Pumped on full service: Monticello Texaco station does it all FORT WORTH  Texas — Monday, November 07, 2005

Since 1928, attendants at the full-service gas station at the intersection of Camp Bowie Boulevard, University Drive and West 7th Street have been pumping air into tires, cleaning windows and filling gas tanks — service rarely, if ever, found at today’s fast-paced convenience stores and self-serve stations.

C.B. Borden, one-time owner of the 77-year-old Monticello Texaco station, describes the Cultural District landmark as “the gateway to town.”

“Everybody passes this station at some point,” said Borden, 94, who ran the station from 1936 to 1940. “You have to if you’re going to Camp Bowie, the North Side or downtown.”

Barney Holland, whose company owns the building, said there are few properties – especially with a retail focus – that have served the same purpose in the same place for so long.

Holland said that the Mexican Inn Cafe on Commerce Street may be the only other retail property “in the core of downtown Fort Worth that has the same business on the same site since 1947, and possibly since the business started in 1936.”

Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company ran the station as a TP Aero filling station until 1934. Borden said the company started leasing the station to independent operators because of a new law requiring employers to reduce workweeks to 40 hours.

“These service stations were being operated by the oil companies but they were working 12 hours per day,” he said. “When they had to go to 40-hour weeks, they didn’t want to do it so they leased the stations out.”

Two or three operators leased the station before Borden took it over in 1936. After Borden left in 1940 to run a station of his own, the place changed hands a few more times before Texas Pacific sold it to Humble Oil & Refining Company in 1945. Holland said Texas Pacific sold 499 other stations at the same time for a total of $400,000 – or about $800 each.

The original building was eventually knocked down to make way for a newer, more modern building with service bays and hydraulic lifts. Holland’s company purchased the property in 1987.

Borden said that at one time, the station was the No. 1 gasoline seller in the city. When he began leasing the station from Texas Pacific, the previous owner had been purchasing fewer than 5,000 gallons per month; after four years, the station was selling 22,000 gallons per month.

In his book, Black Diamonds! Black Gold! The Saga of Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company, local businessman and historian Don Woodard described the station as “the largest and most prominent TP station in Fort Worth.”

“It’s who runs the place that determines the turnout,” Borden said. “I never had anything but a 12-hour day. For years, I worked Sundays just the same as Saturdays. That’s the only way you’d make any money out of it in those days. You had to be there. Service stations have changed so much.”

During the time he ran the station, Borden said, full-service stations inhabited virtually every corner. There were 28 stations on West Seventh between his station and downtown, he said — and he can name them all.

“It’s the best location I was ever in – or anybody else has been in Fort Worth,” he said.

In 1940, after Texas Pacific raised the rent, Borden built his own service station a few blocks away at 2926 W. 7th, where Wendy’s is now.

“They kept raising the rent all the time and one day I said, ‘Well heck, if these things are so precious then I’ve got to own one,’” he said. “So I found this one close by, and I moved, and I tell you what, I had 20,000 gallons and moved 15,000 of it soon. But you know, I loved that Monticello station so much I wouldn’t even look at it as I drove by – I lived on Sixth street. It hurt me so bad to leave it. I made good money out of it.”

Back then, service-station attendants filled tires with air and tanks with gas, washed the windows and fixed children’s bicycles – all for free, except for the cost of the gas, which was measured in cents-per-gallon instead of dollars.

Borden said one of his favorite parts of running a service station, and one of the best ways to get more business, was fixing kids’ bikes.

“We never charged a kid anything to fix a bicycle tire,” he said. “If they had a bearing problem, the kid would go down to [Montgomery] Ward’s and get a bearing and come back and we’d fix the bicycle. Then they’d bring their parents in to buy gas.”

Gasoline prices have soared over the years, ranging as high as $3 per gallon or more in recent months, and a full-service station has to charge 30 to 50 cents more per gallon to make ends meet.

Like previous owners, current operator Robert Layne runs Monticello Texaco as a full-service station. He has leased the building from the Barney Holland Oil Company since1990. Tires are still aired for free when a customer chooses full service over the self-service pump, and the staff also conducts inspections and oil changes.

“There’s very few of us [full-service stations] left anymore,” Layne said. “But there are some people who need our service and can’t get it at a convenience store.”

He said his station provides a valuable service to people who are handicapped and can’t get out of the car to pump gas. State law mandates that the handicapped aren’t charged the full-service surcharge.

