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Fleet Fuel Best Practices

Close-up of calculator and printed fuel cost audit spreadsheet
What’s in a “Keep it Simple Fuel Audit” 1024 683 Star Oilco

What’s in a “Keep it Simple Fuel Audit”

How do you compare different fuel card vendors?

You audit your fuel bill.

We will help you clarify your bill by showing what you pay, what’s in that cost of fuel, and how you can save going forward. We do this by concentrating on one fact: there are only three fees in the total cost of a gallon of gas or diesel.

The three verifiable costs in a gallon of fuel are:

  1. The commodity cost of fuel (the wholesale and verifiable fuel cost itself),

  2. The fuel taxes charged by the feds, state, and local governments on top of that, and;

  3. The margin your fuel vendor puts on top of those two very transparent costs.

Fuel bill audit best practices

Tax time is a good time to revisit your policies and systems.

Let us audit your bill and catch inconsistencies and over charges.

We have a transparent way to analyze your fuel expense that breaks it down in an easily understood format. Our approach will demystify what you’re paying in fuel so you can grab control of your gasoline and diesel bills. Our mission is to ‘Keep it Simple’ and make fuel make sense. There are several types of expenses that get added to your cost of fuel.

Pacific Pride Fuel Security

At Star Oilco, we ‘Keep it Simple’ when analyzing fuel bills.

Today, two trends can be witnessed in the Pacific Northwest: fuel prices are all over the place, and wages are rising against that trend. This makes managing for a low cost of gasoline or diesel extremely hard given the labor that might be involved in chasing that price.

Add to that the fact that retail gas stations are keeping more margins than ever in retail fuel history. With minimum wage at $15 in parts of the Pacific NW, the cost of retail gas stations is rising faster than inflation.

Stand-alone commercial cardlock locations such as Pacific Pride and CFN help you save on your own labor, as well as avoid the higher retail cost. One additional feature is you can audit a commercial cardlock fuel seller against the commercial wholesale rack price. Retail sellers promising discounts are discounting from a posted price that is based solely on what they decide a good price can be. Today, that’s a historically high margin above wholesale cost price.

Dig into your bill for an understanding of what you are paying and what you are paying for. Let us demystify the fees, charges, and hard-to-understand line items of our competitors. It seems that many of our competitors, much like cell phone companies, want to give you a bill that is as complex as possible so it’s difficult for you to understand your cost of fuel.

We can clarify your bill by showing what you pay, what’s in that cost of fuel, and how you can save going forward. Commodity cost of the fuel, fuel taxes and the margin of the vendor make up every fuel bill.

Wholesale Fuel Cost + Taxes + Margin = Total Fuel Cost

These three costs can be audited and confirmed. When we quote a prospective customer, we take their existing fuel bill and break it down into a spreadsheet that is easy to understand thanks to these definable costs. Take your existing fuel bill. Choose a few locations that are most commonly used by your fleet. Usually just the two most-used sites are enough to gauge if savings can be gained by changing vendors. Focus on the cost there, as this simplifies your focus as a representative sample of your fuel expenses.

In a spreadsheet, make easy-to-read tabs for each fuel and location. Then gather the dates fuel was bought at each location. Place the date and the price per gallon paid in their own columns. Now you know your cost. In the next column, enter the wholesale price of fuel to compare. This is going to be pretty close to what your fuel vendor was paying for it on that day give or take a few pennies.

The commodity cost of fuel is established in the market. Though different size players have discounts, these discounts are usually pennies per gallon and aren’t substantial overall. You can request a 30 day free trial of the Oil Price Information Service or “OPIS” for your local wholesale market for fuel. Government bids often use this service as a transparent bid price for fuel. NOTE: If you are buying with a Pacific Pride or CFN fleet card that uses stand-alone 24-7 commercial cardlock sites, the price will be based on OPIS as well. If you want help with this, Star Oilco can provide you with a copy of OPIS.

After that, the next column is the fuel taxes on that fuel. In another column next to the wholesale cost of fuel, you place the local taxes associated with that fueling site. Your state will usually have a “Fuel Tax Group” or some variation of that name where the state’s website will list all state and municipal taxes.

After seeing the wholesale cost and fuel taxes charged, all that remain is the margin. Many fuel sellers will try to complicate this by passing costs through, but at the end of the day, this is still their markup regardless of what they call it. This enables you to really have a discussion on what price you are charged to use their fleet card.

Our next step is to determine the typical margin you are being charged. Take the real price you paid on a day. Your next column on the spreadsheet will be the following formula:
NOTE: Margin Charged is the result that should be in your new column.

(Cell with the ACTUAL PRICE PAID) – (Cell with the WHOLESALE COST) – (Cell with FUEL TAXES) = MARGIN CHARGED

If you line up all the days for MARGIN CHARGED and average those (select a cell at the bottom of the column and type “=AVG” and select the data in the MARGIN CHARGED column), you will find the average margin. Usually this is about the same on every one of the sheets for the type of fuel you are buying. Diesel and gasoline margins are typically different. Retail gas stations, in particular, will treat diesel like a premium product so don’t be surprised if those margins are over $.40 a gallon in some places.

If you want help with this, call us!

We will empower you with the knowledge of what your vendor is charging you and determine if it is a fair price for the service. Beyond that, there should be no other costs. If your vendor has other costs (fees, invoice charges, etc.), we’ll show you what those really cost per gallon so you understand your true cost fuel.

Star Oilco makes this clear and easy to understand. Let us know if we can help.

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Close-up of diesel engine with visible oil cap, piping, and metal components
Bulk diesel desiccant filters, dry fuel, and keeping your diesel fuel clean. 1024 684 Star Oilco

Bulk diesel desiccant filters, dry fuel, and keeping your diesel fuel clean.

Bulk diesel fuel delivery and storage best practice.

Use Desiccant Breathers and Premium Diesel additives to improve your diesel performance and reduce maintenance cost.

Save tens of thousands on fleet maintenance costs!

How? Clean, dry, and premium-treated diesel.

