As cross-border transport continues to connect businesses and markets across Africa, efficient fuel management has become increasingly important to keeping trucks, businesses, and supply chains moving.
David Mabusela, Business Development Manager at My Fuel Orders (MFO), has seen firsthand some challenges transport operators face when buying and managing fuel across borders.
MFO, a division of the Acronym Group, draws on over 20 years of industry experience. The business has facilitated over 250 million litres of fuel through a network of over 200 depots across eight countries, with the network continuing to grow.
Speaking to Safe Travel Magazine, Mabusela explained that the idea behind MFO stemmed from a problem its founders experienced as truck operators: moving between African countries often meant dealing with different currencies, fuel suppliers, and fuel networks.
For a logistics manager sitting in South Africa, managing a truck travelling through countries they may never have visited can make something as basic as finding and paying for fuel surprisingly complicated.
Mabusela states that they created the platform for cross-border transportation. The founders recognised the need for a single system that could make fuel procurement easier across borders.
They developed MFO to simplify that process. Customers can order and manage fuel through the MFO app or web platform, while the company manages much of the work behind the scenes.
Once signed up, customers can place orders, assign fuel orders to drivers, manage fuel spend, and access transaction information, invoices, statements, and reports. MFO also assists with identifying fuel sites and managing payments and currency exchanges.
The company works with fuel sites to ensure that the fuel supplied meets quality requirements and that locations are accessible to trucks travelling along major routes.
For transport operators, this means they can focus on moving the truck and completing the delivery rather than worrying about where to find fuel or how to pay for it in another country.
Mabusela says MFO manages payments across different countries, including the complexities of currency exchange. The app and web platform also provide businesses with fuel data to help them understand their
consumption patterns. According to Mabusela, this information can identify areas where customers may reduce costs or change the way they manage their fuel.
Fuel is one of the biggest expenses for transport operators. Mabusela estimates it can account for around 75% of a trucking company’s running costs.
But businesses should not only consider the amount of fuel being purchased. How the truck gets from one point to another is just as important. Route management can determine how much fuel a vehicle consumes and how long it takes to complete a journey. Mabusela says having the right data on routes, fuel availability and border conditions allows operators to plan journeys more precisely and reduce unnecessary costs.
For a truck travelling from Durban towards the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, route planning can involve deciding which corridors will provide better mileage, where fuel will be available, and how long the truck could spend at border crossings. Border delays are another concern. A truck that waits days to cross a border not only experiences delays in delivering its cargo but also continues to incur operating costs. For Mabusela, fuel and route management therefore sit at the centre of controlling costs in the logistics industry.
The effects extend beyond fleet owners and logistics managers. Poor fuel management can contribute to theft, wastage, vehicle damage, and downtime, all of which can disrupt the supply chain. Fuel quality is another concern. Poor-quality diesel can cause serious damage to trucks, generators, and other expensive equipment.
Fuel-related damage can take a truck off the road, delaying the movement of goods and adding operating costs that filter through the supply chain. For consumers, the impact is less visible. The cost of running the vehicles that transport food,
household goods, and other products influences what it costs to move those goods. When inefficiencies increase those costs, businesses ultimately have to absorb them or pass some of them on. While digital fuel management may sound like something designed for large logistics companies, Mabusela says smaller operators can also benefit.
MFO works with businesses ranging from single-vehicle operators to larger fleets.
As African countries work to improve cross-border trade and transport corridors, how businesses manage fuel could play an increasingly important role in controlling costs, reducing disruption, and keeping goods moving.
