Posts Tagged ‘Sokoils Group’
By Joan Gottlieb - December 21st, 2009
Just this week I happily mailed to my client a $797 refund check obtained from their fleet fuel supplier. Last month, I happily mailed to the same client another refund check in the amount of $615 from the same fleet fuel supplier. Both refunds were the result of daily fuel audits that caught fuel pricing errors.
Not only is my client happy with his managed fuel program provided by Sokolis Group, they are even more gratefuel to know that Sokolis Group is always working to ensure fleet fuel savings. Tis the season to have great fuel management.
Tags: fleet fuel, fleet fueling, Sokoils Group
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By Kelly Quigley - December 17th, 2009
“Get your oil changed every 3000 miles” I can hear that clear as day from my late teens, it was my dad, drilling the most basic car maintenance and fuel management routine that a non fuel consulting expert can do. Right? Little did I know there was a lot more I could’ve done and still be doing to expand my fuel mileage out of my midsize SUV, and with prices these days it’ll feel like I have a fuel consulting expert in the passenger seat.
Aside from the basic oil change, the way someone drives can affect the mileage they get out of the car, for example staying below 60mph and not being aggressive will increase your mileage and fuel savings. When you do get that oil change be sure to have the tire pressure checked and the filter changed if necessary, not only does that extend your fuel use but it’s a safety issue to keep up with. Fuel prices are not necessarily our friend so it’s a good thing to try to get a little fuel planning on the brain while you can. Another simple way to help increase your fuel mileage is to reduce the weight of your vehicle. Take off that roof rack if you are not using it, get books (hello college students) and any clutter that will weigh your car down and force it to push harder using your gas. I recently and unknowingly drove around this past week with our metal Christmas tree stand in my trunk, here I though my husband had taken it out of my car immediately, tough luck for me, at least it wasn’t a months worth of hauling that extra baggage.
If those simple ways can increase your home fuel management system, imagine what Sokolis Group can do to improve your fleet fueling needs. From fleet fueling cards, to free audits and transaction analysis Sokolis Group will do what it takes to make sure clients get all the fuel discounts and fuel management guidance to create a customized fuel planning system just right for everyone.
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Tags: fuel consulting, Fuel Management, fuel planning, Sokoils Group
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By Lisa Hermann - December 16th, 2009
This is the time of year where many people travel to see their loved ones. However as you may know your family may not be in walking distance. So people all around go near and far to see their family for the holidays; but every time someone gets on an airplane or in the car for that long journey, you should know that your carbon footprint gets bigger.
What, might you ask, is a carbon footprint?
A carbon footprint is the measure of the amount of carbon dioxide — the major man-made global warming greenhouse gas — that goes into the atmosphere as you go about your daily life. Almost everything you do affects it: turning on a coffee maker, driving a car, buying food, or getting into that airplane to visit family.
Air travel accounts for about 3.5 percent of the human contribution to global warming, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The good news is you can offset — if not eliminate — your carbon footprint by making choices that can even save you money.
Making choices the right choices has become a growing trend among people who want to reduce the size of their carbon footprints. At the same time, they must grapple with the question of whether their actions really make any difference.
Many people have employed a number of low-tech ideas that all play a small part in reducing their footprints: reusing canvas shopping bags, taking shorter showers, using energy efficient light bulbs; turning off lights when not in the room and walking or riding a bicycle for short trips around town.
Increasingly, many have turned to Web sites that offer carbon calculators, which add up how much carbon dioxide gas their lifestyle puts into the atmosphere. You increase your carbon footprint by driving a sport utility vehicle, for example, or reduce it by driving a hybrid. That is just one of the ways Sokolis Group contributes to reducing our carbon footprint.