Reduce injector wear and particulate trap service needs with simple steps focused on fuel quality. Get the water and dirt out of your fuel with aggressive filtration and then upgrade the fuel’s lubricity, detergency, cetane, and performance with Hyrdrotex Power Kleen premium diesel.

Call Star Oilco if you want to permanently solve bulk diesel quality issues with our Precision Fuel Management program.

Do you have a bulk diesel storage tank?

Does that tank seem to have water in the bottom of it and you can’t seem to figure out where it’s coming from?

You call your diesel supplier and they say they know it isn’t them. If that’s your experience, Star Oilco can explain where that water is probably coming from. With the help of Hydrotex, Star Oilco can also lab test your fuel quality and prove we are in improving it as well.

desiccant filter in field

All storage tanks are different. But for the most part, if your tank seems to take on water randomly. It’s probably from the tank breathing. Especially if you have a large above ground tank. In fact, if you tracked it on a calendar it probably happens the same time of year in conjunction with a weather pattern your tank responds to.

How it works is as the temperature changes the tank’s space that is not filled with fuel will breathe in and out. The temperature and air pressure move air in and out of the tank. As does dispensing fuel out of the tank and then refilling the tank. When that happens, especially if you have a significant amount of humidity in the air or misting rain, water makes it’s way into your fuel supply. As temperatures change, moisture is drawn into the tank, condenses on the inner wall of the tank, and then deposits itself on the bottom of the tank.

This water not only poses a risk to your engines, but if your fuel isn’t treated for stability and performance, that fuel is guaranteed to start growing bugs and algae that will spread throughout your fleet and will have your mechanics spinning filters and dealing with random problems due to this diesel biological growth.

This problem is also exacerbated by ineffective fuel additives trying to keep your fuel dry, clean and safe for your injectors to process, which ensures that water does not get absorbed by your diesel. A single drop of water falling out of solution in today’s high pressure fuel rails and your engine can blow an injector.

HOW DO YOU SOLVE WATER IN YOUR DIESEL TANK?

ANSWER: DESICCANT BREATHERS ON YOUR VENTS

Desiccant diagram

Star Oilco recommends Donaldson desiccant filters, given their excellent full line of products and support. More on the full Donaldson Clean Dry Fuel program here: Donaldson Clean Diesel Kits Brochure.

The Donaldson desiccant breaker mounts to the top of a tank at it’s vent point. This addition seals the point of failure for water to get into your tank. Though in some cases it doesn’t stop 100% of water from ending up in your fuel tank, it definitely guarantees you know where it won’t be coming from, the environment around your tank.

(NOTE: If dealing with underground storage tanks also be aware that if you seal the vent with a desiccant filter and you still have incident’s of water, it might be a leak in the bottom of the tank where rain water is making its way into the tank.)

By using Donaldson filters, Star Oilco also gains the benefit of support from Hydrotex PowerKleen diesel fuel lab to analyze fuel to guarantee that the before and after samples of the fuel are moving as expected and the problem is solved. Running diesel samples can cost as much as $200 each time–having a partner that backs up our solutions with ASTM and ISO measured verification is a must.

The first step in getting better performance from your diesel fuel is to test your bulk diesel storage tank.

To get a complementary ASTM diesel fuel test, contact Star Oilco for assistance.

Clean, dry, premium diesel

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Star Oilco fuel truck delivering to a construction jobsite in Portland
Easy Construction Jobsite Fueling 1024 768 Star Oilco

Easy Construction Jobsite Fueling

Diesel Fueling for Construction Projects in Oregon

Construction Site Fuel in Portland

Get a Star Oilco account and make your jobsite fueling easy.

Star Oilco is on the road fueling construction, jobsites and generators.

Contact Us Today

Star Oilco is here to serve your diesel fueling needs.

Fueling in the Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington service areas.

We are now Serving Salem, OR and Surrounding areas.

Regardless if your project is for one day or a few years, we are here to keep that equipment topped off and running. Star Oilco does wet hose fueling construction jobsites in Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon.  We have also expanded in the Salem, Oregon and the surrounding areas with fleet fueling and On-site fueling.   Our dyed diesel, clear diesel, or gas construction refuelers are on the road ready for your order.

We fill your equipment with diesel and we can deliver DEF as well.

Whether it’s backhoes and loaders or lightsets, generators, refrigerated trailers, and pumping equipment.  Star Oilco is there with regular on-time, off-road diesel fuel in the Portland and Vancouver markets. If you have a need for gasoline in small volumes on your site, we can help with that as well. If you need fuel and want it there on time, we are here to keep you up and running.  We keep your equipment full so you can focus on the project.

We loan diesel and gasoline tanks to simplify your project fueling needs.

Loaner tanks are also immediately available for your project to keep fuel costs down. Avoid the recurring rental costs and go with a vendor who truly cares about your up time and schedule needs. Whether it is high service hands on wet hosing fueling or bulk drops, Star Oilco makes fueling your construction project easy.

Save money, time and labor with a better construction fueling partner.

Sending your scarce and expensive human resources to gas stations to pay retail prices for diesel eats up far more money than you think. Make fueling your project an afterthought and keep the equipment making you money moving. Star Oilco is here to make your project management easier. Keep your equipment moving and on the job and kick those fuel cans.

Let us know if we can be of help. We keep it full!

On-Site Fueling and Fleet Cards: Combine your construction fueling with Pacific Pride fuel cards to improve your operational efficiency as well as save on your cost of fuel.  Get away from those credit card fees while increasing your security from fuel theft with Star Oilco. 

How to use secure gas cards to protect your business from fuel theft:  Star Oilco can also pair your construction fueling account with a Pacific Pride card.  We approach Commercial Cardlock and Fleet Cards differently. With an easy to implement system to ensure you are not seeing fuel theft.

home insulation representing energy efficiency for renewable fuel standard compliance in Portland Oregon
What Is The Renewable Fuel Standard In Portland? 1024 683 Star Oilco

What Is The Renewable Fuel Standard In Portland?

Did you hear about the time Portland banned fossil fuel diesel?

