If you own a mobile oil change business and you have at least 100 monthly customers or 300 customers total you may wish to consider buying bulk oil to save costs. Oil is a large cost in the mobile oil change business, although not as much as labor. But any savings you get means more profit for your small business. As the Founder of the Oil Change Guys, let me share some secrets with you. You see suppliers for bulk are usually regional and sometimes for best service and price you may find it is more a matter of the area rather than the brand. Although for customers it is more about brand. Some larger fleet customers will specify brand and you want to make sure you can oblige otherwise your competitor gets the account instead of you. We have always found that a proper deal with a local regional supplier can in fact be significant, even to the point where the regional Oil Company reps pay you a visit and see what they can do to help you. Including things such as no-interest loans and/or financing deals based on purchases or guarantees of purchases. This can assist you with expansion dollars to take on larger local and regional accounts and expand your business, buy new units or buy out a pesky competitor, which can add accounts without long travel times. To find a bulk oil supplier you will probably need to check around. Let's say you are in OH for instance. This is a good state for jobbers and suppliers, which means there are some really good choices and a little bit of competition for you to get better services, extras and a lower price. Of course too across the River in KY you will find a support structure available through Valvoline, although they might also consider you competition to their own in-house mobile oil change units. They do have mobile oil change company software. Of course if you are doing fleets and intend to do more you may not wish to put all your eggs in one basket as some larger fleets prefer Chevron which has a huge following and others will only use Shell Rotella; http://www.rotella.com/ One good place to check to see which jobbers are in your area servicing oil needs is to check with the local School District, why not check with the Superintendent of Transportation, where do they buy their bulk oil for the buses? That might give you a good lead? Indeed it pays to shop around when looking for a jobber of bulk oil and it further makes sense to use a local supplier as they may end up referring business to you, because they know you will be using their products. So think on this, as you supplier is part of your business team, all the way around it. They know it and you should know it too. |
