Customer Spotlight

Sapp Brothers Petroleum, Inc.
Ogallala, Nebraska

Sapp Brothers Petroleum, Inc. is a wholesale outlet that delivers petroleum to the 16 Sapp Brothers truck stops (both companies are owned by the Sapp Brothers parent company in Omaha, Nebraska) as well as a number of independent gas stations and truck stops in Colorado, Wyoming, and western Nebraska. Sapp Brothers Petroleum also has a large consumer client base of mostly farmers. The petroleum company averages two million gallons a month of diesel and gas. They also sell propane products. They have approximately 300 employees with 40 in the Ogallala division.

For some time, Sapp Brothers Petroleum had been using DTN DataConnect™ to gather supplier pricing and for market information delayed by 30 minutes. According to Bill Vasa, transportation manager, the delayed data did not meet their needs. “With the volatility of the markets right now, we have to have real-time data,” said Vasa.

In mid-2006, Sapp Brothers Petroleum started subscribing to DTN Fuel Buyer™ to get real-time rack, spot, and market information along with industry news and headlines. They use DTN Fuel Buyer to watch the market as it evolves throughout the day as well as how their rack prices are changing. When it’s time to begin pricing customers in the evening, they’re ahead of the game with their baseline for pricing.

Before DTN Fuel Buyer became available, the staff at Sapp Brothers Petroleum spent hours every day analyzing and preparing price data for their customers. “Before, it would take us almost three hours to prepare the information,” said Vasa. With DTN Fuel Buyer it takes me probably 30 minutes, so I’m saving about two and a half hours a day,” he said. “Plus, we’re able to get the information to our customers in a much more timely manner,” he explained. “I’m getting the information to them before they close. Previously, we were getting them the information after they closed and they wouldn’t see it until the next day.”

Using DTN Fuel Buyer has given Sapp Brothers Petroleum a competitive edge. “Basically, it has added quite a bit in terms of the prices we bid to our customers and to our bottom line,” said Vasa. “We’re able to bid knowing what’s happening to the market,” he said.

“We’re able to pick up a lot more bids than before,” said Vasa. “We have several companies that were actually bidding out their business, but since we started using DTN Fuel Buyer with its real-time data, we have been consistently coming in two to three cents under our competitors,” he said. “As a result, these companies have taken their pricing out of the bid process and we just deal directly with them.”

Overall, Vasa is very pleased with the access to real-time pricing information that DTN Fuel Buyer offers. “It really allows us to see what’s happening real-time to the market,” he said. “It allows us to say ‘I can lower the bid price two cents because I see that the price is going to be going down at 6 o’clock.’ I can pull the product after 6 p.m. and I make money and I save the customer money.”

Vasa finds the information DTN Fuel Buyer offers to be on target. “I find DTN Fuel Buyer to be very accurate,” he said. “I’ve never seen them say ‘Well, the prices should be going down’ and it goes totally the other way,” he said.

Vasa also finds the news and information that the service provides useful in partnering with customers. “We have a lot of customers who call now and say, ‘I see the market’s up, what’s going on?’ and I can go to the news and information on DTN Fuel Buyer and say ‘Here’s what we’re seeing,’” he said.

“That makes us appear more knowledgeable and helps them understand what can affect the market,” he explained. “A lot of times, if I see an interesting article, I may print it out and fax it to the customer to tell them ‘Here’s what’s happening,’” he said. “They love it. I think that’s where you build a relationship with the customer that you’re not just a supplier. You really create a partnership with the customer that says ‘Hey, we’re here to help you.’ I think you become an information source as well as a product source.  I live and die by DTN Fuel Buyer.”

<< Newsletter Front Page