“We used to do that for one or two handicapped people per day,” Layne said. “Now it’s 10 to 15 a day because so many of the other full-service stations have closed. When we’re all gone, who’s going to do that?”

He said six full-service stations along University Drive closed in the 1970s and ’80s, and even more on Berry Street. He said large oil companies ran the stations and didn’t want to spend the money to modernize them, so they sold them. This, he said, along with the more profitable format of self-serve stations featuring convenience stores, is the reason for the shift from full service.

“Convenience stores are more profitable,” he said. “They just make more money. They make 80 cents on a Coke, we make 50 cents on a gallon of gas. I’ve got a Coke machine and that’s it. Full-service stations are a big investment and the modern thing is to have a convenient store with one or two employees. I’ve got to have five employees.”

But profit isn’t why Layne likes the business. He enjoys the mix of people he gets in and the higher level of interaction that takes place when people need more service.

“A real cross section of people comes in here,” he said. “We get the elderly and handicapped and Fortune 500 executives. John Justin of Acme Brick used to come in here, and he would get out of the car and come in to visit while his car was being filled up. We’re kind of like the local bartender, we talk to people all day and hear all the rumors.”

Borden said he liked the old way of doing business, but he doesn’t foresee a widespread return of the full-service format.

“I miss it, and I’ll tell you why: People are driving around on half-flat tires,” he said. “We always asked people if they wanted their tires aired. Some we didn’t even ask; if it was a regular customer we knew what kind of pressure they used. We’d hit the driveway with three people – one on the hood, one putting the gas in, one airing the tires. They used to vacuum your car out, too. Now if you ask them to vacuum your car they’ll say, ‘Are you lost?’ That service is gone forever. It’s too expensive.”

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Star-Telegram: Family business has adapted to changes FORT WORTH  Texas — Monday, October 18, 2004

In its more than three quarters of a century, the Barney Holland Oil Co. of Fort Worth hasn't changed its name or family ownership. What has changed is the way it does business. Founder Barney R. Holland began in 1928 as a tank-and-truck gasoline distributor, and his son Barney B. Holland carried on as a Texaco distributor and retailer until his death in 1972.

Today, Barney B. Holland Jr., the 55-year-old son of Barney B. Holland and president of the company, runs a "virtual distributorship." Today's Barney Holland Co. has eliminated the fuel tanks and trucks in favor of plastic "Fuelman" cards that fleet owners use to get gasoline and diesel fuel at more than 450 stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The cards, along with online reports compiled by a 20-member staff at Holland's downtown Fort Worth headquarters, are downloaded immediately to fleet managers. Those services generate the closely held family operation's cash flow and profit.

"We help fleets manage their usage and costs," said Holland, who counts the Fort Worth school district, the Fort Worth police, Weatherford and the Fort Worth Sara Lee plant among the company's fleet customers.

The Barney Holland company no longer physically handles fuel. It gave up the last of its Texaco distributor business this year.

"The profit margin was about a cent per gallon," Holland said. "I just couldn't see that as a good business model."

Nor does it store gasoline and diesel fuel as it had for generations at Northeast 28th and North Main streets. Barney Holland's tanks -- some 150 at various locations -- were given up in the 1980s when new federal Environmental Protection Agency rules made many older tanks unusable.

"What had been our principal asset became a huge liability," Holland said.

Now, the company is the local licensee for Fuelman Inc., the Atlanta-based national network of fuel management systems.

Fuelman uses a plastic card and PIN to let drivers buy fuel at prices that Holland arranges with station operators once a week. Holland can't guarantee low fuel prices. What the company offers the retailer is traffic.

"Retailers are losing so much business to the big-box outlets, such as RaceTrac, Sam's Club, Wal-Mart and the grocery chains," Holland said. "The Fuelman card directs that business back."

Fleet operators benefit as well because they no longer have to give drivers credit cards or cash for fuel. The Fuelman card can be used only for gasoline or diesel fuel.

"That eliminates the problem of the card or expense money being used for personal items," Holland said. "It also helps the fleet operators track their expenses."

The expense-tracking mechanism sits well with Weatherford Fire Chief George Teague, who fuels the department's 15 firetrucks, five cars and fireboat using Holland's Fuelman card.

