Because fuel has become the most important item (after salaries) in transport companies, it is becoming urgent to set up a system that allows rationalizing costs. However, when it comes to buying fuel, there are 3 economic models: the tank price, the scale price and the pump price. Let's take stock.
Tank price
It is for cost reasons that road haulage companies opt for in-house supply via a private tank (bulk purchase from oil companies and storage) rather than at the pump (71% of use for 40T long-distance vehicles in 2015)*. The implementation of this system remains costly (cive, management terminal, compliance costs, etc.) but it remains profitable for the road transport sector, which is a large fuel
consumer. In spite of this, this practice remains the majority in the road transport sector. That said, in recent years, the gap between the pump price and the price of diesel purchased in bulk (from the tank) has narrowed.
This phenomenon could call into question this mode of supply as some experts in the sector predicted...
Pump price and scale price: an upstream decision
The pump price is simply the price displayed at the gas station.
The scale price is a reference price decided by the oil company each day. It is based on the average price of the stations in the network. Each customer negotiates its final price in the form of a discount to be applied to this scale price. The negotiated discount depends on several parameters and is set according to forecasted volumes.
What you need to know: the list price is usually much higher than the pump price. So if your supplier offers you a discount, don't hesitate to calculate the final cost price. It is often much higher than the pump price of a discount network. That said, in some cases, the formula negotiated with the supplier provides that the less expensive of the two is retained.
In short, you don't buy a discount, you buy a price!
What about the fuel card?
Fuel cards issued by supermarket networks sell fuel at the pump price. This is always lower than the list price negotiated by the oil suppliers. The fuel card issued by an oil company is more expensive than the fuel card sold by a supermarket, but the oil company's network is more extensive, which ultimately limits indirect costs (detours to reach the partner station). Some petroleum companies offer discount cards, i.e. they give access to specific stations that charge lower rates, but these stations offer, in some cases, a limited network of stations.
The C2A card gives you access to the pump price and a choice of
stores covering the entire territory, which allows you to save up to 15%. In addition, it offers an invoicing system that favors the recovery of VAT in France and abroad. It offers many other advantages that we invite you to discover in our white paper dedicated to this subject.
* National Road Committee Survey 2015
