There is a growing movement towards a number of people in their community grouping together to order a load of fuel to obtain a “bulk” discount. The reasoning is that they are saving the Planet by reducing truck journeys (very laudable) and themselves cash (naturally) by ordering together. We initially saw this as a positive miove for ourselves and our increasingly beleaguered customers. In practice the theory is not working for various reasons but overall the problem is that neither parties expectations are being met.
From the customers angle there has to be someone in their community to organise the best possible deal on their behalf, the organiser assembles a number of orders which collectively offer a juicy carrot to a fuel firm seeking to obtain a “bulk” order. At this juncture all attention is focussed on the “bulk” element of the deal when a figure of say 30,000 litres is bandied about by the organiser to obtain a favourable price. Obviously an order for 30,000 litres is attractive to any fuel seller and the offered price reflects this fact.. The organiser having phoned every fuel company in the area initiates a bidding war in an attempt to drive down the price, invariably this results in the firm offering the lowest price getting the job.
At this point the organiser lets slip that 40 customers require a share of the 30,000 litre bulk order and the penny drops that in the process of trying to offer genuine value for money you have probably been suckered by a “smart alec” organiser who has been very economical with the facts. This could probably be blamed on the person at the fuel company dealing with the order but a little responsibility must rest with the cynical self centered organisers who have spotted a new means of abusing the goodwill of suppliers by playing the increasingly discredited “green card” to the buying groups participants.
In reality a bulk order is just that, a large quantity of fuel, for arguments sake in excess of 4500 litres, delivered quickly and easily into a single safe delivery point. This is accomplished in minimal time without hold up, usually to commercial customers who order on a regular basis and demonstrate a significant degree of loyalty in return for a keen price and reliable service over an extended timescale. This absolutely does not apply to a multiple small drop group ordering scheme given the time and effort involved in fullfilling the order.
Yesterday a Lady from St Agnes, who via the village bowls club, organises around 40 customers at a time to buy together called for a price for 35,000 litres of kerosene. Significantly I took the call and was ready for her. Invariably the group is assembled when, actually, the Lady herself requires oil, typically 800 or 900 litres by her past buying patterns over a number of years. Last summer Consols Oils having been previously suckered by her getting her own oil on the cheap by playing the “bulk” order card declined to quote, politely suggesting she try elsewhere. Thinking that would be the last we would hear from her we visibly relaxed thinking that we would never again have a truck and driver spending a day and a half to do 40 odd drops of typically 200 or 300 litres amounting to say 14500 litres instead of the 30,000 forecast.
Blow me down if the crafty “old bat” did not slip through back door in January by ordering via the Bennetts ordering system who were unaware of my ambilvalence towards this crafty one woman threat to efficiency and profitability. We were lumbered in the midst of an incredibly busy spell with a repeat performance, the “old bat ” typically took 800 litres as usual and we did a further 45 drops for the grand total of 20,000 litres in total while having to delay deliveries to genuine regular customers as a consequence.
The Lady is nothing if not persistent and as said tried it on again yesterday exactly in tune with her own ordering pattern, I hate having to dump customers but in this case my conscience is clear I will not inflict that sort of unproductive frustrating work on my staff again. Our data base would be in serious danger of becoming cluttered up with one order wonders that are of no use to anyone.
We have a minimum delivery dictated by trading standards legislation of 500 litres which is also the smallest quantity we can deliver profitably in todays cost structure. It is unfair on our regular customers to supply a “bulk” or rather non loyal group buying scheme customer with 200 or 300 litres for less than they are paying. The argument that group buying is good for the environment is patently tosh when you consider that it would actually take 2 or 3 deliverys to dispense the typical 900 litre drop. We work such a clearly defined concentrated geographic area that we necessarily keep truck mileages to the minimum whilst covering our patch on a daily basis.
My final word on the subject is that naturally if a group of our regulars help us by ordering together they will benefit from the rate that applies to the sum of their order quantity.