There are many web sites that have carbon calculators that offer dozens of suggestions for cutting emissions around your office or home. For example, moving a thermostat down two degrees in winter and up two degrees in summer will save 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide and $98 a year. Check out to see what Sokolis Group has done to go green. http://www.sokolisgroup.com
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Tags: carbon footprint, Sokoils Group
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By Glen Sokolis - December 15th, 2009
Ok, not exactly but let me tell you a story. The other day this fuel consultant was asked to be Santa Claus for a family reunion. Without thinking much about that day, I said sure, why not. I thought quickly in my head, I never played Santa Claus and playing in front of 20 kids under the age of 14 years old sounds like fuel, I mean fun. Fleet fuel and fun, you readers know I sometimes get the two confused. Anyway, as the day came closer, I started to think ‘what bigger role could you play but good old Saint Nick’. As one of the leading national fuel consulting companies in the country, I am asked a lot to guest speak and every time it is an honor and pleasure, please keep asking. I reflected, yes talking fleet fueling, fuel management and fleet fuel card planning to hundreds of people is rewarding and hopefully for them educational. What about being Santa and listening to all of their hopes, dreams and things they want. A few wrong words and you could really mess with a kids mind while playing Santa. Maybe I over thought the idea or maybe not (probably over thought it because well that’s Glen Sokolis), I guess we won’t know. As I put the red suit on it was exciting. Not the kind of excitement I get when Sokolis Group signs a new fuel management client but a different kind of excitement.
Pleasure, pure pleasure is how I would descript my Santa time. Kids hugging this fuel consultant nut, not knowing Santa does fuel management during the day and plays this red and white costume gig once in a lifetime. I can’t tell you all of the things kids asked for because that would be against the Santa Clause in sharing private information. I can tell you in was a very good time and when I left the room, I could have sworn I heard a reindeer say, “Good job fuel consultant Santa, I will glide you fuel planning anytime!”
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Tags: fleet fuel, Fuel Management, fuel planning, Sokoils Group
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By Conor Proud - December 14th, 2009
When December comes around it’s all about holiday cheer for most people, and even here at Sokolis Group we spread the joy. Green is our favorite color. Whether it’s our company’s Ford Fusion Hybrid car, or putting up an artificial tree at our office and even homes, we like being green. The environment is important, and we try to be proactive in making it a priority to have a carbon free footprint.
Just by decreasing your speed to 55mph from 70mph you can increase your fuel efficiency by 23 percent, and with our Ford Fusion Hybrid our top salesman averages about 40 miles per gallon in city! That’s a great fuel management tip right there, free of cost! Instead of buying that Christmas tree every year and going through the stress and hassle of it, try a one time purchase of an artificial tree. Most fake trees look just as good as the real ones, without the cleanup, gas wasted to drive to pick it up each year, and issues that you have with a real tree. Just think if you didn’t buy and cut down a Christmas tree each year all the trees you would save throughout your lifetime! Wow, talking about lowering a carbon footprint. No, I am not a tree hugger (not that there is anything wrong with that) I just care about carbon offsetting today and a better tomorrow.
There are tons of other ways to be green such as recycling, energy saving light bulbs, and eliminating major use of harmful beauty and cleaning products, but we’re not environment experts here, we are fuel management and fuel consulting experts. We can give great fuel advice on being green when it comes to anything fleet fuel related, and we’ll leave the rest to the environmentalists. It’s a great way to save money and the environment, and everyone likes saving money especially us. We save fleet management people money on their fleet fuel purchases every day. If you think or have a feeling that you too could possibly be paying too much on your fleet fuel, then contact the Sokolis Group and start saving some green. Green is Good! How are You Fueling Today?
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Tags: fleet fuel, fuel consulting, Fuel Management, Sokoils Group
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By Lisa Hermann - December 10th, 2009
Tired of not having the time to check more into those fleet fuel invoices? Are you just signing off on them to get them off your desk? You really should be checking them twice! What about those fuel taxes that you are being charged on those fleet fuel invoices; are they correct? There are countless deferred and non-deferred fuel taxes in the U.S. that change based on where you purchased the fleet fuel, how you transported it, what type you purchased, and where it was delivered. So how are you reconciling your fuel supplier invoices to ensure they invoiced the correct taxes?
