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Why should my fleet use Pacific Pride cardlock? 1024 681 Star Oilco

Why should my fleet use Pacific Pride cardlock?
Star Oilco Pacific Pride corporate fuel card

Pacific Pride Fleet Fuel card by Star Oilco

 

A prospective customer asked this question recently in an email:
“Why should I use a Pacific Pride fleet card over a gas station credit card?”
Below is Star Oilco’s answer to their request.

There are many reasons why you should use a commercial cardlock solution for your fleet. The biggest reason why you should use Star Oilco for your cardlock needs is we are a locally owned and operated business that can take the time to tailor a card program to your specific fleet’s needs. Namely, what is the greatest risk of theft that we can secure against and where is the greatest opportunity for savings in how you fuel? Often with fleet card sellers and the larger cardlock companies, they are focused on making your needs fit their product. Star Oilco focuses on YOU.  That’s a big difference.

Star Oilco finds that usually customers are focused on one of two things.

Price or Convenience.

PRICE: Cardlock can provide both of these with far more security than any other fuel card solution. Simply put, Cardlock locations do not use a credit-card satellite to run the transactions. This means cardlock operators taking Pacific Pride or CFN are not charging you 2% to 4% on your bill to run it through a Visa or other network. When you pull into a gas station to buy fuel, often you will be forced to pay $.10 a gallon more to use a Comdata, WEX, Voyager, Mastercard, or Visa backed fleet card. With Pacific Pride, you do not face this charge as it’s on the Fleetcor’s network. When you swipe these fleet cards at a Pacific Pride location, this savings is immediate and off the top. Additionally by working with a local Pacific Pride franchisee who owns the location, they can offer further savings at their location not available to anyone else. They own the fuel and therefore have ultimate control on saving you money.

CONVENIENCE: With convenience, comes risk. To enable your business to not be slowed down by the need for fuel you risk allowing a bad actor to steal from you. With Star Oilco’s modern cardlock offering we can secure your risk and still enable several levels of convenience and access, dependent on your customized fleet need.

We focus on your needs in this way. We keep it simple and break it down into an easy process. What do you do and where do you do it?

24-7 Convenience with Easy to Access Fueling Facilities

Clean, well lit, and large truck friendly cardlock facilities. Cardlock is made for business and if you are operating doubles and triples, we can work with your staff to map out the easy in-and-out high-flow diesel fueling options for your drivers.

Industry Leading Card Security

We offer a wide range of solutions that allow you, as a fleet manager, to lock down and protect your fleet from theft. If you only operate in specific areas, we can turn off whatever cards you want to not operate outside of where you want your trucks. If you don’t operate after a certain time of day we can also turn non-management cards off to guard against this. Often small business fuel theft occurs after midnight. If you don’t operate at midnight let us secure your fleet from that risk. These are just a few of the security options we can provide you if needed.

Email Notification for Total Control

See fuel transactions in real time. When your drivers make a fuel purchase at Pacific Pride or other affiliate fueling locations, an email will reach you or your dispatch notifying you. If your drivers are following your processes and procedures for fuel procurement, it will be easy for you to immediately reinforce the rules instead of waiting for a bill. Better yet, if something is wrong with the fuel purchase (out of area/time/product) you will know immediately a problem has occurred and can respond accordingly.

Flexibility or Structured Control.  We offer both!

Whether you want your drivers to be able to get fuel and get on the road as fast as possible, or locked into a specific zip code of only the low cost commercial cardlock locations. We can make that happen. Often, management wants total flexibility for time, place and the availability of branded Premium unleaded. While at the same time wanting to lock down their fleet cards for time and place of use to only buy commercial cardlock regular unleaded at the most competitive price possible. We make that easy and can change this quickly for your evolving business needs.

Total Accountability for Fuel Usage

Convenience for your controller, CPA and HR manager. Beyond designing simple security features like this we can also line up fuel usage to line up with your vehicles license plate providing a private PIN to everyone of your employees. We can also track Miles Per Gallon in the vehicles as a way to confirm if the fuel actually went into that vehicle or not. When your employees use the card, their name appears on the bill. You will know what vehicle took what fuel and who was the person who fueled it. When an unlikely fueling occurs you will have evidence of the person who did it and that the vehicle’s mileage is off, providing proof if needed.  Combine Pacific Pride’s total control with a “No Tolerance Fuel Theft Policy” for additional authority to fire fuel thieves under any state’s employment laws.

