Swift: Need Fuel and emergency fuel is no longer active

My company does fuel solutions. Occasionally I want to take a better (almost always shorter) route than the computer has decided. When I do that, it's not a problem; I just have to drive "off route" for a while and then send a request for a new fuel solution. Of course, if I'm planning to go through a long stretch where there aren't any fuel stops for the Big 3, then it might take a little bit of communication with dispatch. That isn't difficult though. Only once have I been sent a solution that made no sense at all, taking me 100 miles out of route. That was easily fixed too, though.

The company I work for has 5000 trucks. If they are all burning 50 gallons a day on average, that's 250,000 gallons per day that they are paying for. At $4 per gallon, that's a million dollars every day just for fuel. When the price goes to $6 per gallon, it's over half a billion dollars a year. That's real money, even if you work for the government. Of course they're going to tell us where to fuel. They would be idiots not to, and idiots don't build up companies with 5000 trucks and 10,000 trailers and consistent contracts.

I'm sure they hedge their oil purchases too. I guarantee they have at least a few top-notch financial and market analysts working full-time to keep their margins as high as possible. Why would you leave that to drivers to figure out? Ask the owner operators how much they enjoy figuring out where to fuel for the least amount, and then ask them if they would like it if they could negotiate 10 or 20 or 30 cents a gallon off every purchase every time because they have so much purchasing power.

 

Don't try to be more dramatic by going from a daily cost to a yearly cost. It is just a percentage, most or all of which will be passed on to the customer.

It is basic operating expenses, and they still turn a profit.
It isn't the big fleet numbers that matter as much as the per truck numbers.

"Only once have I been sent a solution that made no sense at all, taking me 100 miles out of route."
And that is where it really breaks the bank.
The computer finds a fuel stop 50 miles out of route with a price 2 or 5 cents cheaper, but the fuel spent on that round trip costs more than the savings.
And it adds a couple more hours to the drive time, with no additional compensation in most cases. And doing so might cause the load to deliver late.

 

I don't know what to say if you think several hundred million dollars is just being dramatic. Yes, it is the cost of doing business, but it is the second biggest cost after labor. It affects the margins, and it affects whether the company is competitive with other companies if the cost is being passed on to the customer.

How does it make sense to let drivers choose where to fuel when they are more likely to choose a place based on something completely irrelevant to the cost of doing business, like whether it has some food they like or easy parking or a nearby casino? And are drivers going to focus on the real price after IFTA (which can also affect the route) and have current information and be able to negotiate discounts?

I've heard of other companies that regularly send drivers 100 miles out of route to save 5 cents a gallon, but that's only happened to me once in over six years here. Easily fixed with a one minute phone call.

Maybe I'm missing out on real trucking because I recognize that it's a business with thin margins and I feel responsible to do my part to make sure the company is as profitable as possible instead of living in some dream world where I'm like some star in a bad movie from the '70s.