The package was developed and based upon the reported needs of a wide section of the fleet market using experience gained by the Merridale founders whilst working many years previously for the now defunct Springfield Controls. a major provider of fuel management systems during the 1970’s and 80’s.
Whilst the fuel management system was developed at the cutting edge of the marketplace, it still needed to be configured to receive data from a host of differing makes and models of fuel pumps. However, many of these pumps still had mechanical registers or electronic circuitry devised for use with garage forecourt control equipment. Furthermore, the standards of aftersales support for such equipment largely ranged from poor to awful and often been provided via third parties rather than direct by the original equipment manufacturer. Added to these issues, the marketplace also started to see the importation of lower quality, less reliable and less accurate fuel pumping equipment that was completely unsuitable for connection to any type of fuel management system without substantive modification. Still partially true today, one big issue with importing cheap, low-quality equipment revolves around the inconsistency of metering accuracy inherent within the system design.
Fuel Pumps
At the time, existing users of Merridale fuel management equipment began pleading with Merridale to come up with fuel pumps that matched Merridale’s fuel management systems for quality and reliability, and that could ultimately be supported as a single package by Merridale.
After some period working with Avery Berkel (1996-99) and Gilbarco (99-2005) to source suitable pumps that met Merridale’s customers’ expectations, whilst the situation did improve a little it was still thought that the best solution would be for Merridale to bring the manufacture of fuel pumps in-house. A big driver for this was the need to achieve a first-time fix for all equipment without resorting to a multitude of differing contractors.
One of the significant requirements was that the pumps to be produced must be accurate and consistently so. This has meant that Merridale pumps are designed to be at least as accurate as those of forecourt pumps, correctly adjusted Merridale pumps will achieve an accuracy of better than plus or minus 0.25% and equipment with air separation prior to metering. To achieve this, Merridale thoroughly searched the marketplace for components to ensure only the best components were selected for a fuel pump to carry the Merridale logo.
Finally, a decision was made to develop a market leading cabinet using Zintex coated steel, an electronic display created by Merridale and to utilise industry-leading meters together with long serving pump units from Bennett of the USA and a purpose-built designed motor from Elnor in Belgium, all known for their consistent accuracy.
The market finally had a product that was not only fully compatible with fuel management but was of high standards, fully and nationally supported by a single company and coupled together with a design and support ethos.
These components are still utilised today at Merridale and many examples from the late 1990’s are still fully operational. Over the years the Merridale pump has developed with the introduction of single and two product twin pumps, multi speed pumps for use with a mixed fleet and pumps and dispensers for use with Ad-Blue, HVO and other newer products.
Tank Gauges
By the early 2000’s the marketplace was crying out for a solution to reconcile fuel inventory between receipts and dispatches. Understandably so, as the new 2001 regulations had also deemed that electronic gauges should be utilised. The then current marketplace was largely populated with simple pump-up systems of low accuracy and extremely basic electronic gauges, usually based on the same principle. Some fleet operators had purchased very expensive electronic systems designed for service station use in order try to achieve the types of accurate recordings they desired. Often these forecourt systems could not be fully integrated with fuel management systems or at best provided very limited data.
Set the challenge by some fleet operators and especially by one large international haulier, Merridale designed, tested and developed a system to be built in-house, especially set up for the fleet operator market and configured to be powered by and communicate directly with the fuel management system.
This meant that not only stock levels could be viewed locally and centrally but that deliveries to the tank could be reported and viewed via the Merridale software. To support this development, Merridale software was upgraded to enable full statistical Inventory reconciliation (SIR) and features such as ‘sudden-drop’ detection to alert for serious leaks and theft.
Software
Launched in 2011, Merridale started to offer the new Merridale FuelWorks web-based package that had been designed and developed in-house and subject to continuous improvement based upon customer feed-back. This package is without doubt the most comprehensive and operator friendly based offering on the market and is utilised at more than 2000 sites with the U.K.
The original FuelFX software package, launched in 1995, was continuously updated and upgraded with free of additional charge upgrades offered through to 2013. Although still technically supported by Merridale for existing users, this package was removed from new sale availability in 2020 with the call for new and more flexible web-based systems, which Merridale FuelWorks offered.
Due to Merridale’s commitment to building fully compatible systems, the full Merridale range has become renowned for its accuracy, reliability and consistency. To find out more about the Merridale range of equipment call 01902 350 700 or visit merridale.co.uk.