Portland is making a big move to provide cleaner air and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Portland has implemented what’s called the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) beginning  its first phase on May 15th, 2024. The RFS policy in Portland mandates that there has to be an increase of use of low-carbon biofuels in diesel within city limits of Portland. This is part of the ultimate Climate Emergency plan. This RFS mandate was first implemented in 2006 as a B5 (5%) Biodiesel blend mandate with the goal of mandating a 20% blend. The RFS is the first of its kind not only in Oregon but in the entire United States. Portland’s reputation as a leader in environmental sustainability efforts continues. 

Portland’s Phases To Implement Almost 100% Renewable Diesel

What makes Portland’s mandate unique is the requirement that the biofuels have a CO2 value so low it bars most American made biodiesels. The blending requirement starts at 15% in 2024, and then it will steadily increase to 50% by 2026 and will reach 99% by 2030. This schedule demonstrates how Portland’s low-carbon ambition is present to transition away from fossil fuels and promote alternative energy sources.

This policy is expected to reduce air pollution and carbon emissions. It will also create new markets for biofuels, which will lead to increased economic opportunities. This will ultimately help the city become a more sustainable and environmentally friendly place to live as Portland has taken the lead in striving for sustainability over the years.

The policy will also help create jobs in the biofuel industry and provide opportunities for businesses to switch to renewable energy sources. It will also help reduce the city’s dependence on fossil fuels and protect the environment for future generations.

Want to learn more about meeting Portland’s requirements for the Renewable Fuel Standard mandate?

Contact Us
landscape view of Mount Hood representing Star Oilco’s fuel delivery service area in Oregon

Focus on Lower-Emission Biofuels

Uniquely, Portland’s RFS goes beyond just the biofuel blend. It also sets a strict carbon intensity (CI) standard for the biofuels themselves. This ensures the biodiesels used have a significantly lower carbon footprint compared to traditional options. Biodiesels produced domestically often fall short of this CI requirement, prompting many suppliers to look to renewable diesel sources. This focus on biofuels with a lower lifecycle carbon footprint makes Portland’s RFS even more impactful in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Iconic Portland sign on Broadway at dusk with city buildings in the background

Exemptions and Implementation Details

The initial phase of the RFS targets on-road diesel sales. This applies to diesel purchased at gas stations, by mobile fueling companies, and for use in large stationary tanks. However, the long-term goal includes all diesel use within the city. Some temporary exemptions apply to off-road diesel uses such as heating oil, generator fuel, aircraft fuels, watercraft fuels, and other dyed fuel users. One local truck stop, Jubitz Truckstop, was granted a temporary exemption. This is likely due to concerns about disrupting critical transportation operations. Daimler (the manufacturer of Freightliner and Western Star trucks) has a research facility in Portland. Daimler was also granted an exemption to meet their specific fuel needs for testing purposes. 

The RFS enforces compliance through fuel sampling and requires documentation proving the fuel meets the minimum biofuel content and CI standards. Businesses that purchase diesel need to be able to show their compliance through bills of lading (BOLs) or similar records from their fuel provider, like Star Oilco. If a business does not comply and provide this documentation, it can result in pretty hefty fines. First offenses can be a fine of $10,000 per day. Repeat offenders will end up facing even bigger penalties of up to $15,000 per day. These fines can really show the impact of how serious Portland is taking this initiative. 

Impact on Businesses and Consumers

While residential consumers who don’t purchase diesel directly are not directly impacted, businesses purchasing diesel, especially in bulk, will need to adapt to the new regulations. This may involve acquiring documentation from fuel suppliers or entering into contracts guaranteeing compliant fuel blends. Wholesale fuel distributors, who sometimes purchase from multiple vendors and blend fuel mid-route, may face additional challenges in tracking the biofuel content and CI of their product. However, as the program matures, the industry is expected to adapt and streamline these compliance procedures.

Contact Us Today To Discuss What This Means For Your Business

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A Step Forward for Cleaner Transportation

Portland’s ambitious RFS sets a new expectation for sustainable transportation. Promoting low-carbon biofuels allows Portland to aim to significantly reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and be able to contribute to cleaner air for its residents. The RFS program will be able to serve as a model for other cities that are looking at implementing similar initiatives. Great job Portland for paving the way to a sustainable future for other cities! Although challenges will remain, as businesses adapt to this new norm, Portland’s RFS represents a significant step forward in creating a more sustainable transportation sector.

The RFS program is an important step in the fight towards sustainability and lower carbon fuels. It sends a clear message that cities are willing to take action to reduce emissions and protect the environment. We anticipate that other cities will follow Portland’s lead and create similar initiatives. This will have a significant impact in reducing emissions and helping to protect the environment.

It is a positive step towards a more sustainable future. Alternative fuels have become more and more readily available. Investing in alternative fuels and reducing carbon emissions is essential for protecting the planet for future generations. Governments should prioritize investing in renewable energy sources and incentivize communities to switch to alternative fuel solutions.

Thank you for choosing Star Oilco as your preferred fuel provider in Portland and Vancouver, Washington. Give us a call to discuss how the RFS mandate can affect your business and one of our team members would be happy to discuss this with you.

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Save money with a commercial fuel card 1024 544 Star Oilco

Save money with a commercial fuel card

Save money with a commercial fuel card by avoiding the credit card retail price and preventing fuel theft in your business.

How do you avoid the higher credit card prices at gas stations?

Buy Your Fuel at a Commercial Cardlock

Make sure that employee fuel theft is not robbing from your bottom line.

 

 

  • Buy Diesel from Pacific Pride and CFN Commercial Cardlocks over retail gas stations.
  • Use a secure Fleet Card that ensures that employee theft is locked down.
    • Make sure your company’s Fleet Card is secured for:
      • A Fleet Card attached to the individual vehicle with a secure identifiable PIN for each employee.
      • Only the times of day you operate.
      • Only the days of the week you operate.
      • Only the fuel products your vehicle uses.
      • A limited number of transactions a day to ensure if a card gets misused the amount is extremely reduced.
      • A real time “E-Receipt” that notifies you of fuel purchases in real time to better manage employees for your fuel costs.