"Works real well," Teague said. "We buy our fuel at decent prices from local business close to the [fire] stations, which helps us interact with the community. And I get a detailed report online on how much we are spending for fuel."

Holland makes his money on card transaction fees. Fleets generally pay once a month, and Holland prepays for fuel weekly at his affiliated stations. That arrangement turns tight when, as has been the case most of this year, fuel prices are rising.

"Essentially, I'm carrying my card customers monthly while paying for the fuel weekly," says Holland. "So with interest costs added in, my margins actually decrease as fuel prices rise."

The Fuelman card is Holland's second venture into the card business. In the late 1980s, Holland was affiliated with California-based Gascard. When Gascard failed through its own mismanagement, Holland and four other regional affiliates bought Gascard, then sold it to Fuelman in return for a new affiliation.

"What we did was adopt a new business model," said Holland, who acknowledges that the business is vastly different from the one founded by his grandfather.

Holland has three sons, all of whom work in the business during the summer. He said they may eventually be welcomed back to the company, but only after they work five years elsewhere.

"A family business must have business goals, not family goals," the third-generation Holland said.

It's still a gas! FORT WORTH  Texas — Friday, May 28, 2004

Gas prices hit a record high this month, topping out at a national average above $1.80 per gallon. And prices are expected to climb higher this.

Soaring prices affect business, even businesses such as Barney Holland Oil Co. in Fort Worth, which used to be a distributor and retailer of oil products and gasoline, but today, in its 76th year of operation, is in the business of fuel cards.

Fuelman, specifically.

“Rising gas prices affect our business because it increases accounts receivable, but it's a positive in that when fuel goes up, shrinkage increases, and our product becomes more valuable to commercial and municipal fleets,” said Barney B. Holland Jr., grandson of the company's founder, Barney R. Holland.

The Fuelman system allows clients such as the Fort Worth Police Department to control and reduce the fueling costs of its fleet, sometimes by as much as 35 percent. Tarrant and Dallas counties also are Holland customers for fuel management and reporting services.

Fuelman DFW recently announced its 400th merchant site in the surrounding 24-county area, part of a larger 20,000-site network of fueling locations around the country. Fuelman is the leading fleet card program of Atlanta-based FleetCor Technologies.

This year also marked the end of Holland's gas distribution business, which had been serving 25 Texaco stations in the area. The move was done to re-focus operations to the Fuelman part of the business, as well as company-owned real estate, Holland said.

“We've just tried to survive. And we have now for 75 years, by adapting and trying to be a little bit ahead of the curve,” Holland said.

In an environment of disappearing independent gas stations and mergers between the giants, there's something to be said for surviving 75 years.

Barney R. Holland started his business in 1928 after having returned from Mexico, where he was involved with trans-Gulf shipping, banking and real estate. Holland's long-time friend, Dan Moran, the president of Conoco, awarded him the Conoco consigneeship for Tarrant and Dallas counties. It is rumored among the Hollands that Barney R. saved Moran from a crew of angry Mexican roughnecks years before when they were working oilfields together.

The company went through some early transitions under different monikers: Holland y Lopez Shipping, Cross Gulf Shipping and then, finally, Barney Holland Oil Co.

“We have never drilled an oil well. We are not an oil exploration company. The word oil is in the name only because grandfather distributed lubricants,” Holland said.

Holland Sr., then recently returned from WWII and the Pacific, joined his father in the business. He served a term on the Fort Worth City Council and expanded the family company into ranching and truck centers.

The oil and gas industry evolved and the Holland family, by this time with Holland Sr. at the helm, switched to Texaco and got out of the lubricants business. As a result of liability concerns and ever-increasing insurance costs, the company sold its trucks and started to use common carriers for gas distribution.

Holland Sr. grew the business to include a very early form of fleet fuel management, with key locks that initiated pumps and calculated fuel sales on a meter. The company also grew its ownership in retail gas stations and convenience stores, but today, because of environmental concerns surrounding underground fuel tanks, only has four remaining.

“The Texaco station and the Texaco convenience stores have over the last 10-to-15 years been under great pressure from the [corporate-owned] convenience store side and now from the big box grocery stores getting into the business of selling gasoline,” Holland said.

“What we have done is try to keep looking a little further down the road…We didn't want to be buggy whipped out of business by just staying in the same business longer than was prudent. The laws of economics cannot be repealed. So, we looked down the road and tried to position our small company within the same industry in a way that we could deliver a product or service on which we could make a fair return.”