Simple and Accurate Fuel Management and Reporting

Star Oilco’s system enables easy reports anytime you want them. If you require a CSV file or other report for your operation, tax reports, budgeting or other business needs we are there for you to make this easy.

Commercial Diesel Pricing with Volume Discounts

Pacific Pride commercial cardlocks are priced form the wholesale market rate.  Our price is straightforward and based a daily OPIS Wholesale Rack report from your local market.   Instead of retail posted price signs where the corner gas station is trying to get as much as they can our diesel fuel is priced on a cost plus basis.  This is far more transparent and will save you money compared to retail on diesel fuel.  When prices are high our prices are far more fair.  When prices fall we fall with the wholesale market from the OPIS Average the day the market starts moving down.  Pacific Pride locations are also designed with high speed diesel pumps that save large trucks time.

TRY PACIFIC PRIDE TO SEE FIRST HAND
If you have questions or want to sign up for Star Oilco’s Pacific Pride fleet card.

Just let us know, and we will follow up with you to get you started.

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Star Oilco is an independent franchisee of Pacific Pride

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Use Pacific Pride to control your fleet fueling. 1024 683 Star Oilco

Use Pacific Pride to control your fleet fueling.


SEIZE CONTROL OF YOUR FUEL SPENDING WITH PACIFIC PRIDE FLEET CARDS

Star Oilco’s Pacific Pride card can give you control over when and where fuel is bought. We guarantee the highest level of control by offering human support to make it easy for a small business. You have enough to manage and don’t need another website to log into. Know who bought what, when, and where in real time to better manage the buying decisions by your drivers.

Pacific Pride, CFN, WEX, Voyager and other fleet cards all have similar tools. We find that small businesses need one extra tool. A human being on the other side helping make sure the total program is working. We help you grab control of every drop, dollar, and driver. We are your partner in Fleet Card and Cardlock Card success.

Star Oilco goes one step further than our competitors. We keep things simple and we make it easy for you. This is done with the obvious human element and best practices to complete the full value that a secured fuel card offers.

Call us and have us take care of that for you. You tell us what you want, we consult with you, and you get a working card program.

This is what we recommend for your non-management cards:
1) Set the fleet cards with the vehicles (attached to the license plate on the bill/place the fleet card on the key ring of the vehicle).

2) Design these vehicle cards to only work in the state’s zip codes that you service during the times of day you operate as a business.

2) Give each driver a unique and secret PIN attached to their name  (so when they use a card, their name appears on the bill next to the transaction).

3) Implement a “No Tolerance Fuel Theft Policy” with your Human Resource policy. Every employee signs a contract with your business that they own their personal secret PIN and it is only for them to use. Star Oilco can provide a recommended policy for you to use. If they give it to someone else, they are responsible for anything that happens. If theft is happening, it is a “No Tolerance” dismissal offense on the first occurrence.

4) Use the E-Receipt function with our fuel cards in order to see in real-time fuel purchases. An electronic receipt is emailed to your Controller or Dispatcher to watch for off-policy fuel usage in real time. This allows your Dispatch or Management to respond the same day to questionable decisions around fuel cards.

Now imagine how this works for your business in practice.

You can set up restrictions by days of the week, hours of the day or even by zip codes. If your business does not operate on weekends, turn off the fuel cards during the times you do not operate. If you your fleet is never on the road before 7am and is back at home by 7pm every night, set up those time restrictions to make it that much harder for fuel theft to occur. If you need to update this, change something, order cards, etc…. just call our office and we take care of that update for you.

With our E-receipt function, your Dispatch will get an email every time fuel is purchased. You will see where, what, who, and when this occurs. You can reinforce your company fuel policies at the local level the same day. No more waiting for the bill to see a driver did something that cost you money. By seizing control of your fuel, your drivers will also respond to your new level of control as well. By having control and transparency of what your drivers do, they will require less management as they know you are watching.

