Jump to:

• Scheduled versus on-demand fuel delivery: which suits your site?
• How to build a fuel delivery schedule
• How to track business fuel usage between deliveries
• How to build a fuel business continuity plan for your site
• How should you store bulk fuel on a manufacturing site?
• Frequently asked questions

Scheduled versus on-demand fuel delivery: Which suits your site?

Scheduled bulk fuel delivery suits sites with continuous or predictable fuel use, because the volume and timing can be forecast confidently. On-demand ordering only makes sense where usage is genuinely irregular, such as a site running plant on occasional projects rather than to a fixed production pattern.

Scheduled bulk fuel delivery works best when:

• Fuel feeds a process that runs to a shift pattern or production calendar.
• Usage changes seasonally but predictably, such as additional heating demand in winter.
• Downtime carries a direct production or contractual cost to your bottom line.
• Responsibility for checking tank levels is split between different individuals.

On-demand still has a place when:

• Consumption is genuinely sporadic and low volume.
• You are commissioning new plant and have no usage history yet.
• A tank serves temporary equipment rather than fixed production.

How to build a fuel delivery schedule

You build a fuel delivery schedule by establishing a consumption baseline, converting it to a daily burn rate, adjusting for seasonality, setting a reorder point, and fixing your top-up size and frequency. Here's how each step works.

1. Pull 12 months of delivery history: Total the litres delivered over the last full year, along with the date of each drop. A full 12 months matters because it captures winter heating, summer shutdowns and any seasonal production peaks.
2. Calculate your average daily burn rate: Divide annual litres by operating days rather than calendar days. A site using 180,000 litres across 250 production days burns roughly 720 litres a day.
3. Adjust for the pattern, not just the average: Split the year into high and low periods and calculate a burn rate for each. A schedule built on an annual mean will consistently under-deliver in your busiest months.
4. Set a reorder point on usable volume: Your usable capacity is lower than your tank's rated capacity, once you account for fill limits and the unusable volume at the base of the tank. Work from usable litres, then set the schedule trigger with this calculation:

   Reorder point = (burn rate × lead time) + reserve buffer

   Burn rate × lead time is the fuel you'll consume while waiting for the delivery to arrive. At 720 litres per operating day with a three-day lead time, that's 2,160 litres – the bare minimum you need in the tank when you place the order, just to stay running until the tanker turns up.

   The reserve buffer covers a delivery issue, a bad-weather week or a production spike. At a five-day reserve, that's another 3,600 litres.

   So the trigger sits at 5,760 litres. When the tank drops to that level, that's when you order.

5. Fix drop size and frequency, then review quarterly: Review every quarter against actual consumption and correct the forecast. Production changes faster than schedules do, which is why quarterly reviews matter.

Ready to set up a delivery schedule? We'll build one around your site's fuel usage, so you get reliable, planned deliveries and no unexpected downtime. Get in touch now to set up your delivery schedule with Your NRG.

How to track business fuel usage between deliveries

Track your commercial fuel usage by taking tank readings at a fixed interval and logging them against production output. This shows your actual burn rate rather than the average your schedule assumes.

• Set the interval and the person responsible: Weekly suits most production sites; daily is worth it where a single line carries the majority of consumption.
• Log deliveries and readings together: Record opening stock, litres delivered and closing stock.
• Convert to litres per operating day: Do this each month and compare it against the burn rate your schedule was built on.
• Investigate changes above about 10%: A rising burn rate usually has a cause worth finding, whether that's a plant fault, a process change, or a new load nobody flagged.
• Track litres per unit of output: If your production data allows it, this figure turns fuel from an overhead into a cost you can manage.

How to build a fuel business continuity plan for your site

A fuel continuity plan has three parts: a consumption baseline, a minimum reserve, and a secondary supply route.

• Consumption baseline: Record two burn rates, normal running and minimum viable running. The second tells you how far a partial tank stretches if you have to prioritise critical lines.
• Minimum reserve: Express it in days of production rather than litres, because days are what your management team will ask about. Treat it as untouchable stock.
• Secondary supply: Confirm who supplies you if your primary route is disrupted, what lead time applies, and whether your access and fill point suit a different tanker configuration.

Government guidance on the National Emergency Plan for Fuel expects organisations to hold robust business continuity plans of their own, which shouldn't depend on national emergency measures being available.

How should you store bulk fuel on a manufacturing site?

Store bulk fuel in a container strong enough to hold it without leaking, positioned away from impact and water, and inside secondary containment with more capacity than the tank itself. On business premises, this is a legal requirement for any container of 201 litres or more.

Oil storage containers of 201 litres or more at a business premises fall under the oil storage rules for businesses, which cover tank standards, location and secondary containment. Separately, the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations require employers to assess and control fire and explosion risk from dangerous substances held on site.

This means checking the following:

• Containment sized to the tank: A bund serving a single container must hold at least 110% of its capacity. Where several containers share one bund, it must hold the greater of 110% of the largest container or 25% of the total.
• A bund with no way out: No pipe, valve or opening in the base or walls that would let it drain, and every part of the container and its pipework sitting inside it.
• Distance from water: Storage within 10 metres of inland freshwater or coastal waters, or within 50 metres of a well or borehole, is treated as significant risk and brings tighter expectations.
• Protection from impact: On a working site with forklift and HGV movements, tanks need positioning or physical protection such as bollards or barriers.
• A contained fill point: Where the fill pipe sits outside the bund, a drip tray is needed and should be checked after each delivery.
• Rainwater removed from bunds: Standing water reduces the capacity you're relying on, so it needs draining and disposing of correctly.

If you increase storage capacity to stretch the time between top-ups, the containment and placement requirements scale with it, so these decisions are best made together.

Set up a custom fuel delivery schedule with Your NRG

Get great rates on bulk commercial fuels with Your NRG, on a delivery schedule built around your production and use. We deliver reliably from our network of depots across the country, and over 15,000 happy customers have rated us 4.8 stars on Feefo. Tell us your usage, and we'll agree a delivery frequency that fills your tank before it reaches your reorder point.

Get in touch to set up your delivery schedule with Your NRG now.

Fuel delivery schedules: Frequently asked questions

How often should a manufacturing site take a fuel delivery?

How often a manufacturing site takes a fuel delivery should be set by burn rate and usable tank capacity rather than by a fixed interval. Most sites aim for the longest interval that still fills the tank from its reorder point in a single full top-up, which commonly falls between two and eight weeks. Sites with high winter heating loads often run two schedules, one for peak months and one for the rest of the year.

How much fuel should a factory keep in reserve?

A factory should hold enough fuel in reserve to cover the agreed delivery lead time plus a buffer for disruption, expressed in days of production. A common starting point is lead time plus five to seven operating days, then adjusted for how critical the process is and how quickly a secondary supply could reach you. The reserve should be treated as untouchable stock, not as part of your working volume.

What happens if my tank runs low before the next scheduled fuel delivery?

If your tank runs low before your next delivery, contact your supplier as soon as the level passes your reorder point, because a scheduled drop can usually be brought forward more easily than an emergency delivery can be arranged. The reorder point should sit above your reserve rather than at it, so there's time to act. If it happens more than once, the schedule is wrong, and the burn rate needs recalculating rather than the drop being repeated.