fleet vehicles. These vehicles range from e-commerce delivery vans to consumer rental cars. We recognize that the transportation sector is responsible for nearly a third of greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, reducing vehicle emissions is an important component of the decarbonization journey.
Many of our customers are faced with the same uncomfortable prospect of making a tradeoff between investing in sustainability or driving business productivity. For most, one step forward on their decarbonization journey equals two steps back on driving free cash flows. This is sustainability fraught with concessions and uncertainty.
With Booster, there’s no need for compromise.
Booster’s last mile energy delivery platform transforms the relationship between decarbonization and efficiency for fleet operators. We deliver renewable, low carbon fuels directly into our customers’ vehicles at prices competitive to their traditional petroleum counterparts. Making the change from conventional to renewables requires no up-front capital expenditures, upgrades, or swapping out vehicles. As a matter of fact, no change is required to realize this potentially huge change in the impact of fleets on the world.
Additionally, many of these renewable fuels can be better for our customers’ engines. Equally important is the fact that we deliver these products to our customers at night during non-productive hours. Doing so enables our customers to avoid costly trips to the gas station, unnecessary vehicle wear and tear, and fuel fraud. Our mobile fueling service actually enhances productivity: that avoided trip to the gas station can result in an extra product or service delivered.
Taking Action
As a leader in energy delivery, we’ve taken concrete steps toward sustainable energy delivery without compromise.
As a matter of fact, we’ve already converted 60 percent of our California-based fleets to renewable diesel. We’re putting our customers on track to become more efficient and friendlier to the environment, reducing their carbon emissions by up to 70 percent overnight. This is the kind of action Booster is interested in taking for our planet.
With Booster, setting (and achieving!) sustainability goals does not have to come at the cost of propelling your business to new heights. This is sustainability without compromise.
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]]>For decades, gas station infrastructure has held a prominent role in the life of the American consumer. In our notoriously car-dependent nation, the gas station errand is as common as hitting the grocery store. But with the push for sustainability and a greater understanding of the transportation sector’s behemoth contributions to overall United States emissions, the gas station’s role as a community fixture is crumbling.
Between 1991 and 2022, the number of gas stations in the U.S. shrunk by almost half – from about 210,000 to about 145,000. Now, a recent report from BCG estimates that by 2030, up to 80 percent of the fuel-retail network as we currently know it will be unprofitable.
The energy transition, decarbonization efforts, electric vehicle (EV) adoption, and growing recognition of the public health hazard posed by gas stations are all converging to spell the inevitable decline of traditional fueling infrastructure. But the demand for fuel isn’t going anywhere; at least not anytime soon. What comes next as gas stations phase out? Mobile fueling on demand (MFOD) may be a solution.
The Problem: Gas Stations are Harmful to Public and Environmental Health
Gas stations are responsible for significant pollution from spills at the pump or leaky underground storage tanks (USTs), which release toxic substances into soil, nearby waterways and the air. According to the Environmental Law Institute, a typical gas station dispensing one million gallons per year would see annual spillage of 70 to 100 gallons. According to the EPA, “the greatest potential threat from a leaking UST is contamination of groundwater, the source of drinking water for nearly half of all Americans.” As of March 2020, the U.S. confirmed 557,655 UST leaks nationwide.
Gas stations also emit the the carcinogen benzene, in addition to other toxic substances including toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene, which carry significant health risks including effects to the nervous system, cognitive impairment, eye and throat irritation, dizziness, hearing and kidney damage, impaired memory and more.
The Solution: Mobile Fueling
Despite the risks associated with gas stations, they’ve endured so long for good reason; the backbone of American transportation relies on gasoline and diesel infrastructure to move people and goods. But they don’t necessarily need gas stations to get it.
Eventually, the transition to EVs will progress and eliminate traditional fueling infrastructure in favor of a model that better fits the time commitment taken by electric charging. But we aren’t there yet. For now, many vehicle owners — from fleet owners and operators to individual consumers — are unable to make the capital investment needed to embrace electrification. On top of that, the EV market has a ways to go. For one, there is an issue with supply and demand, particularly given the shortages in batteries and the impending copper shortage. There also are barriers to medium- and heavy-duty fleet electrification and deepset challenges to expanding wide-scale charging infrastructure, from a lack of charging standards to the need for a smarter, more modernized grid that can enable the bidirectional flow of energy.
A bridge option — which happens to require no significant investment on the part of the vehicle owner — is to embrace mobile fueling. Primarily available to fleets at this time, MFOD offers both traditional fuels and sustainable alternatives without the need for gas station infrastructure.
In the MFOD model, fuel can be ordered via an app, website or phone call, and a fuel tanker arrives to the area where the vehicle or fleet is located to fill the tanks on-site. The tanker goes straight from terminal to vehicle, reducing spillage, need for USTs, and toxic emissions or pollution associated with traditional fixed gas station infrastructure.
Beyond the benefits of diminishing reliance on gas stations, MFOD can also contribute to the larger sustainability and decarbonization movements by expanding access to sustainable fuels and lowering overall emissions associated with fueling. Depending on the fuel stock, biofuels can help to reduce GHG emissions by 40% to 108% across the lifecycle of use, according to a study by Johns Hopkins University.
Gas stations rarely offer sustainable fuels: only 830 gas stations out of 145,000 (fewer than 1%) in the U.S. carry biodiesel, for example, partly due to low demand and partly due to costs associated with developing new or upgraded pumps and USTs. MFOD can easily offer sustainable alternative fuels without the need for new or upgraded infrastructure. By creating greater access to alternative options, MFOD can help bring the sustainable fuel market to scale and bring down costs, further generating adoption and demand for the cleaner option.
MFOD also reduces emissions by combining gas station trips by multiple vehicles into one trip by the fuel tanker. This helps to reduce tailpipe emissions and extra fuel consumption. Overall, MFOD can reduce fleet emissions by up to 14%. In fact, the Johns Hopkins University study found that in California’s Bay Area alone, mobile fueling has the potential to decrease annual carbon dioxide emissions from 97 metric tons — the average amount produced by a typical gas station — to 76 metric tons.
The Transition
None of this is to say we should start ripping down gas stations left and right. Gas station infrastructure still offers a key commodity to American consumers; most Americans need gasoline or diesel to power their vehicles. The transition away will take time.
In the near-term, MFOD can be used to mitigate the pollution associated with gas stations, expand access to sustainable fuels and lower emissions for fleets. As the energy transition continues and internal combustion engine vehicles are phased out in favor of EVs, MFOD will be helpful in offering traditional fuels to lower income consumers who may lack the financial ability to transition to electric, and by offering low- and zero-emission fuels to alternative technology vehicles, like hydrogen fuel cell EVs.
Given the negative health and environmental outcomes associated with gas stations, their decline may be a welcome change, especially for communities directly impacted by gas station pollution. With careful investment and prioritization of community health, we can continue the transition away from gas stations and toward healthier, more efficient alternatives. In this effort, MFOD offers a solution to bridge the gap to large-scale electrification and even beyond, when a diverse fuel supply enables the net-zero transportation economy we currently strive for.
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