Hamilton County is planning to move to the use of fuel cards that can be used at a variety of locations rather than continuing to buy fuel in bulk and store it.
Officials said employees now spend much time driving to a county fuel site, and they are out of service on their jobs during the trips.
The move will also allow the county to decommission some fuel storage areas that are an environmental liability, it was stated.
The County Commission next Wednesday is set to approve a contract with Mansfield Oil, of Gainesville, Ga.
Officials said:
Currently, Hamilton County has a fleet of approximately 500 over the road vehicles and approximately 78 off-road heavy equipment vehicles utilized by various County departments. Additionally, fuel is used for emergency generators, weed-eaters, chain saws and other small tools/equipment.
Currently, the County has a total of 8 different fueling locations throughout the County; only 4 of those locations are available for all departments to utilize. The lack of fueling locations in the northern most areas of the County is problematic for many departments. In particular, law enforcement, emergency medical services, emergency services, and public works employees frequently are required to leave their district or worksite and drive miles (to refuel) leaving districts without adequate coverage and wasting both staff time and fuel and potentially slowing emergency response times.
Additionally, the hardware and the software required to monitor the fuel levels/tank conditions as well as fuel pump dispensing equipment is aging and in poor repair and often inoperable. As parts
for repairs have become hard to locate, the fuel pumps need to be replaced if they are to continue to be operational. Five of these locations have underground storage tanks with the associated environmental concerns based on their age and condition.
The objective of this program is to supplement our County owned fuel tanks with a universally accepted fuel card that can be used at a large number of retail locations throughout Hamilton County, TN and the State of Tennessee to supplement the County owned fuel tanks. While the majority of the retail purchases will be in the County, the fuel card also allows purchases anywhere in the continental United States where the vendor has participating merchants.
The program will be structured as follows:
1. Purchases by the County are exempt from all eligible State of Tennessee Sales Tax and Federal Taxes. All applicable taxes will be automatically removed from each transaction with no effort by the County prior to submission for payment.
2. The County (Procurement Department) will administer the program for the County and will furnish the Contractor with a listing of vehicles authorized to obtain fuel under the terms of this contract along with the list of eligible drivers.
3. The Fuel Card program will have robust controls and restrictions as to the quantity and frequency of purchases at retail, controlled by profiles which will be selected at set up by the Elected Official,
Administrator, and/or Department Director.
4. The Fuel Card program will have abundant reporting capabilities that are accessible online to assist the County in tracking fuel use throughout the fleet and accurate billing detail for ease of payment, reconciliation and audit purposes.
Additionally, the County is evaluating the potential elimination of a portion of its fuel storage tanks as a result of the implementation of the fuel card program, thus avoid costly software and hardware upgrades as well as repairs to obsolete equipment and limiting environmental liability from aging underground storage tanks. Certain locations (TBD), however, will be retained as critical operations centers. The purchase of bulk fuel for the remaining operations centers will be incorporated into this contract.
The retail fuel card program would also provide a more cost effective fuel access for HCSO and EMS vehicles throughout the County, eliminating the need for units to leave their assigned districts in order to refuel, wasting both staff time and fuel while increasing response capabilities.
After extensive consideration and evaluation, the committee recommendation is to proceed with Mansfield as being the best vendor to provide this service for Hamilton County.
The Mansfield Oil solution offers the maximum flexibility to the County for the management of our fuel needs now and in the future. More specifically,
• Mansfield’s retail fuel card program has strong administrative controls and robust reporting capabilities;
• Their pricing for the retail fuel card program as well as the bulk fuel is competitive;
• Mansfield currently has approximately 150 retail locations throughout Hamilton County;
• Mansfield has the ability to provide a bulk fuel program for the County, reducing staff time required, to quote, administer, and pay for multiple purchases per month;
• Mansfield offers a full range of fuel systems management and consulting services, including
environmental compliance management, fuel system design, engineering & management services, as well as annual testing, site surveys, and tank cleaning to assist with the administration of our fuel program into the future;
• As one of the largest national fuel and energy suppliers, a contract with Mansfield would support any needs the County might have in the case of an emergency/disaster situations which could disrupt fuel supply in the area; and
• Mansfield has proven to be a reliable and responsive provider of fuel as one of the fuel vendors from whom the County currently purchases fuel in the spot market.