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On-Site Fueling vs Bulk Tank Delivery
On-site fueling puts fuel directly into your equipment. Bulk delivery puts fuel into your tank, and you draw from it.
The practical difference is where the fuel sits between the supplier's truck and your engine — and therefore who owns it, who is responsible for it, and who carries the risk while it waits.
How each one works
On-site fueling — sometimes called mobile or wet fueling — sends a truck to your yard, usually overnight, to fill each vehicle or machine directly. Nothing is stored on site. You are billed for what went into the equipment, often itemised per unit.
Bulk tank delivery puts a quantity into storage you own or lease. Your operators draw from that tank on your own schedule. You are billed for the delivery, not for consumption, and you hold the inventory in between.
The comparison
| On-site fueling | Bulk tank delivery | |
|---|---|---|
| Where fuel sits | Nowhere — straight into equipment | Your tank, until drawn |
| Up-front cost | None — no tank to buy or install | Tank, containment, installation |
| Price per gallon | Higher — the service is in the price | Lower — buying in larger drops |
| You are billed for | What entered each unit | What was delivered to the tank |
| Per-unit consumption data | Comes with the service | Only if you meter the draw yourself |
| Who holds inventory risk | The supplier | You, from the moment it is delivered |
| Exposure to price moves | Repriced each visit | Fixed once the tank is filled |
| Environmental compliance | Largely the supplier's | Yours — containment, testing, reporting |
| Shrinkage and theft | Little opportunity | A real line item to manage |
| Runs best when | Equipment is scattered or immobile | Volume is high and predictable |
Which one fits
On-site fueling tends to win where equipment cannot easily come to fuel: construction sites, generators, agricultural equipment, or a yard where sending drivers to a card lock burns paid hours. It also avoids the permitting and containment obligations that come with owning a tank, which is why it suits temporary sites.
Bulk delivery tends to win on steady, concentrated volume. Once the throughput is high enough, the per-gallon saving covers the tank and keeps going. It also buys a buffer: fuel in your tank is fuel you have, which matters where supply gets tight or weather closes roads.
The buffer cuts both ways. A full tank is inventory you have already paid for at a price that may since have moved, and it is also a compliance obligation that does not go away when the tank is empty.
Not actually a binary
Plenty of operations run both — bulk storage at a main yard, on-site fueling for remote or seasonal work. The distinction that matters is not which service you buy but whether you can see what you spent per site, per unit and per period once the invoices arrive. That is a records problem, and it is where mixed models usually come apart: two suppliers, two documents, two ways of counting.
How Energy Connect handles it
Both shapes are ordinary orders with a delivery against them, so a customer running a mix sees one history rather than one per arrangement. Deliveries are recorded against the site they served and billed from the quantity actually delivered, and customers who hold their own storage can track tank levels alongside the orders that filled them — so consumption, deliveries and invoices line up without being assembled by hand at month end.