Case Study:
Operating since 1927, Fred Smith Company focuses on asphalt laydown operations, sitework projects, as well as public infrastructure, including construction of roadways, airports, railroads, bridges, schools, and universities. With its 1.200+ employees, Fred Smith Company manages projects from pre-construction through completion throughout the states of North Carolina and Virginia.
CUSTOMER:
INDUSTRY:
LOCATION:
FRED SMITH COMPANY
CONSTRUCTION
NORTH CAROLINA, USA
Emergency Fuel Management & Advisory
Customer Overview
Fred Smith Company has dispersed physical operations in multiple sites, running hundreds of trucks, over 1,000 off-road equipment vehicles, and using over 2½ M USG of fuel annually. Plus, serving mission-critical customers like the North Carolina Department of Transportation, Fred Smith cannot afford backlogs in the supply chain and was looking for a fuel management partner who can help ensure fuel availability and business continuity during crisis situations.
Challenge
World Kinect analysed Fred Smith Company’s fuel supply chain, existing onsite and satellite storage infrastructure, volume requirements, as well as its price risk management approach, and together with the customer developed a plan for fuel supply continuity and price stabilization during potential emergency weather and market events.
World Kinect Solution
World Kinect provided bulk fuel delivery to the customer on contracted basis, which helps to prioritize Fred Smith as first in line for fuel deliveries when supply is tight due to weather or pipeline issues.
Recently, when the local pipeline closed due to fires, causing significant fuel shortages in the state, World Kinect brought our fuel trucks from out-of-state to ensure Fred Smith and other affected contracted customers did not go without fuel. Fred Smith was not even aware that the regional fuel terminal was closed, and the company operated as usual.
World Kinect and Fred Smith designed a game plan for fuel supply assurance before the last two major hurricanes and a few other major pipeline events, so that the customer always had the necessary fuel.
After partnering with World Kinect, Fred Smith had not had to halt its construction jobs due to fuel shortages, be it a major hurricane or a major pipeline shutdown event.
Fred Smith can be confident in the forecast of their fuel budget – a major expense for the company.
Fred Smith has a reliable Everything Fuel partner delivering fuel, tanks, and budget certainty, keeping up pace with Fred Smith Company’s highspeed growth.
Business Impact
BUSINESS CONTINUITY DURING SUPPLY SHORTAGES
PEACE OF MIND DESPITE CRISIS SITUATIONS
The three key benefits that we have experienced working with World Kinect has been dependability, reliability, and peace of mind. Most recently, this has helped us when a hurricane came through. World Kinect and Fred Smith Company communicated a game plan to make sure that we did not go out without fuel. We can't do what we do without fuel.
GRAY SMITH, FLEET MANAGER,
FRED SMITH COMPANY, NC, USA
Source energy
and fuel
BUDGET FORECAST CONFIDENCE
Minimize price
and operational
risk
World Kinect hedged the customer’s contracted fuel to help stabilize projected costs, allowing Fred Smith to “have confidence in knowing that the locked contracts are going to remain despite any kind of market fluctuation”.
Plus, being a physical provider of fuel storage, World Kinect was able to procure portable trans cube tanks to offsite locations to help Fred Smith remain fueled even on remote one-off job sites.