Wholesale pricing at a Pacific Pride commercial cardlock

 Take control of your fuel spend by buying wholesale instead of retail gasoline.

Over the last year fuel costs have jumped to record highs.   Retail gas and diesel prices in particular are high compared to wholesale market purchasing opportunities for fleets.  Retail posted prices for credit card purchases further increase the cost on your business.

Commercial gas station cards that direct your fleet to buy fuel at convenience stores cost far more than the posted price for fuel.  Many of these gas stations also price diesel fuel with the same mark up as premium gasoline. By getting your employees out of the retail fuel line save in several ways.

How do you save with Commercial Cardlock over a retail gas station?

PRODUCTIVITY – Get out of retail gas lines and self serve your fleet 24-7-365.

PURCHASE CONTROLS – Lock down your fleet cards by vehicle, fuel type, time of day, and Zip Codes to ensure a either a well meaning employee doesn’t buy the wrong product or  a stolen wayward card does not rob from your bottom line.

WHOLESALE AVERAGE BASED PRICING – Buy your diesel and gasoline from a verifiable wholesale index.  Pacific Pride Commercial Cardlock sites are all based from an auditable OPIS Average market index plus our agreed margin. Know what and why you are paying for fuel.  (NOTE: Star Oilco will gladly help you audit your current fuel purchase program)

FLEXIBLE – Star Oilco can combine our fleet card program with Mobile Onsite Fueling and our billing simplifies your fuel program management by consolidating all purchases by your license plates on one invoice. Our Mobile Onsite Fueling and Commercial Cardlock invoices are combined showing you all purchases on one invoice also available for export in a CSV file.

You will first of all pick up productivity, a lack of managerial control, as well as a system that conceals employee theft is tied to the cost of buying fuel.  Move your fleet fuel purchases to Pacific Pride’s network card and save per gallon as well by restricting the fuel purchases you would not want.

Now is the time to look at your total cost of fuel

Let us help you audit your fuel program

We will help you clarify your bill by showing what you pay, what’s in that cost of fuel, and how you can save going forward. We do this by concentrating on one fact: there are only three fees in the total cost of a gallon of gas or diesel.

How we approach buying commercial fuel with a gas card.  There are only three parts of your fuel cost.  Let us help you understand what you pay for fuel:

  1. The commodity cost of fuel (the wholesale and verifiable fuel cost itself),

  2. The fuel taxes charged by the feds, state, and local governments on top of that, and;

  3. The margin your fuel vendor puts on top of those two very transparent costs.

Tax time is a good time to revisit your policies and systems.

Let us audit your bill and catch inconsistencies and over charges.

We have a transparent way to analyze your fuel expense that breaks it down in an easily understood format. Our approach will demystify what you’re paying in fuel so you can grab control of your gasoline and diesel bills. Our mission is to ‘Keep it Simple’ and make fuel make sense. There are several types of expenses that get added to your cost of fuel.

Pacific Pride Fuel Security

At Star Oilco, we ‘Keep it Simple’ when analyzing fuel bills.

Today, two trends can be witnessed in the Pacific Northwest: fuel prices are all over the place, and wages are rising against that trend. This makes managing for a low cost of gasoline or diesel extremely hard given the labor that might be involved in chasing that price.

Add to that the fact that retail gas stations are keeping more margins than ever in retail fuel history. With minimum wages approaching $15 in parts of the Pacific NW, the cost of retail gas stations is rising faster than inflation.

Stand-alone commercial cardlock locations such as Pacific Pride and CFN help you save on your own labor, as well as avoid the higher retail cost. One additional feature is you can audit a commercial cardlock fuel seller against the commercial wholesale rack price. Retail sellers promising discounts are discounting from a posted price that is based solely on what they decide a good price can be. Today, that’s a historically high margin above wholesale cost price.

Dig into your bill for an understanding of what you are paying and what you are paying for. Let us demystify the fees, charges, and hard-to-understand line items of our competitors. It seems that many of our competitors, much like cell phone companies, want to give you a bill that is as complex as possible so it’s difficult for you to understand your cost of fuel.

We can clarify your bill by showing what you pay, what’s in that cost of fuel, and how you can save going forward. Commodity cost of the fuel, fuel taxes and the margin of the vendor make up every fuel bill.

Wholesale Fuel Cost + Taxes + Margin = Total Fuel Cost

These three costs can be audited and confirmed. When we quote a prospective customer, we take their existing fuel bill and break it down into a spreadsheet that is easy to understand thanks to these definable costs. Take your existing fuel bill. Choose a few locations that are most commonly used by your fleet. Usually just the two most-used sites are enough to gauge if savings can be gained by changing vendors. Focus on the cost there, as this simplifies your focus as a representative sample of your fuel expenses.

In a spreadsheet, make easy-to-read tabs for each fuel and location. Then gather the dates fuel was bought at each location. Place the date and the price per gallon paid in their own columns. Now you know your cost. In the next column, enter the wholesale price of fuel to compare. This is going to be pretty close to what your fuel vendor was paying for it on that day give or take a few pennies.

The commodity cost of fuel is established in the market. Though different size players have discounts, these discounts are usually pennies per gallon and aren’t substantial overall. You can request a 30 day free trial of the Oil Price Information Service or “OPIS” for your local wholesale market for fuel. Government bids often use this service as a transparent bid price for fuel. NOTE: If you are buying with a Pacific Pride or CFN fleet card that uses stand-alone 24-7 commercial cardlock sites, the price will be based on OPIS as well. If you want help with this, Star Oilco can provide you with a copy of OPIS.

After that, the next column is the fuel taxes on that fuel. In another column next to the wholesale cost of fuel, you place the local taxes associated with that fueling site. Your state will usually have a “Fuel Tax Group” or some variation of that name where the state’s website will list all state and municipal taxes.

