I recently joined fuel management group and I'm
very excited about the opportunity to work directly with clients and prospects
with their fleet fuel management programs. For the past 25 years, I've always
been a finance guy in the back-office and enjoyed working with data. My career
also included a number of years in the mobile fleet fueling industry. It was a
great experience for me because there was plenty of data to look at; gallons,
cents, miles, hours, etc. I prepared all kinds of analyze to help run the
business and also helped clients understand what they were paying for fuel and
where it was being used.
I took
for granted that clients were actually looking at the reports provided to them.
It seemed common for them to ask for verification of pricing or if the amount
of diesel fuel delivered was accurate. What I've come to realize recently is
that many companies are actually not looking at this kind of data closely. The
result is they are leaving a lot of money on the table. Even though I've
broadened my horizons beyond finance, the accountant in me is screaming
"how can anyone let this happen?"
If I were
a CFO, Controller, or Fleet Manager of a company and fuel was one of my top
expenses, I'd be doing whatever I could to make sure it was managed
effectively. Fuel prices are changing every day and there can be thousands of
fuel card transactions being generated. This creates a significant chance for
errors to occur and, therefore, the data must be audited. Otherwise, dollars
will surely be wasted. Auditing is easier said than done, and you need the
right tools too. It can be a daunting task for anyone who has a lot of
different responsibilities on their plate.
Despite
the challenge, the data needed to properly implement a robust fuel management
system is readily available. With a little knowledge, a finance or operations
person can set up a spreadsheet or database to bring it all together, analyze
it thoroughly, and validate the results. If you're not comfortable with doing
that, or your staff is just stretched too thin to tackle it, that's still no
reason to ignore getting it done when so much money is at stake.
One of
the main reasons I joined the company was to be able to provide this expertise
to clients, save them a lot of money, and take a load off their shoulders. From
a finance perspective, I saw it as a great opportunity and knew that I could
easily explain the huge potential for fuel savings to other finance people.
Then, making the decision to rely on outsourced fuel management expertise would
be one of the best, and simplest, decisions they ever made.
