Fuel Buying Strategy For L/O's

I'll try to answer your question in order:

1) Swift tracks ALL of your fuel purchases for you. They total the amount spent, subtract the fuel rebate (or surcharge if you like) then divide the resulting amount by the gallons purchased. It's an interesting number to look at but otherwise means nothing to me.

2) No, Swift pockets the discount. This is a point of major heartburn with most owner/operators at Swift.

3) It does not. What you see at the pump (or receipt at some places) is what you are charged on you weekly settlement.

4) Sometimes. I research EVERY gallon of fuel I purchase. Example, street price here in Columbus, OH is currently $4.159, I just bought 112 gallons at the Swift terminal for $3.954. I saved $22.96, so yes it was cost effective. When I only need 50 gallons (or so) I almost always buy it on the street. My reasoning is that 50 gallons purchased will earn me a shower that would otherwise cost me $10-12. I ALWAYS factor that into my fuel purchases. Time also factors into my decision, usually MUCH faster to buy fuel at a truck stop than a Swift terminal. ESPECIALLY a terminal like Phoenix where you have to wait in the safety/trailer inspection lanes.

5) I use my smart phone to compare local fuel prices and compare them to the terminal prices. I then determine EXACTLY how much fuel I need and buy accordingly.

 

i didn't know swift had o/o's

i always thought it was rental operators only.

 

The fuel rebate is figured on loaded miles. Your fuel mileage determines the corrected cost per gallon.

Example: You pay $4.00 per gallon, the rebate is $.47 per mile, and get 8 MPG. You take a 400 mile load, use 50 gallons of fuel, and spend $200 on fuel. You'll receive $188 in fuel rebate. This would would make you net price for fuel $.24 per gallon.

If you only got 6 MPG you would use 66.67 gallons of fuel and spend $266.67 on fuel. This would make the net price of the fuel $1.18 per gallon.

Make sense?

 

Swift has both owners/operators and lease/operators. Swift refers to all of us as owner/operators.

 

As you know, the owner operators receive a message on the qualcomm Monday through Friday showing the fuel prices at all the Swift terminals. Sometimes they are cheaper than the street, sometimes not. Some of the best 'scores' I've made have been at the weekend where the prices is set for the entire weekend Friday night, and prices on the street spike up, that's the time to get into a terminal and top off.

Another thing that can be good for the owner op is if prices drop during the week after the fuel surcharge has been set on Tuesday. Means you're getting more fuel for your buck the rest of the week. On the converse, if prices go up against the set fuel surcharge, you're spending more too though.

I also use a website wherein I plug in the origin city/state and destination city/state and it tells me all the fuel stops along the way as well as the prices both taxed and base price pre-taxed so I can find the cheapest fuel along my route.
Most recently used it for a run from Detroit MI to Charlotte NC, most of the pretax fuel prices were in the $3.8x range except for Virginia, which was showing $3.6x range so I got enough fuel to get me to Virginia and to the final. I swept back up into Virginia again for my next delivery and pickup so was able to get into the Richmond VA terminal as well and snag 100 gallons of theirs for an additional penny off which saved me a whole dollar off the street price.

 

Ditto on what scottie said...i use a (probably same one) website to find fuel along my route...virginia is a great place for fuel...also illinois...pennsylvania is not bad either(if you want to pay your ifta at the pump)...and sometimes you can get great fuel prices at terminals..but not always...