Recoil Oilfield Services uses EROAD to reduce costs, improve productivity and reduce fuel taxes by more than $200k per year.

Challenges

With about half of its trucks typically operating on job sites for three days to two weeks at a time, and the balance of its fleet on the road at all times, Recoil Oilfield Services needed to capture location, mileage, fuel and Hours of Service data in a simpler, more user friendly way than it could with its existing telematics solution. Among the company’s needs were:

The ability to prepare fuel tax reports faster than the three weeks per quarter it was taking to use a fuel card driven program.

To recover fuel tax savings by accurately capturing and tracking off road mileage for the approximately 50% of the 60,000 gallons of fuel the company’s vehicles use monthly. Without this ability to track and record off-road, non taxable fuel mileage, the company was taking a loss of over $200,000 annually.

To improve safety and lower insurance costs by generating information on performance, addressing concerns and implementing guidelines.

To lower maintenance costs with effective inspections and recordkeeping capabilities in place of written updates. Improved compliance with preventive maintenance schedules and monitoring invoices from outside vendors would also reduce unnecessary expenses and maintenance data would be used to address issues that lead to violations and fines.

To track vehicles, which often do not return to a company location on any given day, accurately and cost effectively with a system that uses a combination of cellular and satellite networks.

To enhance driver productivity and compliance with Hours of Service regulations with an ELD that has an easy to use driver interface and that can take advantage of new oil field exemptions impacting rest periods and waiting times. Without this capability, Recoil drivers cannot account for long waiting periods at drilling sites and were being charged for on duty time.

Solution

After testing solutions from as many as 12 different companies, including three months of product demonstrations by suppliers, Recoil Oilfield Service settled on EROAD to supply its fleet management and ELD needs.

EROAD TotalFleet provides tax, compliance and operational performance solutions. Included are a 100% compliant ELD for driver Hours of Service recordkeeping on an in-vehicle device with automatic over the air updates.

The EROAD Electronic Tax Management solution provides recordkeeping and advanced reporting. Safety and compliance features of EROAD TotalFleet include the Inspect DVIR – In-vehicle system, and a variety of driver reporting tools.

Fleet management capabilities offered by EROAD include messaging and fleet tracking and geofencing, as well as historical and daily activity, traffic, truck and satellite mapping, and fuel management. Fuel efficiency, usage, exception and optimization reports for on-and off-highway operations and service and vehicle maintenance reporting are available as well.

Currently, Recoil is working with EROAD to develop an ELD solution for its 75 light-duty trucks, including forced login and daily vehicle inspection reporting capabilities.

Benefits

Recoil Oilfield Services is measuring the value of EROAD in fuel tax, safety, and maintenance and productivity savings–

Fuel tax reporting savings with EROAD add up to a few thousand dollars per month for Recoil. Today it takes the company only two days each quarter with EROAD to file reports, while using a fuel card driven program previously it took three weeks in quarterly administrative time.

With EROAD, based on the ability to accurately capture and track every off road mile, Recoil is realizing fuel tax savings of at least $200,000 annually. The savings are based on current fuel prices and using 50% of the 60,000 gallons of fuel the company’s vehicles burn monthly that are not subject to fuel tax because they are used at job sites and off public roads.

With EROAD, Recoil has been able to share safety reports with its insurance carrier and realize a 7% reduction in premiums. The system is improving safety by generating daily reports that monitor speed and other factors, and that are used to address concerns and implement guidelines that have led to a positive change in the company’s safety culture and performance. Recoil also uses the reports to reward top safety performing drivers.

Recoil is realizing savings of $3,000 per month with EROAD’s DVIR and its maintenance recordkeeping capabilities. Tracking mileages and schedules with the system leads to better compliance with preventive maintenance intervals, and automatically uploading invoices from outside vendors that handle 85% of the fleet’s service has reduced unnecessary costs. Using EROAD data in an off-site safety audit with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol has helped the company address maintenance issues and lower the cost of violations and fines.

With EROAD, Recoil vehicles, which often do not return to a company location on any given day, are tracked accurately and cost effectively because the system uses a combination of cellular and satellite networks at no extra cost. Compared to other devices, the EROAD ping rate is measured in minutes and has tracked units for as many as 15 location points per mile compared to every 10 to 15 minutes for other systems.

Driver productivity and compliance with Hours of Service regulations at Recoil is improved with EROAD’s ELD. With a customized solution from EROAD, the company and its drivers can take advantage of new oil field exemptions impacting rest periods and waiting time rules.