Often the most controllable expense related with fuel is the fuel that might slip through a business due to unethical employees or outside theft. Fuel slippage is the industry term for unauthorized fuel taking. With Pacific Pride cardlock fuel, you can take control over fuel purchases and avoid the loss up front with card controls. Contact Star Oilco for a total fuel security solution for your business.

Seize control with Star Oilco’s corporate fleet card solutions.

If you have further questions about Pacific Pride and control of your fleet fueling, feel free to contact us with the form below.

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Fixing the problems with bugs growing in your diesel 1024 512 Star Oilco

Fixing the problems with bugs growing in your diesel

What to do about Biological Growth in Diesel Fuel.

Fuel Marketer News has two great articles on biological growth in fuel tanks. Star Oilco as a diesel fuel delivery provider in Oregon and Washington is all to familiar with this emerging problem with ultra-low sulfur bio-diesel blend fuels.

Where there is water, bugs can grow in diesel.

The Fuel Marketer News articles below:

Fuel System Bugs Drain Revenue, and
Bugs Cause Fuel System Damage (part 2)

These articles in a nutshell are about the costs, impact, and ongoing effect of bugs growing in fuel as a real industry issue. If you have filters clogging in your fleet–much like a heart attack–it’s not a symptom, it’s a late-stage problem. Clogged filters slow down your fleet fueling and add serious cost to your vehicle maintenance. Lost power on the highway also slows your drivers down, escalating the drain on efficiency fuel that bugs may be causing.

Star Oilco can cure these problems, both with stopping hum-bug growing in your diesel tanks, as well as ensuring that the water those fuel bugs live in stops migrating into your tank. We will help you solve diesel fuel quality issues.

The first step is for Star Oilco to test the bottom of your fuel tank, as well as take a representative nozzle sample that would go into your trucks. We will show you where your fuel quality is today and come up with a collaborative way to move that into exceeding ASTM diesel specification, as well as aligning with engine manufacturer’s ISO specifications for diesel fuel cleanliness.

If you have questions about fuel quality assurance, Star Oilco has solutions. Left unattended, your diesel fuel will grow bugs, alga, yeasts, and other biological active destroyers of fuel quality. If you need to treat your fuel to kill humbugs like these, Star Oilco recommends Bioguard Plus 6 as your go-to solution. It is both a biocide that kills the bugs growing in fuel, as well as a heavy duty detergent to clean up other deposits as well.

Star Oilco Precision Fuel Management tank test request form below:

Tank Testing Form

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Close-up of clean diesel fluid stream with light reflections
Tier 4 Engines and Diesel Contaminants – Donaldson White Paper 683 1024 Star Oilco

Tier 4 Engines and Diesel Contaminants – Donaldson White Paper

Managing bulk diesel fuel storage has become more complex in recent years. Especially in Oregon and Washington the chance of water finding it’s way into your fuel tank is a real concern. If water gets in your bulk fuel biological growth or “hum bug” won’t be far behind.  Donaldson has positioned itself with real concrete solutions for for fuel quality.

With the extremely tight tolerances of today’s clean diesel engines and the expansion of sour crudes from tar sands, oil shale, and other source being hydrocracked into today’s ultra low sulfur diesel we have all seen it.  Fuel quality has stayed the same while the tolerance engine manufacturers build to have gotten tighter.

To help fleets solve the fuel quality issues fleet’s are dealing with these days Donaldson Filters has put out an intensive white paper on the what clogs filters.

Titled “Analysis and Identification of Contaminants in Diesel Fuel Filtration and Storage Systems” it goes into a level of depth of what the causes of filter spinning in your fleet is. If you are seeing clogged fuel filters this can help you diagnose and begin to problem solve for your fleet.

Usually diesel engine maintenance costs spin out of control around injector failure, DPF maintenance down time, and recurring regen cycles at the most inconvenient times blowing white smoke everywhere.  Usually this fleet management pain point revolves around dirt and water in diesel fuel.  Problems that Donaldson Filtration is the industry leader in solving.  Aggressive filtration and desicant breathers on tanks will polish your fuel beyond the low standards of petroleum standard ASTM and will exceed the ISO cleanliness standards the OEM’s made your engines to run.

