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Bay & Bay Driving Savings With Expert Fuel

Published Date

Bay & Bay, headquartered in Eagan, Minnesota, is a family-owned trucking and logistics company founded in 1941. The transportation solutions provider hauls refrigerated truckload freight nationwide.

The Challenge

Hauling refrigerated truckload freight across the lower 48 states, the Bay & Bay fleet of 400 tractors and 1,000 trailers covers 40 million miles annually. It takes about 500,000 gallons of fuel each month— costing about $2.5 million at today’s prices— to keep the fleet moving.

With its expansive operation, Bay & Bay has relied on a number of fuel providers, including most major truck stop chains, to meet its needs on the road. Using discounts negotiated with fuel vendors, the motor carrier has been able to keep costs in check. Additionally, with WEX Fleet Card and Omnitracs mobile communications systems, it has been able to streamline sending details about fuel stops with specific gallon amounts to drivers, and to centralize payment processing.

Despite those effective practices Bay & Bay needed to take fuel purchasing to the next level. The ability to account for the difference between the least and most expensive fuel prices in its network would enable the company to optimize purchases and realize greater savings. By focusing on providers that offer the largest discounts, the carrier could also leverage its purchasing power to find better volume pricing.

The Solution

Driving fuel purchasing practices today at Bay & Bay is Expert Fuel, part of Trimble's comprehensive suite of optimization tools. 

Expert Fuel analyzes routes and selects the best location for fuel purchases based on price, negotiated discounts and quantity needed. Using real-time data and integration with the carrier’s mobile communications system, the optimization software sends fuel stop instructions, including location and the number of gallons to purchase, directly to drivers.

At Bay & Bay, Expert Fuel is also fully integrated with the company’s TruckMate Transportation Management System from Trimble to coordinate fuel stops with dispatch and routing information. Integration with its WEX Fleet Card facilitates payment processing through the financial software in the TMS.

Bay & Bay is now working with Trimble to use information from Expert Fuel and TruckMate, and the carrier’s tractor and trailer tracking systems on locations, miles and gallons purchased, to develop new data models. The result for the company will be the ability to make more informed decisions about fuel purchasing and have access to advanced reporting on costs and compliance.

The Results

By optimizing purchases with Expert Fuel, Bay & Bay has the ability to realize:

  • Lower costs of five cents per gallon at the pump generating $25,000 in savings monthly based on purchases of 500,000 gallons. Over the course of a year, those cost reductions could total $300,000.
     
  • With a difference in cost across its network between optimized and non-optimized purchases of 30 cents per gallon on average, the carrier’s potential savings could reach $150,000 monthly.

By using Expert Fuel to optimize purchases across its nationwide network of vendors, Bay & Bay is able to negotiate more favorable discounts by leveraging its purchasing power with providers offering the greatest volume discounts.

The validation capability built into Expert Fuel that reconciles what was recommended and what the driver actually purchased ensures compliance with the optimized plan. In addition, if the amount of fuel purchased exceeds the recommendation, automated alerts immediately notify Bay & Bay of any potential fuel theft.

With the optimization capabilities of Expert Fuel from Trimble Transportation, Bay & Bay is realizing significantly lower fuel costs, streamlining purchasing practices and enhancing compliance.

“With Expert Fuel we’re spending less by optimizing purchases based on our discounts with providers and the variance in network prices. The optimizer is essential for matching a truck’s route with optimal fuel stops. In our fleet, which uses 500,000 gallons of fuel each month, Expert Fuel is giving us the ability to generate savings of $25,000 each month.”

— Paul Mages, Fuel Manager
Bay & Bay