That look into the future spurred the company into the fleet card business. The company became a GasCard franchisee in the mid 1980s, but after several years and hard times, GasCard was threatened by bankruptcy. Holland and four other franchisees bought GasCard to keep the network up and running. They re-capitalized it, turned it around (after four or five years) and eventually sold it to Fuelman.

Holland Sr. died in 1972, leaving the company to his wife, Priscilla, and children, Holland Jr., Lindsay, Walker and Ellen Gibson.

Today, under Holland Jr., the company has over 600 fleet card accounts. With a small staff of 20 at his downtown headquarters, Holland intends to increase his percentage of the fuel market.

“With a good fleet card, a municipal or business fleet can significantly lower its total coast of fueling. The price of fuel is the same, but it eliminates the shrinkage, the environmental costs, the accounting back office costs. We're always cheaper,” Holland said.

Barney Holland Oil Company, d/b/a FUELMAN of DFW Celebrates 75 Years
FORT WORTH   Texas  — Friday, October 24, 2003

It was three generations ago that the Barney Holland Oil Company, one of Fort Worth’s oldest businesses, started out as a Conoco Consignee. Over the last 75 years this company has evolved from a typical oil distributor into the largest fleet fuel marketer in the Metroplex.

The road to fuel management began in 1928, when Barney B. Holland, Jr.’s grandfather, Barney R. Holland, returned from Mexico where he had worked since 1916 in trans-Gulf shipping, banking, and real estate. The deteriorating political climate there and the inherent difficulties of educating his son in Mexico caused him and his wife to return to Texas in 1928. Mr. Holland was awarded the Conoco consigneeship for Tarrant and Dallas counties by his longtime friend, the irascible Dan Moran, President of Conoco, whose life it is rumored Holland had saved from a crew of justifiably outraged Mexican roughnecks years before.

By the late 1940s, Barney R. Holland’s son, Barney B. Holland, returned from submarine service in the Pacific during WWII, joined his father in the business, and followed his footsteps by joining many of Fort Worth’s civic and cultural organizations. He also was elected and served a term on the City Council. The Company affiliated itself with Texaco in 1958 and Barney B. Holland expanded into ranching, truck centers, and even pioneered navigation of the Red River, which dream has subsequently been realized with resulting locks and dams being built from Shreveport to the Gulf. When Barney B. Holland died in1972, his children and wife took over management of the Company, which they helped grow to the point that it either owned or supplied numerous commercial accounts and over 100 Texaco outlets. However, after the oil embargoes, the industry changed radically and in response, the Company transitioned into a Gascard fleet card franchise. Gascard, Inc., was eventually merged into Fuelman, Inc., and the Barney Holland Oil Company acquired the Fuelman license for 24 North Texas counties.

Now, the Barney Holland Oil Company serves numerous municipal and commercial customers with the Fuelman fleet card without the Company or its customers having to own pumps and tanks, operating a fleet of delivery trucks, buying inventory, or having a pollution exposure. Barney B. Holland, Jr., the current president, refers to the Company, which has no warehouses, bulk storage, or trucks, as a “virtual distributor.” Indeed, the “Barney Holland Oil Company is still around because it knows how to adapt to a changing world,” said Barney B. Holland Jr., in a 1997 Dallas Business Journal article. Fuelman’s software makes it possible to offer pre-purchase controls and comprehensive reporting that give fleet managers a system that substantially reduces their “total cost of fueling.”

The Barney Holland Oil Company has maintained its founder’s values over the years, and is proud to print Barney R. Holland’s statement shared with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on the Company’s 25th Anniversary in 1953, “Our company is home-owned and has taken its civic responsibility seriously. Its record of carrying its share of the load in regards to charity and worthwhile projects is something of which we are proud. We have done well in Fort Worth and feel strongly that we owe this city much for a very pleasant…place to live.” Fuelman’s recent acquisition of Commercial Fueling Network (CFN) is “creating the industry’s leading fleet card processing business,” said Fleetcor, Inc.’s CEO Ron Clarke. However, aside from any opportunities the CFN acquisition might bring, the Company’s Fuelman business is growing steadily. Fuelman of DFW has over 365 local retail sites that honor Fuelman cards and over 600 local fleet customers who acquire more than 25,000,000 gallons of fuel annually. This growth allowed the Company to begin the celebration of its 75th year with a move to new corporate offices at 1226 E. Weatherford Street in Downtown Fort Worth. The Fuelman program allows fleet managers to limit purchases to fuel only and set pre-purchase controls on gallons and fuel grade. Fleet Managers also receive comprehensive on-line weekly reports and e-mail transaction notifications, which track vehicles, drivers, and MPG. Specialized reports, including tax exemption, can also be generated. Fuelman cards have PIN authorization for security and local Customer Service that can quickly replace lost or stolen cards. The Barney Holland Oil Company is proud to offer the Fuelman fleet card program to fleets of any size. Fuelman is a management tool that increases efficiencies and helps reduce the likelihood of shrinkage and exposure to pollution liability.