After seeing the wholesale cost and fuel taxes charged, all that remain is the margin. Many fuel sellers will try to complicate this by passing costs through, but at the end of the day, this is still their markup regardless of what they call it. This enables you to really have a discussion on what price you are charged to use their fleet card.

Our next step is to determine the typical margin you are being charged. Take the real price you paid on a day. Your next column on the spreadsheet will be the following formula:
NOTE: Margin Charged is the result that should be in your new column.

(Cell with the ACTUAL PRICE PAID) – (Cell with the WHOLESALE COST) – (Cell with FUEL TAXES) = MARGIN CHARGED

If you line up all the days for MARGIN CHARGED and average those (select a cell at the bottom of the column and type “=AVG” and select the data in the MARGIN CHARGED column), you will find the average margin. Usually this is about the same on every one of the sheets for the type of fuel you are buying. Diesel and gasoline margins are typically different. Retail gas stations, in particular, will treat diesel like a premium product so don’t be surprised if those margins are over $.40 a gallon in some places.

If you want help with this, call us!

We will empower you with the knowledge of what your vendor is charging you and determine if it is a fair price for the service. Beyond that, there should be no other costs. If your vendor has other costs (fees, invoice charges, etc.), we’ll show you what those really cost per gallon so you understand your true cost fuel.

Star Oilco makes this clear and easy to understand. Let us know if we can help.

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For more on what is required to self serve gasoline as a small business in Oregon.

For more on Fueling Solutions developed for small businesses dedicated to managing a fleet and drivers for local Delivery. 

Call for service.

 

 

 

Close-up of a person selecting a red fuel nozzle at a gas station pump
Lock Down Your Gas Card To Prevent Theft, In Oregon 683 1024 Star Oilco

Lock Down Your Gas Card To Prevent Theft, In Oregon

                                    Pacific Pride Cardlock in Portland, Or.

                   Lock Down Your Gas Card To Prevent Theft, In Oregon

If you are in Oregon, the widespread available Pacific Pride and CFN commercial fueling sites allows you to lock down your gas card security.  Eliminate fuel theft and save money with commercial fueling.

Star Oilco is an independent Franchisee of Pacific Pride

Pacific Pride Fueling Network Provider

If you have employees buying gasoline for your business fleet, the most expensive risk to your business is fuel theft. Use Star Oilco to secure yourself from that fuel theft while also saving on your cost of fuel over retail. As Oregon’s minimum wage and regulations increase so does the cost at retail gas stations. We can save you money and significantly reduce your risk of fuel theft while also getting your drivers out of retail gas station lines.

Stand alone commercial only Pacific Pride and CFN sites in Oregon are a real resource for small business. They speed up the labor associated with fueling and significantly lock down the chance fraud or theft will occur to you related with a fuel card. Given Oregon has a legal history of outlawing self-serve of gasoline, these commercial only sites are near industrial and commercial areas.

What do you need to access a Commercial Cardlock in Oregon?

All you need to access Pacific Pride sites in Oregon is a business license and proof that you use over 900 gallons of total fuel a year. CFN commercial cardlock sites have the same requirements. If you are a business using a commercial quantity of fuel, you qualify to self serve gasoline and you can stop paying your employees to shop at the most expensive retail gas stations with the best mini-mart selection. Instead, get them back on the road 24-7 and usually without a line to wait in.

Regardless of what system you choose, there are some organizational best practices that when implemented, will be self-reinforcing in your organization. Simple little changes to how you approach fuel cards will greatly reduce any opportunity for theft. These commercial sites also often can take other commercial gas cards as well. Typically anything with a Fuelman logo, Voyager, WEX, Comdata, and several others allow you to access Pacific Pride sites in Oregon.

With Pacific Pride and CFN stand alone commercial cardlock sites, there are other benefits beyond just the convenience. The biggest difference is that these commercial cardlock sites are built with security for your gas cards in mind. Retail stations are engineered to sell as many products as possible to those pulling up for gasoline. Commercial cardlock sites are designed for commercial users who seek the fastest fueling experience. That is a big difference between the two.

Commercial Cardlock also provides superior security if you use it strategically.

Top 5 Strategies to lock down your gas card from theft.

Pacific Pride Fleet Card

Gas Card Strategy #1

TAKE INVENTORY OF YOUR GAS CARDS – Annually take inventory of what cards you have and who is using them. Star Oilco will gladly do this for you in conjunction with our annual Oregon Fire Marshall audit. We will line up a list of active cards with your employees and make sure there isn’t a lost or unused card out there. You can also do this more regularly in-house. Often a card policy implemented by Human Resources or your Dispatcher is a good way to track what employees (or vehicles) have what cards. On a regular basis, pass a clip board around asking each employee with a fleet card to confirm they still have that card and initial a confirmation that the card is still in their possession. You would be surprised how individual cards can float between employees as it is easier than asking for a new card.

Gas Card Strategy #2

HAVE AP AUDIT YOUR TRANSACTIONS – Audit your transactions regularly for the one thing that most likely is theft. Just look for multiple transactions per day on a single vehicle or card. Also check for switching fuel types and refuels when your business isn’t open. Having your Accounts Payable looking for transactions that occur outside of normal business hours and days or more than once a day is usually the best way to spot theft. Look for locations outside of your service area as well. Also look for cards with more than one transaction in a day or large volumes. The most common times of day for employee fuel theft are early morning on the way to work (before you open) or after the bars close after midnight.

Gas Card Strategy #3

 ATTACH GAS CARDS TO VEHICLE KEYS – Put your Fleet Cards on the key ring dispatched with the vehicle, not with the driver. To limit a risk of a stolen card, restrict card ownership to management and maintenance. Everyone else should have cards directly connected with a vehicles license plate, so if that card goes missing it is obvious. You  can also connect this strategy to an e-receipt program so you are seeing fuel buying in real time as well.