What I see in the industry are a lot of companies manually looking at a fuel invoice and guessing it is right, or their back office ‘reconciles’ the volume and prices but assumes taxes are correct. Assuming the supplier has discovered the secret to taxes can be dangerous and costly. You could be “tipping” your fuel supplier by 15% – on accident.
Best practice is to automatically audit supplier invoices through reconciliation to ensure the correct fuel taxes are on the invoice without having to pull out a calculator and manually figure it out. One way to do this is to hire Sokolis Group. Let us help you make sure you are getting the correct rates and audit your invoices for you monthly. We will check them twice not just this time of year but all year round. There are additional services provided as well when you have Sokolis Group on your side. Things like fuel management, fleet fuel programs, fuel panning, fuel consulting and so much more in Santa Sokolis bag. For more information go to www.sokolisgroup.com and contact us today!
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Tags: fleet fueling, fuel consulting, Fuel Management, Sokoils Group
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By John Sokolis - December 2nd, 2009
When you’ve been in the fleet fuel management and fuel consulting business as long as we collectively have here at Sokolis Group, and seen as many fuel transactions as we have seen, almost nothing surprises us. But it may surprise you.
The one surprising event that is truly mind boggling especially in these hard economic times, when people should value their jobs and be on their best behavior, or possibly as a result of the hard times, is theft from employers. Particularly fleet fuel theft or the fraudulent use of a fuel card. Following is an example of what we have actually witnessed.
A very large national, decentralized company, with thousands of fuel transactions per month on many different fuel cards, apparently did not feel that it was necessary to audit all of their transactions. A driver was terminated and his fuel card never collected or accounted for. I guess they felt that he was an honest enough guy not to ask for the card or maybe they just forgot. He was out of sight and out of mind. A year and a half after he was terminated this company decided that they wanted uniformity with all of the divisions and branches and have them utilize just one fleet fuel card on a national level. The conversion to one provider was made and no transactions were made on any of the other fleet fuel card accounts prior to the accounts being closed. Then low and behold an invoice is received on one of the accounts that should have been inactive. Now, not buried within thousands of transactions, was a list of purchases, each one for $200, the same card, the same retailer, several times a month. Their terminated employee suddenly was at the forefront again. He actually made out much better being unemployed than he did driving for them. In 18 months his total take was more than $150,000! Each transaction was for cash. Yes he got caught, sentenced and ordered to pay restitution. Unlikely that he will ever pay all of that back.
Ask yourself, could this be happening to me. Why take that chance? Give us a call, we can put your mind at ease or find the bad apple.
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Tags: fleet fuel, fuel consulting, Fuel Management, Sokoils Group
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By Kelly Quigley - November 27th, 2009
With unsteady fuel prices it’s no wonder that fuel theft is rising and not all of it is from an outside thief. Many of the fuel thefts are in house thru managers, drivers and other company employees. Some of these ways are as simple as taking a few gallons at a time and selling them to a third party, others include drivers making extra stops to have some fuel siphoned and just fill up again on the companys dime a few miles down the road. More sophisticated methods include number crunching inside the office.
Not preventing fuel theft could lead to hundreds or thousands of dollars in loss. One recent case an employee was able to steal around $22,000 because there simply were no locks on the pumps or gates! When theft is that easy it just screams “steal me”. Would you leave your car unlocked, then why leave pumps unlocked.
Assuming you spent much of your time thinking about fuel management and fuel planning, why would some of these preventative measures not be taken.
*Anti Siphon Devices work by closing tightly when negative draining occurs
*Fuel Management, Sokolis Group will track transactions and will monitor and question any uncertain dealings
*Locks, simple locks gates that protect your fleet and on site fueling tanks, thieves will be more likely to move on to an easier target.
*Locking gas caps are also a great theft deterrent
*Using fleet fuel cards to track a drivers location and fueling transactions.
So while you consider which ways would be best to prevent fuel theft at your company, Let Sokolis Group take the other fuel management and fuel planning off your plate, that’s two birds with one stone.
