Becoming part of a fuel supply program available to municipalities may drop fuel costs for town owned trucks and equipment in the future.
Council, at its regular meeting last Monday, gave the green light to a recommendation by Alan Gassor, director of public works to establish an account for fuel purchases through the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts & Counties Fuel Supply Program, while still using UFA card-lock station as its fuel supplier.
Municipalities who are part of the fuel supply program are given two days advance warning of changes in fuel pricing.
“We would propose, with assistance from Finance, to monitor pricing activity and trending over the next year to determine the value of tracking the on-going expenditures,” said Gassor in his report. “If other opportunities for more economical purchasing arise, we will bring further information to council.”
Although the town will use the program, the fuel supplier will continue to be the UFA card-lock station.
Prior to bringing his report to council, Gassor told council a tender document for proposed supply of fuels was hand-delivered to suppliers in Sylvan Lake and AAMDC was contacted and referred an e-mail document to their fuel-purchasing agents (Prairie Fuel Advisors Ltd).
Tender documents were hand delivered to Sylvan Lake Esso, GTI, UFA Card-lock, Petro Canada, Winks Esso, Fas Gas (50th St), No-Frills and Fas Gas (Herder Drive), Imperial Oil (Esso) -Fleet Sales Calgary and to PFA (AAMDC) Fuel Supply Program.
As of the tenders’ closing date of Feb. 4, a completed tender from PFA and an incomplete tender from Imperial Oil (Esso) were received.
In his report Gassor noted a net approximate annual saving of $1,169 could be realized through the fuel supply program. However, he noted this amount would vary depending on timing, types and volumes of purchases throughout the year.
The tendering process followed a request by Coun. Rick Grimson in September to look into the cost of fuel and petroleum at local outlets.
Coun. Ken MacVicar, who voted in favor of the program, said he did have some concerns.
“In some ways I’m a little concerned,” he said. “We should be setting an example of shopping locally.”
However, Gassor said the town would still use UFA card lock, but would not be billed directly.
Council agreed to tender the fuel procurement to local suppliers annually.
In 2012, the cost of fuels was listed at approximately $170,000 in the public works annual operating budget.