Barney Holland Oil Company & Fuelman of DFW Relocate Offices to Downtown Fort Worth!
FORT WORTH   Texas  — Wednesday, October 22, 2003

The Barney Holland Oil Company, d/b/a Fuelman of DFW, has assembled a 46,000 square foot block on the edge of Downtown Fort Worth and, having demolished three small buildings, is renovating the remaining 5,140 square foot building for its new offices.

“We are recycling an old warehouse that presently faces south on East First Street into an office that faces North on East Weatherford Street,” said Barney B. Holland, Jr. “Additionally,” Holland said, “we have room to build a 10,000+ square foot building next door at 1200 East Weatherford Street with covered parking for 25-40 cars, once we find the right tenants.”

Architects, Dobbins & Crow, have again teamed with contractor, Muckleroy & Falls, Inc., on this fourth recent building project for the Barney Holland Oil Company.

“We are doubling our space because Fuelman of DFW has grown significantly under the management of Doug Yeargins,” said Barney B. Holland, Jr., president of Fort Worth’s oldest fuel wholesaler and largest fleet card company. “Because Fuelman significantly lowers the total cost of fueling, typically reducing it by 15%, and sometimes as much as 25%, many commercial and municipal fleet managers are recognizing that Fuelman is the smartest, cleanest, and lowest cost way to fuel their fleets,” added Holland.

Fuelman’s fuel management system merges the benefits of today’s point-of-sale technology with both commercial and retail fueling facilities to give large and small businesses and municipal fleets control over their “total cost of fueling.”

Barney Holland Oil Company, with over 350 card-acceptance sites, is the North Texas licensee for the Fuelman card, a national fleet card that is marketed by petroleum wholesalers. Local customers include the FWISD, Stewart & Stevenson, FWPD, City of Plano, Sara Lee, A-1 Wrecker, La Madeleine and Dallas County. Fuelman processes over one and a quarter billion gallons a year through a nationwide network of more than 20,000 retail sites.



Background:      In 1929 the late Barney R. Holland founded the Company as a Marland Oil Company consignee. Late that year, when Conoco acquired Marland, the Company became a Conoco consignee. In 1957, the late Barney B. Holland, Sr., seeing that Texaco was going to be a dominant retail brand, transferred the Company’s retail business to Texaco.

In 1986 and 1995 respectively, the Company’s third generation managers acquired the Gascard and Fuelman licensees so that it could build on its fuel business expertise and reduce its exposure to the increasingly unprofitable retail fuel business, which has been subjected to unreasonable and laxly enforced EPA regulations and is dominated by volume-driven major oil convenience stores and “Big Box” retailers that use fuel as a loss leader. To survive, the Company was transformed into a “virtual” distributor without trucks, warehouses, or fuel inventory, and with underground tanks at only its best properties, but with a great system by which its customers can fuel their fleets without exposure to pollution liability, EPA regulations, inventory shrinkage, maintenance costs, or capital investments, and receive comprehensive management reports to control their total cost of fueling.

Dallas and Tarrant Counties Sign Fleet Fuel Deals With Fuelman of DFW
FORT WORTH  Texas — Tuesday, July 16, 2002

Dallas and Tarrant County officials recently awarded contracts to FUELMAN of DFW for comprehensive fleet fuel management and reporting services. Dallas County reached its decision to renew its contract, after enjoying the benefits of the Fuelman's fleet card program over the previous year. Upon similar examination of competitive bids, Tarrant County awarded FUELMAN of DFW a 2-year contract.

