News

There is a sharp price difference when buying AdBlue from bulk dispensers at major sites and from canisters, Paul Holland, managing director Red Fuelcard Europe, told MT's Fleet Management Conference.

He expects AdBlue to cost about 48p a litre at a retail outlet up to £1.40 a litre from drums or canisters. "The price is significantly different. If you take an assumption of 5% AdBlue useage, the price differential could be 4.6p per litre  [of fuel]. That is clearly unsustainable."

He said that AdBlue is available at 50 of the 800 fuel outlets in its system. Of those 20 have AdBlue pumps and the others use canisters. An outlet at Felixstowe supplies a million litres of diesel a week, and 500 litres of AdBlue. "This should be 5,000 litres," he said.

He added: "There are three suppliers who are very keen to invest in the network infrastructure for AdBlue, but they will only invest if they know that there is going to be a genuine demand. Our advice is challenge your fuel suppliers to produce a solution and give some commitment to buy."

Chris Welsh, chief executive of Keyfuels, said that diesel prices will increase because globally there is an increasing demand for diesel requiring a greater investment in refineries and greater operating costs as they have to meet new standards. "Over the last three months one major supplier increased their margin by more than 0.1p per litre and as a result reduced its  supply to some of the largest fleets," he said. "It may be an idea to lock your prices in for up to one year ahead if you are measured against a budget as are many in the public sector."

Welsh said that the diesel supply chain has become much tighter and "geographic short-term shortages are becoming much more common."

He added: "You can take out an insurance policy where a quantity of fuel is reserved for you at a terminal. This typically costs bout 0.1p a litre and I would urge finance directors to consider it."