This document is designed as and essential review of diesel contamination as it’s seen from the perspective of a filtration company guarding your diesel engine systems from problems.

This matters as the current generation of clean diesel technology commonly called “Tier 4” engines have a tighter specification need than industry standard diesel specification will meet in practice in the field.

 

The Donaldson Filters White Paper can be seen here: http://www.mycleandiesel.com/Resources/IFC10_FuelContaminants.pdf

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Star Oilco Precision Fuel Management Testimonials 1024 585 Star Oilco

Star Oilco Precision Fuel Management Testimonials

Precision Fuel Management Program Testimonial Page

Testimonial #1 Recology North Plains

Recology Material Recovery helps reduce the amount of waste entering Oregon’s landfills. In achieving this goal they strive to seek out new ways, types, and procedures to recycle waste which would otherwise be sent to the landfill instead of reusing it.

The environment onsite is dusty from the recycled wood products and has particulates floating in the air constantly. The piles of debris are kept semi-moist to help keep the dust down, which creates another issue for them to deal with. Both water and particles find their way into the bulk storage tank that they use for diesel fuel to fuel equipment. What seemed like small amounts of dirt and water was being sucked in through the open vents on the tank.

This in turn created issues with their bulk fuel tank cleanliness, their loaders, dump trucks and other “off-road” equipment they use to move the waste products through the recycling process. This picture is a before picture showing a bottom sample from the bulk tank.

Star Oilco suggested putting Recology on our Precision fuel management program. The program tackles the problem at the root cause and corrects it through the following processes:

  • Clean the tank and remaining fuel using 1 micron filtration
  • Install a Donaldson Clean & Dry Filtration kit™ on the tank.
  • Deliver Star Oilco Premium Diesel with Hydrotex PowerKleen™ additive.
  • Star Oilco then monitors the tank over a period of weeks for cleanliness taking bottom fuel samples as well as nozzle samples and sending them to our partner Hydrotex lab in Dallas Texas.

Nick Olheiser is the plant manager of the Recology North Plains and is very happy with the results.

“We do not have to change our filters on our equipment as much as we were”

“We are noticing our equipment is running smooth again since making the changes”

“I am very happy with the results and recommend it to anyone having issues with bulk fuel”

Nick Olheiser, Plant Supervisor Recology North Plains

Testimonial #2 Green Transfer & Storage

Green Transfer hauls and stores steel products in N. Portland, they were experiencing issues with the fuel they were getting from a local competitor. Star Oilco took fuel samples from the tank, and also took a fuel filter off the tank and had it sent to labs in Dallas Texas (Hydrotex) as well as Minneapolis, (Donaldson) the conclusion was as follows:

“The primary cause of filter plugging is believed to be a combination of the extremely high levels of glycerin and the polyamide chemistry that has been associated with some cold flow improvers. LCMS also identified DDSA and long chain amines; they are also known to cause filter plugging.” 

What that means in layman’s terms is the fuel had contaminants and particulates that were getting through the filtration and into Dave’s trucks. They were having issues with filters plugging and engines running rough. They were also seeing issues with fuel injectors showing signs of scoring and pitting.

Dave decided it was time to take action and had his tank cleaned, and had the Donaldson clean & Dry™ filtration installed. Dave opted to put an additional pre-filter before the two Donaldson filters, an added step to pre-filter the filters. Dave said,

“Since we re-cleaned the tank and added pre-filter I have not changed any filters. I have not had any other issues or driver complaints”.

Dave had several trucks in his fleet that kept changing fuel filters more and more frequently until they changed to the Donaldson Clean & Dry™ filtration kit and implemented the “Precision fuel management program” exclusively through Star Oilco, Hydrotex and Donaldson.

Star Oilco diagnosed the problems, took the necessary steps to alleviate them with the essential solutions.

  • Clean the bulk tank
  • Install Quality Donaldson Clean & Dry Filtration™
  • Deliver Star Oilco premium diesel with Hydrotex PowerKleen™ additive

If you are having issues with your bulk tank, or think you are having what might be fuel related issues,

Star Oilco will come out and take nozzle and bottom samples from your bulk tank and send them to our partner labs.

ota FLYER

Complementary of course!

Star Oilco can help