Turriff Fuels upgrades with real time stock quality monitoring
Turriff Fuels is a family owned business set up 25 years ago by Gordon and Mary Brown. Based in Turriff, Aberdeenshire, the company serves an agricultural region with a large number of properties using oil fired central heating. The founder, Gordon Brown was already involved in the fuel oil distribution sector and he could see that there was also a growing demand to supply customers operating farm machinery and commercial transport .
“In order to take the business forward, we have decided to put in a significant investment to increase capacity and upgrade our storage facilities,” says Ian Brown.
As the business has developed, Turriff Fuels has built up a fleet of six distribution tankers and an articulated tanker used for bulk deliveries and the transportation of wetstock from the terminal. Management is now in the hands of Gordon’s son and daughter, Ian and Shona.
“This investment brings our facilities into line with best practice for the storage and distribution of fuel oils”
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“In order to take the business forward, we have decided to put in a significant investment to increase capacity and upgrade our storage facilities,” says Ian Brown.
“Our original storage tanks were coming to the end of their useful lives and we needed to take a fresh look at the bund provisions in order to comply with the latest regulations for the protection of the environment. After talking to our trade association, the Federation of Petroleum Suppliers, (FPS) we arranged to meet with Oil Tank Supplies (OTS) to discuss our requirements.
“A representative from OTS visited to survey the site and assist us in drawing up a specification, which amounted to a comprehensive redevelopment of our depot facility.”
The work comprised the installation of concrete forecourt area and associated drainage. Since we are handling fuel oil this includes oil separators, which are essential to prevent any contaminated water from entering the main drains.
The existing tank farm was decommissioned to be replaced by two 150K litres capacity self bunded storage tanks; one dedicated to kerosene for domestic heating and the second was a dual compartment, holding 100k litres gas oil, for off-road and farm machinery and 50K litres for road diesel.
“It was a seamless operation all carried out at the same location without any disruption to our daily routines. We exhausted the usable stock, the contractor removed the residue for disposal and then took away the tanks. The new tanks were installed a couple days later. It was a very smooth change over and well planned with no problems.”
The installation is fully instrumented to allow continuous monitoring of stocks, and this data is transmitted electronically via a web based stock management system. In effect this replaces the need for the former dip stick measurements and manual records which are time consuming and can be vulnerable to errors.
To ensure we maintain prime storage conditions both tanks have been painted internally, as well as the external finish. Instrumentation is also fitted to detect the presence of water contamination which if left untreated can lead to the deterioration of fuel quality.
“We are operating in a competitive market, so it is important to distinguish ourselves from other suppliers,” says Ian. On the face of it we are all offering the same product. While our customers are definitely price sensitive, they are all becoming much more aware of the importance of fuel quality as well.
“And the story doesn’t end with the installation of shiny new tanks. We have signed up to the FPS Fuel Quality Accreditation Scheme. This means that we shall be embarking on a formal programme of fuel testing and certification to guarantee quality.
Ian concludes by stating: “This investment has enabled Turriff Fuels to set new standards for customer service. We have taken steps to underwrite our duty of care as a fuel supplier and we trust that this will give our customers peace of mind.
