“Customers love not having to worry about their fuel.”
Since 1926, S.A. White Oil Company based out of Marietta, Georgia has built a reputation in the petroleum distribution business primarily on personalized customer attention and good old-fashioned friendship. Today, as a female-owned and operated business, they pride themselves on these values, and have built a culture focused on quality customer service, efficient work processes, and constant improvement through investments in their people and technology.
Many of the company’s drivers have been working for S.A. White Oil for 10 to 25 years, resulting in direct customer interaction, such as daily phone calls to ensure customer deliveries are made in a timely and expedited manner. With over 1,000 customers and over half of the tanks they own being monitored by SkyBitz tank monitoring technology, the convergence of digital tools and tried and true customer service remains at the forefront of their success.
Challenge:
It is imperative for the team at S.A. White Oil to understand their customers’ business, as this has played a monumental role in how they have grown their operation over the years. With many of their fuel deliveries concentrated in the construction industry, it is essential for the team to understand variations in demand on a daily basis. Weather and the economy are constantly disrupting the distribution schedule across the state, and that requires constant attention from the S.A. White dispatch and management team.
For instance, one of their customers is working on a massive construction project with the Department of Transportation. When the project is moving forward at full throttle, the equipment usage varies. On some days, the equipment is being utilized 24 hours a day, while on other days, the equipment is only used for 12 hours. If you factor in weather conditions, such as rain which is frequent in the South, the entire project comes to a screeching halt from one week to the next. This can significantly reduce the need for refueling at the customer site that week, requiring daily visibility and management to avoid overruns.
Circumstances such as these impact S.A. White’s distribution schedule and must be taken into account on a daily basis in order for them to run an efficient operation. The economy also plays a huge role, as distribution schedules change drastically when there is a shift in rack rates, and customers look for ways to take advantage of declining fuel prices. Asset depreciation and labor costs can also eat into profits when fluctuations with the economy and customer demands are constantly changing.
On the flip side, as companies look to improve productivity and cut costs across their own operation, they also recognize the risks when transferring manual processes into digital ones from a customer perspective. While overruns may seem counterproductive, S.A White Oil Company makes every effort to perform efficiency checks so their customers never run out of fuel, which is the biggest mistake that can be made in this industry. Transitioning to digital processes must be strategically planned across the operation, utilizing best practices and the aegis of their partners for both short-term and long-term gain.
Solution:
Approximately twenty years ago, S.A. White Oil implemented SkyBitz tank monitoring technology in an effort to locate and keep track of their own tanks, scattered and continuously moving throughout their various customer sites spanning the State of Georgia. What was traditionally a manual process requiring countless hours of employees calling and traveling to remote locations to look for lost tanks, is now as simple as logging into the SkyBitz SMARTank platform and pulling up a dashboard that identifies a tanks’ physical GPS location.
S.A. White Oil now has a much more efficient task of track and fill, eliminating the need to send human bodies half-way across the State, only to realize the tanks were moved. Dispatch knows exactly where the customer has moved the tank, so the next delivery can be efficiently routed.
In addition to sheer location tracking of S.A. White’s tanks, the integration of tank level sensors provides readings of tank capacity for the purpose of automating refueling dispatch schedules through the use of cloud-based technology. Now, both the drivers and the dispatch teams have access to monitored tanks and can service those while in the area using the SkyBitz SMARTank platform.
Mathew Bennett
Tank Wagon Dispatcher
for S.A. White Oil Company
“I use the Tank Summary Chart in the SkyBitz SMARTank app every day. It helps me easily identify tank levels when I’m pulling green slips and getting our drivers ready for the morning. If levels are 45% or better, I may hold off on servicing them that day so I can route my drivers more efficiently based on our high priority call-ins or online orders. I’m confident that we’re avoiding run-outs with these tanks, and at the same time not wasting money or driver time.”
Impact:
SkyBitz SMARTank Monitoring now helps S.A. White Oil Company reduce, and in some cases eliminate routes, which allows them to make more efficient use of their drivers’ time while reducing the wear and tear on their vehicles.
As S.A. White Oil Company adds more tanks each month, they recognize how valuable the data insight is to their operation and that of their customers. Hardware is also a huge factor in the petroleum distribution market, as the ruggedized sensor technology is a critical component when it comes to performance, especially as customers move tanks from one site to another, sometimes using forklifts and other construction equipment. The tank monitoring hardware is easy to install, as their team has been installing the tank sensors themselves for almost twenty years. As technology changes and innovative new sensors hit the market, SkyBitz customer experience teams are on hand to assist with new technology migrations when the need arises.
Rusty Ruus
Brand and Marketing Manager
for S.A. White Oil Company
“The ability to use GPS to track the location of the tank monitors was a game changer for our tank rental business. From installation to tracking and monitoring of these tanks, we’re no longer in the dark when it comes to servicing these tanks, nor are our clients.”
S.A. White Oil Company is approaching almost 100 years in business and providing excellent customer service and quality petroleum distribution services is at the core of their business. The company combines innovative tank monitoring technology, through their partnership with SkyBitz, to tap into some of the efficiencies that are needed to remain competitive in today’s global economy.
Tim Verhine
Director of Maintenance and Sales
at S.A. White Oil Company
“Customers love not having to worry about their fuel. We now have the ability to schedule fills based on known percentages of tank capacity, allowing us to better manage driver time in the field and the wear and tear of our trucks due to unnecessary trips.”
ST90 LTE Stainless Steel Sensor is a perfect solution for monitoring most tanks. It was engineered specifically to keep all antennae and electronics under the domed lid, so whether you want to stack your tanks or keep them all separate, it performs where other monitors can’t.
SMARTank platform allows you to identify the physical GPS location of your tanks.
Deliver more gallons with less stops and reduce distribution cost.
With visibility into your tank levels, you can assure your customer never run out of fuel.
S.A. White Oil Company is the expert in fuel supply for the greater Atlanta area, helping their customers succeed by providing unparalleled service, tailored to their individual needs. Their third-generation, family-owned business has always valued their customers’ positive experience with them as the cornerstone of everything they do. S.A. White’s strategy is to operate with integrity, offering expert advice and always being there to help, getting their customers the service and products they need, when they need them.
Lubricant and Fuel Distributor
Atlanta
Medium
B2B
©2023. All Rights Reserved.
SkyBitz Inc. and SkyBitz Tank Monitoring Corporation are wholly owned subsidiaries of Telular Corporation.
SkyBitz Petroleum Logistics, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of SkyBitz Inc.
SkyBitz, the SkyBitz Logo, SmartTank, SmartTrailer and SMARTruck are registered trademarks of Telular Corporation.
Telular Corporation is business unit of AMETEK, Inc.