Gas Card Strategy #4

SET THE GAS CARDS UP WITH LIMITS –  Program your cards for the vehicles they are attached to.  You know historically the max amount of gasoline a vehicle can use.  Limit it to that. You can also restrict a card to ensure no one accidetnaly buys expensive premium or worse puts the wrong fuel in the vehicle. By programming the gas card to only allow a specific fuel and amount for that vehicle (regular, premium or diesel) you lock the card down from thieves.  This reduces the opportunity for theft to exceed a small minimum and also makes theft obvious when the limits are hit. You an also add limits on zip codes, states, and times of days.  If someone does steal a card they would be limited of the time, how much, and where they could buy fuel making sure your own theft exposure is a few dozen gallons instead of thousands of dollars.

Gas Card Strategy #5

USE E-RECEIPTS TO MANAGE FUEL IN REAL TIME – It’s the 21st Century so manage in real time. If your gas card is emailing your Dispatch or fleet management in real time as the fuel cards are being used, you can address anything the day of. Better yet, if theft is occurring you will see it immediately and be able to react. Not only will this lock down your gas card’s security, it will also allow you to address mistakes relating to efficiency. Instant feedback and communication is critical to change bad behavior of drivers who mean to do well but may just have made a simple mistake.


Lock down your gas card from fuel theft.  Call Star Oilco, we can make it simple.

Star Oilco can help you field all of these best practices. Our motto is “Keep it Simple” and we are here to make this easy. Feel free to reach out and see what Star Oilco can do for your fleet to upgrade its fleet fueling security.

To download a white paper on these Pacific Pride fuel card security feature best practices, go to our Stop Fuel Theft page.

 

Star Oilco is an independent Franchisee of Pacific Pride

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On-Site Refueling in Oregon 768 1024 Star Oilco

On-Site Refueling in Oregon

       Wet Hose Fueling and Mobile On-Site Diesel Delivery in the Pacific Northwest.

If some days you have more work than drivers…

Wet Hose Fueling Service in Portland

Mobile On-site refueling or “Wet Hosing” is a solution that will push more money to your bottom line and reduce stress on your drivers.  Star Oilco can also merge our mobile onsite refueling service with our national Fleet Card system.

 One bill, labor saving in town and secured fleet fueling over the road.

 

  Top Five Reasons to Use Wet Hosing for your Fleet Diesel Fueling

On-site refueling or “Wet Hosing” is a preferred method for fueling these days. Fleets of all sizes prefer getting their fleet fueling delivered after hours in their yard. The reasons are numerous but at the top of the list, labor is the driving force behind it.

Shaving off even fifteen minutes of labor–which is one of the two highest costs for most fleets, right after diesel–can have a huge payback to the bottom line.

If your fleet is consistently on overtime or short that one extra hour of legal driver time, picking up fifteen to thirty minutes per truck a few times a month can be a huge opportunity. On top of that fleet fueling, your diesel can also save considerably just by controlling where you pay your fuel taxes (Oregon PUC is tax exempt on the fuel bill, while Washington cardlock and truck stops are paying nearly $.50 a gallon in Washington diesel road tax).  Though you are paying IFTA, why pay the tax earlier than you need to.

Call Star Oilco if you have questions and want to examine the payback value of Mobile On-site Refueling compared against your current vendor for diesel. You might be surprised how much it will save you in time, money and management effort.

                         Five Reasons your fleet should use Mobile On-site Refueling:

  1. Driver Time – The most valuable resource your fleet owns.
    • Truck drivers are a limited resource, and they cost more than you can usually measure in money alone. Without calculating the lost productivity of your truck, you are paying over $10 each time you allow your drivers to stop for fuel. Just the out of route, stopping, and getting back on the road time will put refueling your own trucks at a half hour of lost time. As the average fill up we see is under 50 gallons fueling your own trucks will cost you $.20 to $1 a gallon in labor costs alone.
  2. One More Stop – Picking up productivity in your fleet.
    • Getting drivers on the road and without a reason to be out of route pays back dividends. If you pay productivity bonuses, your most productive drivers will thank you as well. Even in fleets where pay is by stop, not based on hourly wages, the ability those few times a year when drivers are so busy they are bumping up against DOT work rules, they will thank you for the convenience of being ready to go the start of each shift and not having to worry about that one more stop on the way back to base. A few extra stops a year is often worth thousands of dollars to your bottom line–more than a cost of a tank of diesel.
  3. Save on the Cost of Diesel
    • Today the price of diesel at gas stations, truck stops, and other retail options is high compared to wholesale rack averages.  It is not uncommon for our customers to get an extreme labor savings with Mobile Onsite Fueling while also saving on the cost of diesel at the end of the month.  If you are using a credit card to buy fuel, the added Credit Card pricing of diesel is usually $.10 or more cents a gallon. Cut out the retail mark up on fuel and get a cost-plus deal with a true wholesale diesel seller delivering into your yard after hours.
  4. Easily Integrates with cardlock and other fleet cards onto one bill easily.
    • If you have a major hub with a critical mass of trucks in town, wet-hosing yPride Advantage Sample Cardour fleet can pay back rapidly. Even if the majority of your fleet is over the road and out of town, on-site refueling can be a money saving proposition. You can also integrate it seamlessly with a Pacific Pride, CFN, Fuelman, Voyager or another fleet card program as well. Star Oil can provide a Pacific Pride or Fuelman card that will work over the road consolidating all your fuel into one bill. Star can also accept Fuelman, Comdata, WEX or Voyager and bill those fleet cards directly with onsite refueling. Call if your fleet uses one of these national fleet cards and you want to move to wet hosing billed directly to the card and license plate of each one of your trucks. (For further reading on corporate fleet card security features please read our article on Upgrade your Fleet Card’s Security Features)
  5. Cost Plus Diesel – Budget to know every day you are getting a good wholesale rate for your fleet.
    • Star Oilco can connect your fleet to an agreed and easily verifiable cost plus supply agreements. Be it OPIS Average or Low Rack Plus agreements we can guarantee you have a good wholesale price of fuel. On-site refueling will provide a simplified fleet management experience for both your drivers and your Accounts Payable department. Call us if you want to talk about what this can do for your business. ( For further reading on the benefits of premium diesel and a wholesale partner for diesel, read our article on What is the benefit of Premium Diesel versus untreated diesel?)

