Home Delivery Of Fuel In India
“Once upon a time in a Petrol Pump far away...” No classic story ever started in this manner. However, one modern story did start this way, when 3 young men, whilst waiting in a long queue to get their car fueled at a petrol pump, struck upon an evolutionary idea. Can fuel be delivered to the doorstep of the end consumer? Thereby saving him/her time and money waiting in lines or taking that extra u-turn to buy fuel. What they also saw was rickshaw carts, 2/3 wheelers, vans etc carrying drums to buy fuel for generators. This surely had to be a painful exercise and a monumental waste of man hours and money, apart from being unsafe, illegal and prone to adulteration and pilferage. There had to be a better way!!! The seed was germinated and soon thereafter a new baby, FuelBuddy, was born. Year – 2016.
We live in an on-demand economy and deal with an experiential millennial customer. There has been a marked shift from product centricity in 1970’s to customer & service centricity in the 1990’s and 2000’s to relationship centricity today. The way people buy has changed for good and we have new expectations. So if one can buy a book online on Amazon, or order food from Swiggy or even buy a house online then why not be able to order fuel online and get it delivered to the doorstep. Change was required in the decades-old fuel distribution and retail model.
What supported the idea was a conducive economic & political environment that was keen to support entrepreneurship and startups. Various government bodies like Niti Aayog, DIPP, PESO, PSU OMCs etc. got together to bring about a policy change to facilitate the concept of “doorstep delivery of fuel” under the aegis of MoPNG, led by the visionary Dr. Dharmendra Pradhan who decided to lead the change himself. The pilot project was launched in March 2018 and culminated into a policy in the Petroeum Rules, 2002 in 2019.
Today, a large number of industrial, commercial, residential, medical, educational etc enterprises can order diesel, irrespective of their purchase quantity being large or small, from the comfort of their home or office on an app or a web interface, track their delivery and get diesel delivered to their doorstep for filling their generators. There is no longer a need to send people to the neighbourhood pump and fill diesel in jerry cans and transport them in vans/rickshaws or deal with middlemen who will transport diesel to them in unsafe and unapproved illegal tankers, which in itself is a safety hazard.
The model also has a huge environmental impact. Imagine the environmental impact of 10 factories in an industrial zone sending their own vehicles up and down to the pump for buying diesel viz. one truck coming to fill all their generators. Early calculations show the saving could be equivalent to 450 gms of CO2 emissions per trip. There is an additional positive environmental impact from using pure, unadulterated fuel. Adulterated fuel has more carbon emissions. Online invoicing reduces paper dependence and saves trees.
Apart from convenience, businesses also stand to gain from an economic point of view. They save on time, resource and money spent on buying and transporting diesel in an inefficient and traditional manner. The managers and staff can focus on more productive tasks that are core to their business. Add to this saving due to zero pilferage and adulteration. The use of adulterated fuel reduces the life and increases the lifecycle cost of the equipment apart from generating less units of power per litre consumed. The benefit of using pure unadulterated fuel and zero pilferage leads to huge value creation when compounded across lacs of businesses apart from indirect gains through productivity increases. Now the business manager can see and track real-time data of their buying and consumption patterns at the click of a button on their customized dashboards.
A recent case study done by the team at FuelBuddy at a client site revealed savings to the client of Rs. 6 per litre in the first month of diesel supply.
Doorstep delivery of fuel also helps the economy. By removing pilferage and adulteration, there is more revenue to the exchequer, lower dependence on imports, fuel security for the country and a stronger currency. It also promotes the digital economy, lesser cash transactions and faster transactions thereby reducing the transaction costs. Environmental savings are additional hidden savings for the economy.
Another benefit is the safety and legality of this model. The bowsers used in this model are specially designed for fuel transportation and delivery and are PESO approved. The drivers and attendants are fire, safety and hazmat trained. The dispensing system is Weights & Measures approved.
Now imagine the future when the policy opens up for fueling vehicles also. The incumbent government and MoPNG are proactively working on launching this service soon. The convenience to the end customer of not going to the petrol pump, not taking the detour to get their car filled or waiting in lines at the pump will all be a thing of the past. Anyone will be able to order fuel from the comfort of their couch and have a bowser come to their home or office and fill their car(s). Most businesses give their employees a fuel allowance for their cars and there is no way of knowing the exact quantity bought or used. In the near future, businesses will be able to order centrally for their employees and a bowser can come to their premises and fill all the cars. The admin managers will be able to track real time fuel consumption.
When was the last time you heard of a long lasting friendship being made at the petrol pump or a love story blossoming at the petrol pump? Never. Herald the new future, the evolution, fuel retail revolution – Home Delivery of Fuel. Now you can spend more time doing the things you love the most – sleeping the extra 30 minutes without worrying about stopping for fuel on your way to work, watching the next episode of your favourite show on Netflix, playing with the kids, walking the dog, yoga/meditation etc. and leave the worry of fueling to experts.
FuelBuddy is an app based on demand fuel delivery service in the Delhi NCR region. It services more than 70 clients and over 300 sites across Gurgaon, Manesar, Dharuhera, Rewari, Bawal, Faridabad, Noida/Greater Noida and Delhi. It plans to soon expand to other parts of the country and make its unique, automated, safe, unadulterated, unpilfered and fully legal fuel delivery promise available to a larger audience.
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