With responsibility for a fleet of over 1,000 vehicles from its headquarters in Dallas, Dallas Countys Fleet Department manages and provides fleet services for all County departments' transportation needs. From Sheriff's Department to the Road & Bridges Divisions, from pursuit cars to massive earth moving equipment, the County's fleets’ needs are extensive.

"The many services and pre-set control features offered by Fuelman's fleet fuel card program are a welcome substitution to our previous monthly statement method of managing the fleet's fueling needs," said Dick Wakeman, Fleet Manager for Dallas County.

According to Jack Beacham, the Purchasing Agent for Tarrant County, “After evaluating the responses to our RFP, Fuelman's pricing, past performance, and ability to restrict transactions to fuel only were the determining factors to awarding Fuelman our Fleet Fuel Card contract.”

The Fuelman system can prevent unauthorized purchases, lower accounting and other administrative costs, and lessen or even eliminate the environmental risks of underground fuel storage tank ownership or operation. “We are pleased that Dallas and Tarrant Counties have elected to continue to embrace the Fuelman fleet fuel card management program by renewing and awarding their fleet fuel card contracts to us. Dallas and Tarrant Counties represent some of the largest fleets in Texas. Their management practices are noted beyond North Texas. We are thrilled to have both of them as Fuelman customers,” according to Doug Yeargins, General Manager, Fuelman of DFW.

Established in 1929, Barney Holland Oil Company, operating as FUELMAN of DFW, is a processor of card-activated fuel management designed to reduce the total cost of fueling through improved controls and comprehensive management information. Their current client list includes such organizations as Lockheed Martin, Federal Express, UPS, Fort Worth ISD, Borden, an Coca-Cola. Approximately 300 fuel stations in the Metroplex area and over 25,000 nationally honor the Fuelman card, and include brands such as Texaco, Exxon, Phillips 66, Fina, Diamond Shamrock, and Conoco.

Today’s consumer wants one-stop shopping and more from convenience stores
FORT WORTH  Texas — Saturday, March 31, 2001

Barney Holland Oil Company, Fort Worth’s oldest TEXACO distributor, just opened its new Star 21 TEXACO Food Mart on I-35W at FM 917, next door to Mike Bridge’s “Snappy Jack’s Restaurant.”

The new TEXACO is truly state-of-the-art with 4 “pay-at-the-pump” gasoline and diesel dispensers. Fuelman, Gascard, TEXACO, Shell as well MasterCard, Visa and American Express cards will be accepted at this TEXACO Food Mart.

The Fuelman/Gascard fleet fueling system harnesses the power of today’s point-of-sale technology to give large and small businesses and municipalities control over their “total cost of fueling,” typically reducing it by 15%. That’s what led Barney Holland Oil Company to acquire one of the original Gascard franchises in 1984 (www.fuelmandfw.com). This new TEXACO is the 250th location in the Metroplex that honors the FM/GC program.

The new facility is welcome news for Johnson County residents because, until now, there have been no state-of-the-art facilities between Burleson and Alvarado where the public could pay-at-the pump.

Visions Design Group of San Angelo conceived an efficient layout with large restrooms and a very contemporary layout. Muckleroy & Falls Construction Company, Inc. of Fort Worth constructed the new facility.

Fuelman Network Expands in the Midwest
NEW ORLEANS  Louisiana — Monday, April 17, 2000

Fuelman® has announced that its fuel cards are now accepted at 24 Quick Fuel automated fueling sites located in major cities across the Midwest and nearby Southern states.

"The Quick Fuel agreement is a strategic alliance that increases automated fueling site availability for our customers in this region," says Fuelman’s director of business development, Jeff Fisher. "For fleet managers and administrators, these 24 new sites mean less risk of fleet card misuse by drivers. It gives administrators even greater control and management capabilities for their fleet expenses."

In addition, the automated Quick Fuel sites, because they offer 24-hour access to fuel, attract both local fleets and commercial trucking companies, an appealing target market for Fuelman. "The Quick Fuel alliance improves that portion of our business and gives us a strong starting point from which to grow the over-the-road segment of our fleet management information customer base," says Fisher.

Quick Fuel, a division of Jacobus Energy, Inc., is based in Milwaukee. In addition to its automated fueling facilities, Quick Fuel also provides on-site truck-to-truck mobile refueling. Jacobus Energy has fueled Midwestern homes and businesses for more than 80 years.