We are here to serve you and keep the process simple. Contact us to learn more at, 503-283-1256.

 

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Make And Keep Your Diesel Fuel A Lot More Clean 1024 768 Star Oilco

Make And Keep Your Diesel Fuel A Lot More Clean

                               Make And Keep Your Diesel Fuel A Lot More CleanClean, dry, premium diesel

What is Clean Diesel? 

Clean diesel is free of the contaminants that harm modern diesel engines. Today, there is a gap between ASTM diesel standards and the ISO cleanliness standards needed for use in high pressure common rail engines. Anyone operating a modern clean diesel engine is seeing the effect, including injector replacement, DPF regeneration, and a host of other fuel quality related maintenance concerns we never saw twenty years ago. On top of all of that, today’s refined diesel fuels are less storage stable than ever before. What is on the bottom of your bulk tank can also complicate matters further. When diesel is bought wholesale, it typically meets and exceeds ASTM required industry standards, but almost always requires additional filtration to avoid excessive engine wear and premature part failures.

Having clean diesel requires an additional amount of care. Namely, you need to make sure that the fuel is aggressively filtered at 4 microns to catch the microscopic particles that are big enough to damage your modern diesel engine’s high pressure fuel rail system. Furthermore, clean diesel is fuel that is free of water and stabilized with Premium Diesel to guarantee no bacteria, yeast and other creatures can grow and further contaminate the saddle tanks on your trucks.

For more on clean diesel, see Donaldson’s description of “The New Clean” for an in-depth explanation of what ISO cleanliness and filtration mean for your diesel fleet.

Making Diesel Cleaner!

Knowing the quality of your fuel is the first step. This is done by taking samples off of the bottom of your bulk storage, as well as a representative sample from your fuel dispenser. Lab tests of those samples will tell you if you have water, biological growth, or dirt issues with your storage. The contaminants in the tank being sampled are almost always visible, which is to say that they look horribly ugly. If your fuel quality assurance has been on autopilot, do not be surprised if you find this. After gathering knowledge about your fuel, the next step is to get your fuel quality clean.

Filtration and tank bottom sampling is the start. Beyond that, the only way to improve your fuel quality performance is to filter your fuel, ensure water is not getting into the tank through condensation, and additize it with a Premium Diesel additive to upgrade the performance of the fuel. Many fleets today are seeing injector wear and continual problems with particulate trap maintenance. This is a combination of water in fuel and microscopic particles not captured by a 10 or 30 micron filter used at most diesel dispensers. You have to filter more aggressively than this.

Clean, Dry, and Premium Diese

Where To Start?

The first step is sampling your bulk diesel tank. We check your bulk tank for water and dirt to make sure and meet the specifications your engine is built for. Star Oilco can help by providing a complementary diesel test for those fleets interested in taking control of their fuel quality assurance. Usually when testing fuel, we take a sample off of the tank bottom as well as a representative sample out of the fuel dispensing nozzle.

What we usually find is ASTM specification diesel fuel (it meets ASTM spec) that is higher than you’d want (still in spec) for water with far more dirt than the OEM’s would want to see in your engine. This dirt fails to be within the “ISO Cleanliness” specifications recommended by engine manufacturers. Usually, we also see water on the bottom of the fuel tank, which is a likely source for future or current biological growth in your fuel tank.

Star Oilco can help you fix this! The first step is to sample your fuel tank.

NOTE: If you have a current biological growth problem in your bulk fuel tank or fleet, your first step is to treat that effected fuel with a diesel microbiocide to kill the bugs growing in your tank. For more on this, see our Valvtect Plus 6 Diesel Microbiocide page.

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Get an email every time your fleet stops for fuel 1024 541 Star Oilco

Get an email every time your fleet stops for fuel

                 

Get an Email every time your driver fuels up

–Driver management tools built into a fleet card.

-Fleet card services mean more than just a bill, it is knowing who buys what, when, and where in real time.

-Make sure your Dispatcher on duty gets an email every time fuel is bought in real time.

-Know in real time what your fleet is buying and doing to get ahead of bad decisions.

 

Driver efficiency can drain your profits.  Drivers making the wrong decision about where to buy fuel is also a trainable experience.  Add to that the bad actors who might palm a fleet card.

We give you actionable data in real time as the driver makes a decision.

At those rare moments when thieves creep into your business, we also make sure you see it as it occurs.  This means you can save yourself thousands of dollars in theft before it happens.  Fuel theft usually occurs on the way to work or when bars close.  We make sure you are getting notified at every fuel purchase so you can see the out of place fuel purchase.

Our Pacific Pride cards tie a suite of tools into our E-Receipt tool making sure your team knows who is doing what with your fuel cards.  We also have added tools, if you want them, to turn the cards off by hour of day, days of the week, and by states/zip code protections.  We secure your business from those risks so you can protect yourself from surprises.


Star Oilco is an Independent Franchisee of Pacific Pride.Know who, what vehicle, what fuel, at what location in real time – to manage your fleet in real time.

Knock out fuel theft by knowing what is happening when it happens.

-E-Receipts are a simple tool that allow you total knowledge and control of your fleet’s fueling.

Managing a fleet is an orchestra of well organized chaos.  Your driver’s decision making, unforgiving customer needs, the randomness of traffic all merge into the daily life of a fleet.  Star Oilco can provide you a very simple tool to help you seize control of where, when and who makes fuel purchasing decisions.  The Star Oilco Pacific Pride card can provide an email notification every time fuel is bought notifying your team so that your fuel policy can be managed in real time.

Control the fuels they can buy, the zip codes they can buy fuel in, limit the quantity of fuel, windows of time to buy fuel (so after hours a borrowed card cannot be use), and get an email after someone gets fuel. Manage your driver’s habits as things happen.

Email notification of who, where, and what fuel was purchased after it occurs.

Many fleets have policies of when and where to fuel.  Avoiding high cost retail pumps, the nearly $.50 fuel higher tax difference for an Oregon fleet buying in Washington state, or if you use wet-hose mobile fueling to save labor and depend on a gallon quantity for a discounted price.  A driver not following your policies is very expensive.

