Why is cheap fuel so expensive?

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Dear Al Shirawi Enterprises (ASE) Customer,

Welcome to the second of my nine steps to greater vehicle profitability.

This week, I’ll show you how to save money when buying, using and storing fuel and how this will affect your vehicle profitability.

 

Diesel prices have gone through the roof with current prices in the region of AED 3.7 per litre in Dubai, so a look at how to save on fuel consumption is well worth the effort.

During the boom there were fuel shortages in the region for two reasons: Several refineries were down for maintenance and the demand for fuel was huge.

Some less serious fuel “suppliers” saw a chance to earn extra money by offering cut-price fuel. They did this by mixing diesel with tank farm wash-out, kerosene, jet fuel and other bad additives. Clearly this would seriously harm any diesel engine that got even got a whiff of it.

With today’s engines, using proper fuel is a must and this fuel can only be found at the national oil companies and other reputable companies they supply.

Additives

In Europe a wide range of additives are added to fuel before it reaches the pump to ensure best possible performance, longer fuel pump and injector life and more miles per gallon. Since our fuel companies are already incurring huge losses, we don’t get those additives at the pumps here in Dubai.

However, one of the leading suppliers of these additives to the European fuel suppliers, Innospec, is available in Dubai and is selling this through distributors to the end user.

By using these additives fuel savings of around 3-5 per cent are not uncommon and engine and injector life improves as well.

The saving/cost ratio is about 20:1 so for every Dirham you spend, the saving will be around AED20. Not bad.

Please contact us today to see what the additives can do for you.

 

StorageIn this part of the world, dust and humidity cause major problems for fuel. Humidity causes corrosion on the very sensitive fuel pump and injector parts and dust clogs the holes or wears them out. Many customers complain about dirty fuel causing disruption to their operation.Before investing in expensive fuel fill filtration systems, you could try out a simple trick I heard about from a site in Vietnam. They stored the fuel in two tanks, the first was filled up by the fuel supplier and the second was used to fill the vehicles.Tank one was tilted slightly backwards to ensure that sludge and water would sink to the bottom at the lowest point. This was then drained out of the tank and the fuel was the pumped over to the second tank.sysd_t
(click here to see a system drawing)In addition I recommend that you keep the area around the fuel fill cap clean. Always use the correct fuel cap and clean your tanks on regular basis. I would also recommend that you fill your fuel tanks before they are stopped for the night. This will reduce the risk of condensation inside the tank.

 

Filtration

In order to improve fuel efficiency, Scania and others are increasing the pressure in their fuel systems. In some cases the pressure is up to 2,400bar. To make this happen, each part of the fuel system is machined to absolute perfection.

Dirt in the fuel can either clog these microscopic holes or wear them out prematurely. This will affect the engine performance and increase fuel consumption.

In short, what happens is this: More fuel is unburned, causing liner wear and fuel dilution of oil and the engine will have to be overhauled earlier and your fuel bill goes through the roof.

To avoid this, we strongly recommend you use genuine fuel filters that are designed by the people who designed the engine. By buying cheap filters you end up paying way more for fuel, down-time and unnecessary wear and tear.

 

ASE can help you turn things around

As mentioned earlier, we have an expert who can teach drivers to drive in a safer and more economical way. In the end, your trucks will consume less fuel, spend more time on the road and be less prone to accidents. Clearly this will positively impact your business.We also have experts on hand to run a performance analysis of each truck to help you find other areas for improvements and cost savings.

Call us toll free on 800 24702 or fill in the form alongside and we’ll call you.In this letter we showed examples that could save you up to AED225,000 per truck. In our future letters, we will touch on other areas where your bottom line can get a real boost.

 

icon_computerLearn More what additives are good for your engine – PDF 6.6mb

 

 

Next Week

I’ll show you how correct air filtration helps to save on maintenance costs.

More Time on the Road
with Al Shirawi Enterprises (ASE)

Lars Möller, General Manager, After Sales