The Fuelman network provides comprehensive fleet fuel information management services, including fuel and maintenance transaction processing and reporting, for more than 70,000 commercial and governmental fleets. Fuelman’s nationwide network consists of more than 130 independently owned and operated regional licensees, and more than 25,000 authorized fuel and maintenance retailers in 48 states. Fuelman, established in 1984 is headquartered in Covington, LA.

Erickson Oil Products and Fuelman® Ink 20-Year Contract
NEW ORLEANS  Louisiana — Thursday, April 06, 2000

Fuelman® has signed a 20-year licensing agreement with Erickson Oil Products Inc. of Hudson, WI. Erickson, an industry leader in convenience store marketing in Minnesota and western Wisconsin, provides entrée into an important territory for the Fuelman network. With 62 Midwest retail locations, $125 million in annual sales and 700 employees, Erickson also strengthens Fuelman’s growing presence in the region.

Under the agreement, Erickson will operate and market the Fuelman system in a territory including most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin, and will operate its fleet fuel division as Fuelman of Minnesota.

"There is a very strong synergy between Fuelman and Erickson," says President David Erickson, who has been discussing the program with other Fuelman licensees over the last five years. "I believe there is a real opportunity in this area for a premium fleet fuel card system such as Fuelman and the national recognition it provides."

Founded in the 1930s as a dry goods store by David’s grandfather, Herman, Erickson Oil Products entered the fuel retailing business in the 1950s. In 1981, David and his father, Claire, split Erickson Oil Products from the grocery side of the business and have since grown it into a wholly owned subsidiary, Freedom Valu Centers. The company operates under the Freedom Valu and Conoco brands.

Erickson Oil Products has named Scott Effinger branch manager of Fuelman of Minnesota. Effinger previously served as Fuelman licensee development manager for the Fuelman network in its San Diego office. He will manage the start up of this new marketing arm of Erickson Oil Products Inc.

The Fuelman network provides comprehensive fleet fuel information management services, including fuel and maintenance transaction processing and reporting, for more than 70,000 commercial and governmental fleets. Fuelman’s nationwide network consists of more than 130 independently owned and operated regional licensees, and more than 25,000 authorized fuel and maintenance retailers in 48 states. Fuelman, established in 1984, is headquartered in Covington, LA.

City of Sandusky Approves Fleet Fuel Contract With the Fuelman Network
SANDUSKY  Ohio — Monday, November 29, 1999

The City of Sandusky, Ohio, will save more than $150,000 this year through a recent contract with FUELMAN of Northern Ohio that will replace an aging underground fueling facility with an off-site electronic fleet card program.

The City dropped plans to construct a new on-site fueling facility and update its aging underground storage tank system in favor of the FUELMAN program that allows city employees to refuel at hundreds of authorized retail locations across Ohio. Sandusky currently uses about 150,000 gallons of fuel a year.

The new FUELMAN program will provide comprehensive fuel management and reporting services for nearly 300 vehicles and pieces of equipment - everything from fire trucks and police cruisers to lawn mowers and chainsaws. The electronic fleet card system helps eliminate paperwork, abuse, and fuel shrinkage.

"We no longer have to maintain or insure the pumps, tanks, and equipment at our fueling facility," said Todd Gibson, Sandusky's Fleet Maintenance Supervisor. "Managing our fleet is a whole lot cheaper and easier with the FUELMAN system."

FUELMAN's off-site fueling program is not only more convenient and less costly than the previous system, it helps the city deliver better public service, Gibson said. Fire trucks that once traveled five miles and across railroad tracks to reach the city fueling facility can now refuel at a nearby convenience store.

The new integrated system also calls for the installation of an electronic card-reader at the Sandusky Maintenance Garage that will allow the City to monitor and schedule periodic maintenance and manage its fleet vehicles more effectively.

"There was considerable cost-savings to the city when we added up all the benefits of the FUELMAN program," he added.

The FUELMAN network provides comprehensive fuel and maintenance transaction processing and reporting for more than 70,000 commercial and government fleets through its nationwide network of independently owned and operated regional licensees with more than 25,000 authorized fuel and maintenance locations across the nation.

For more information about the FUELMAN network, call 1-800-877-9019 (ext. 11060) or visit their web site at: www.fuelman.com. For more information on FUELMAN of Northern Ohio, call Robert Slauterbeck at 1-888-624-9826.