With Pacific Pride’s e-receipt at time of transaction you will have instant confirmation, not month end audits.

Regardless of coaching and communicating often drivers have a habit of departing from even the best managed fleet’s policies.  Knowing the moment this happens can make all the difference.  It also has an added benefit of keeping people from even contemplating fuel theft as the transaction and who the offender is will be immediately noted.

Imagine it.  Your driver stops out of route for fuel, shortly after a text from dispatch asks why?   As you discuss the fuel stop with the wayward driver, they will forever and always think twice before stopping out of route again.

Know who stopped for fuel in real time. 

Get started below.

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Fuel bill audit best practices

Read more on how a Fuel Audit can help your business control fuel costs and demystify what and how you are buying fuel.  Find out what’s in a Star Oilco “Keep it Simple” Fuel Audit.

For a strategy on using Fleet Cards as a human resource management tool to stop fuel theft in your business see the Star Oilco white paper on Stopping Fuel Theft in your Business.

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Top 4 Reasons Hotels Should Use Pacific Pride 1024 688 Star Oilco

Top 4 Reasons Hotels Should Use Pacific Pride

Pacific Pride Fuel Cards for Airport, Hotel, or Travel Shuttle Companies

Fuel for shuttle vans through Pacific Pride

ending with fuel card management, emailed receipts, transparency, and accountability for your hotel or travel shuttle bus drivers.

Star Oilco is an independent Franchisee of Pacific Pride

Pacific Pride Fuel cards for Shuttle Drivers

Running a shuttle service for a hotel for any reason can have a lot of moving parts:

  • Hiring
  • Training Drivers
  • Scheduling Shifts
  • Keeping the Vehicles Full of Fuel
  • Ensuring a Consistent Time Table

Let Star Oilco track and control the fueling for you. We can save you money and significantly reduce your risk of fuel theft while getting your drivers out of lines at a retail gas station. In addition, our locations are open even on holidays or late at night.

Shuttles going to and from the airports can be on tight schedules and  don’t have a lot of time to fuel. Meeting your guests’ needs means you can’t have your drivers in lines for a long time. Stand-alone commercial-only Pacific Pride and CFN sites in the northwest are a real resource for your business. Many stations are located near airports. They speed up the labor associated with fueling and significantly lock down the chance for fraud or theft when using your fuel card. Stand-alone sites limit access to convenience store items so employees won’t be tempted to spend time browsing and make purchases on the company credit card.

With Pacific Pride and CFN stand-alone commercial cardlock sites, there are other benefits beyond just the convenience. The biggest difference is that these commercial cardlock sites are built with security in mind. Retail stations are engineered to sell as many products as possible to those pulling up for gasoline. Commercial cardlock sites are designed for commercial users who seek the fastest fueling experience. That is a major contrast between the two.

Top 4 Reason Hotels Should Use Fuel Cards

Top 4 Reason Hotels should use Pacific Pride Fuel Cards

Reason #1 – Better Tracking and Management

With a myriad of responsibilities required of those who run hotels or shuttles, simple methods to control when, where, and what is purchased any time during the day can save time and money. Controls keep fuel purchases in line and by only those with authorization.

WHEN: If the drivers only need access to fuel during specific shifts you can set the cards to work only during these times.

WHERE: Drivers can be limited to specific locations such as only Pacific Prides, or if more flexibility is needed, they can be authorized to use any of the 57,000 extended network locations. Pacific Pride locations are also open 24/7 and open even on the holidays.

WHAT: Drivers can be limited to specific types of fuel. If the van takes diesel you can set the card to only have access to diesel. These simple strategies can eliminate many of the issues that can arise when fueling.

Talk to a Card Lock expert at Star Oilco to find out more. 

 

Reason #2 – No More Paper Receipts 

Tracking and reviewing receipts takes up a lot of time. Pacific Pride fuel cards can be set up to automatically email every time a fueling occurs. Using a fuel card eliminates the need to continuously organize and track expense receipts from drivers. No more going through each and every receipt to see what and how much was purchased. Fuel can be set up to see which vehicle was fueled, who fueled it and when it was fueled. These transactions are easily organized with entered mileage and fuel costs in the bills that are issued twice a month. This alone can save hours of labor for accountants and controllers as they audit the bills.

Reason #3 – Stop Fuel Theft

By using a fuel card, a hotel insures the security of their shuttles and prevents theft by its drivers. This instills peace of mind, as managers know their drivers cannot use a fuel card for personal usage. Fuel cards can be assigned to vehicles and each driver has their own individual PIN#. With a quick email or phone call, card access can easily be granted or blocked as drivers leave or new ones are added.

Reason #4 – Transparency and Accountability

Star Oilco has created a template agreement for drivers to sign as they are assigned identification numbers for the cards. This form helps the driver understand that they are responsible for any unauthorized purchases with their DIN (Driver Identification Number). Setting up emails that are sent in real time can be done so that any unauthorized use can immediately be investigated.

Need to lock down your gas card from fuel theft?

Call Star Oilco, we make it simple.

Our motto is “Keep it Simple” and we make this easy. Feel free to reach out and see what Star Oilco can do for your fleet to upgrade its fleet fueling security.

What do you need to get a fuel card in Oregon?

All you need in order to access Pacific Pride sites in Oregon is a business license and proof that you use over 900 gallons of total fuel a year. CFN commercial cardlock sites have the same requirements. If you are a business using a commercial quantity of fuel, you qualify to self-serve gasoline and you can stop paying your employees to shop at the most expensive retail gas stations with the best mini-mart selection. Instead, get them back on the road 24-7 and usually without a line to wait in.

What do you need for fueling cards in Washington or any other state?

If you drive into Oregon and want to use gasoline, you still need the same requirements as stated above. If you don’t need access to Oregon gas stations, it is much easier to get a fuel card.

 

Star Oilco is an independent Franchisee of Pacific Pride

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