The continuing rise in fuel prices affects all commercial vehicle operators, from large fleets down to individual owner-drivers. One of the latter is Graham Luck, whose GT Courier Services is subcontracted to target express in North-West England. In a typical week, he covers around 1000 miles making parcel deliveries around Cumbria, and uses 150-160 litres of diesel.
Graham was only too aware of the year-onyear rise in diesel pump prices for his 3.5tonne Mercedes Sprint van. With many months to go until the next scheduled review of contract terms, he was looking into whether fuelcards would be a good move for him. Stuart Binnie, General Manager of Target's Carlisle depot was able to give Graham a leaflet about abbey Fuelcards – as well as a personal recommendation, since his own fleet drivers had been using abbey, and enjoying the benefits, for some time.
Articles Graham had spotted in the trade press, and a subsequent visit to abbey’s website – www.discountdiesel.co.uk – were enough to convince him to sign up for abbey’s fastfuel card:
'With abbey, it all sounded really straightforward. And it was so simple to follow on the website. Other fuelcards I looked at seemed more complicated.'
Once his card was activated, the benefits were immediate and obvious. He doesn’t have to go looking for best prices. From the regular Friday email that abbey send, he knows exactly what he’s going to be paying for fuel the next week – and so far, he says, that’s been consistently several pence below the prices on the pumps.
Wherever Graham is setting off from Carlisle to deliver around Cumbria, he doesn’t have to worry about having a full tank. He welcomes the recent addition of morrisons service stations to the fastfuel site network, because convenient refuelling is now even easier in his operational area. He also likes having a designated account manager to speak to, and is very impressed with the level of service:
'I‘ve nothing detrimental to say – it has been spot-on.'
After only a few weeks of using his fastfuel card, Graham is delighted that he decided to go with abbey:
'The thing about abbey is that they do seem to care about their customers. I’m chuffed to bits !'