Springhill Farms, part of the Evesham Growers group, has upgraded its depot fuelling facilities with the installation of a 20K litres dual product storage tank, providing 15K and 5K capacity respectively, for gas oil used in tractors and plant and road diesel for trucks and general transport vehicles.
Fuel management and stock control is provided by Merridale FuelWorks and the fuelling point is equipped with a Merridale twin dispenser with electronic monitoring to control the allocation of fuel.
“With the additional fuel storage capacity, we are in a better position to make savings on fuel costs by anticipating requirements and then shopping around for best prices…”
To access fuel, the plant operator presents a hand held data tag which identifies the machine or vehicle at the pump. Fuelling transactions are recorded and uploaded to Merridale FuelWorks. This is a web based service designed to capture an audit trail of fuel usage against specific machines and cost centres.
“Fuel accounts for a significant proportion of our operating costs,” explains plant facilities manager, Will Parrott, adding. “Currently our annual fuel bill is running at around ￡300,000, so even a small percentage savings on this will improve our bottom line results. Our fuelling requirements have grown as the business has developed. The previous set up was limited and we had very little management control.
“From the office, I can log into a Merridale web browser screen, showing current fuel status and usage. The system provides a timely warning as stock levels approach a pre-set re-order level. With the additional fuel storage capacity, we are in a better position to make savings on fuel costs by anticipating requirements and then shopping around for best prices.”
The Springhill Farms estate produces a range of high value vegetables such as spring onions, courgettes and asparagus. Land is also allocated for growing grass, maize and rye which feeds into the Evesham group’s anaerobic digester plants. These facilities are generating the energy required to heat the glasshouses used for the production of tomatoes.