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Tags: fuel consulting, Fuel Management, Sokoils Group
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By Glen Sokolis - November 23rd, 2009
As the President of Sokolis Group a fuel management and fuel consulting firm, I am always asked to advertise in trade magazines, news journals and other publications. Over the years we have tried a little bit of this and a little bit of that and it really hasn’t worked. Most marketing gurus might say you haven’t stuck with something long enough and hey they might be right. The way I look at it, it isn’t their fuel management dollars that I am spending it’s Sokolis Group’s.
A fuel management client asked me last week, how do you get new clients? I said, “Wow great question!” I told him we have to kiss a lot of frog before we find our fuel management Princes. Most of our contacts are made through conferences that my staff attends or where I may guest speak. Columns that write such as in www.truckinginfo.com or several other columns that we do at Sokolis Group peak additional interest. The best way, right or wrong, to get a fuel management client or fuel consulting client is the good old cold call. Have you ever done a cold call? I know you have received them. Oh, boy, it’s not easy. You have about 5 seconds to make your pitch and a good first impression. Most people are busy and fuel management probably was not in the front of their minds.
We have tried social media like LinkedIn, where we even have a group there called Fuel Management Sokolis Group. We have around 130 members who want to know about fuel planning, fuel management and fleet fueling. I believe we do a good job providing educational material. We also will take suggestions (gsokolis@sokolisgroup.com). We have a Fan of Sokolis Group on Facebook. Not a lot of action there but I don’t think a lot of fleet managers, fuel managers or corporate executives are going through Facebook looking for a fuel consultant. We have a Twitter account @SokolisGroup, if you want to find us. Twitter may or may not be a fad but I like it. I have found information on it with the people with whom I’m connected. On Twitter we post about 10-15 tweets a day about fuel prices and economic conditions that could affect fuel pricing, fuel planning ideas and fuel management tips. Since you can only post 140 charterers it’s quick, but sound information.
Yes, we blog, your reading it. I find these to be the best things our staff and I put out. The problem with a cold call is trying to get the right people to read your blog.
A friend of mine John Derham, jd@probusys.com, www.probusys.com helped us put together a You Tube on Fuel Management that I thought came out great. Good facts, good plugs about Sokolis Group services and good information about fuel management. You can see the You Tube by clicking here Fuel Management Tips. Let us know what you think.
At the end of the day it’s about working hard and plugging away. If it was easy, everyone would do it. If your company needs fuel consulting, fuel planning, fuel management, or fleet fueling expertise take a minute out of your day and reach out to us. Sokolis Group!
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Tags: fleet fueling, fuel consulting, Fuel Management, Sokoils Group
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By Glen Sokolis - November 13th, 2009
EPA MOVES ONE STEP CLOSER TO LIKELY REGULATION OF GREENHOUSE GASES
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has sent its final greenhouse gas (GHG) endangerment finding to the White House Office of Management and Budget for a 90-day review and approval. Click here and there more about GHG. The agency’s action follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in April 2007 finding that GHGs are pollutants. What would this mean to your fuel management? Good question. Since a company that operates a fleet of trucks emits greenhouse gas it should be a concern. We have talk with government staff about fuel planning and what effects it could have on fleet fuel buying. Most suspect that there could be an additional tax put on fleet fuel, like diesel fuel and gas. This is Cap and Trade that has been talked about in the news.
As the next step, EPA must determine whether such pollution endangers human health or welfare. In its April 2009 Proposed Rule, the agency found that GHGs endanger both human health and welfare, and that emissions from new motor vehicles are contributing to the mix of heat-trapping gases. We believe it won’t hit your fleet management for a few more year but do believe it is coming.
What can your fleet do to protect its fuel planning and fuel management now is to plan well. Start considering what size trucks you are buying, consider taking a step forward by using bio fuels such as bio diesel, make sure your trucks are not idling longer than they have to and improve route efficiency as part of your fleet management to reduce the number of miles that you run. These are just a couple of fuel management tips on this topic. As things move down the road farther we will be sure to keep you update.
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Tags: diesel fuel prices, fleet fuel, free fuel audit, Fuel Management, Sokoils Group
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