Does your maintenance plan include a program – or, at least a checklist – for taking inventory and care of your lubricants? If not, you’re (at best) missing an opportunity to improve your fleet maintenance program, and possibly (at worst) creating problems caused by the issues that come from improper and careless use.

So, what do you need to know about lubricant handling and storage? Today, we’ll share some tips to help you get your lubricant systems ‘in check.’ The goal is to improve your system to avoid needless issues ‘down the road’ from improper practices.

Here is a list of five best practices as you work with the oils, lubricants, and grease you use to maintain your fleet.

1. Documentation. Use a labeling system. Track your inventory. Track use of containers, so you don’t accidentally mix your oils and lubricants. Keep track of product types, dates, use, and testing results when you check for contamination and do routine inspections. Track the periodic filtration and agitation that you must do to prevent settling. If you don’t have a good plan in place to organize and document your products and use, put one in place ASAP.
2. Storage. Make sure your room or facility is clean, dry, and organized. Beyond keeping a clean facility space, you need to determine your usage and replacement rate. If your supplier has a longer interval between deliveries, you’ll need to have a more comprehensive system for longer storage. Alternately, if your supplier can make more frequent deliveries, you can store less product. Knowing your consumption rate and factoring in storage capacity will help you to know whether you need tanks, drums, or other storage containers. (For guidance and information, we can help. At Greg’s Petroleum Service, we provide both products and expertise to help our fleet fueling customers.)
3. Dispensing. You must consider the method of transport and filling for the oils and lubricants in your inventory. Use of non-sealable containers that you ‘top-up’ is likely to lead to contamination. Better yet, use washable and reusable containers that you can clean and maintain. In addition, you want to be sure to filter any oil dispensed from a bulk storage system into the containers for transport.
4. Quality Control. Are you keeping track of the age of your lubricants? Yes, your oils, grease, and lubricants have a shelf life. When you use a product past the OEM shelf life date, you’re using a product that isn’t likely to perform. For that reason, be sure you’re keeping track of your inventory. Use the products you bought first, before using more newly purchased inventory. Make it part of the process to pay attention and be sure that new product isn’t getting used before the older items on the shelf.
5. Avoid Contamination. Are you keeping your containers tightly covered? Are you keeping things labeled to avoid accidentally mixing product? Are you using the proper handling tools? Is your storage space free of debris, is it cool, and dry? Oil, grease, and lubricant contamination is a leading cause of preventable damage to your machinery. Taking care to avoid contamination is an investment in your product and machinery.

Finally, also know that this isn’t a comprehensive list. There is more to know and do to protect and maintain the life of your oils, lubricants and grease so that you get the best performance possible out of your machinery.

If you have any questions, or need additional guidance or expertise, we encourage you to reach out to the team at Greg’s Petroleum Service.

About Us:
If you need additional information, please know that the team at Greg's Petro is here to help. As your local lubricants supplier and commercial fuel delivery service provider in Bakersfield, Fresno, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clarita or Ventura, California areas, we are available to help answer any questions you might have. Visit us online or give us a call to learn more.

Stuff the Bus School Supply Drive will be held at our County Line Chevron® ExtraMile® station starting Monday, July 8th and ending on Friday, August 9th.

Members from the Delano community are encouraged to come out and donate school supplies to benefit Morning Side, Princeton and Terrace Elementary Schools.

You can drop off supplies at our station located at 2322 Girard Street, Delano, CA. Our location is open 24 hours so please drop items at your convenience. Our team will place them on the bus.

Donations needed include:

- Backpacks
- Pencils
- Notebooks
- Composition Books
- Colored pencils
- Glue Sticks
- Crayons
- Markers
- Rulers
- Folders
- Scissors
- Pencil Boxes
- Paper

All school supplies will be donated to the more than 1,500 children in need at these Delano Union School District elementary schools. We believe school supplies help lead to success! Please join us in donating supplies to local kids in need!

To learn more, contact Elena Rhodes at elenachevron@gmail.com.

About Us:

If you own or are thinking of opening a Chevron® gas station franchise, we’ve got the knowledge and expertise to help make your business a success. Visit us online or give us a call to learn more.

How much do you know about oil varnish? If your answer is “not much,” then now is the time to learn more so that you can prevent a leading cause of damage and wear to the hydraulic and lubricating systems of your equipment.

So, what is oil varnish? Simply put, oil varnish is the sticky coating of byproducts that form when oil begins to deteriorate due to friction and high heat. As oils and lubricants deteriorate, the process of oxidation creates the chemical byproducts from the breakdown of the oil plus contaminants. Once the sticky coating forms, it lodges on equipment and forms an abrasive surface on components.

This abrasive, sticky coating is often found on valves, filters, piping, and metal strainers – which can lead to reduced efficiency and failure of the very systems that are supposed to protect the lifespan of equipment.

How? Oil varnish can reduce filter efficiency, and/or lead to filter plugging, depending on how advanced the problem has become. Moreover, the problem is progressive. Once oil varnish has started to form, the sticky coating attracts dirt and other abrasive contaminants, trapping them in the system, clogging the lines, and creating problems in systems designed to clear the interior of the equipment.

If left unchecked, oil varnish can also coat heat exchanges and cause thermal inefficiencies. Hydraulic control systems and valves are extra vulnerable because the sticky coating can cause them to ‘gum up’ and seize/stop.

So, how do you know if your system is susceptible? Here’s the short list of risk factors for the high probability your equipment will experience oil varnish, without maintenance and support.

- Use of equipment with turbines, gas compressors, and hydraulic systems
- High operating temperatures
- Use of blended oils
- Any time your equipment sends a high flow rate of oil through a small oil reservoir

But, perhaps even worse than not knowing, we often find that some maintenance staff do know about varnish buildup, but don’t consider it a pressing enough problem or a high priority issue. That approach doesn’t take into consideration the long-term damage done to equipment due to neglect.

Due to the high risk, we recommend that you check for oil varnish as part of your routine maintenance schedule. It’s important to prevent the issue, because once oil varnish forms it accelerates exponentially.

Prevention is the best solution
Finally, we recommend that you prevent oil varnish from building up in the first place. How? We’ll answer that question in future blogs here on our website.

In the meantime, we invite you to give us a call if you have any questions about varnish or any other maintenance topic for your fleet, equipment, or machinery. We offer commercial fuel delivery services, fleet fueling solutions and lubricants in Bakersfield, Fresno, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clarita and Ventura, California. We look forward to working with you to maintain your business and your valuable investments!

Did you know that CFN provides the best fraud protection in the industry? That’s right – not only is CFN the first card purveyor in the industry to establish fraud protection for fleets but they are always looking for additional ways to prevent fraudulent activity from happening to you! That’s why CFN has added a requirement for fraud protection.

CFN is now automatically adding state restrictions to all cards. All accounts created prior to 03/15/2019 will be restricted to the state(s) that they “normally” fuel in. Meaning, if you used your cards in CA, UT, and WY during the analysis period (1/14/2019 through 03/15/2019), your account will automatically be locked out of all other states but will remain open to CA, UT, and WY only.

What this means for our current customers: Going forward, if you are going to fuel out of state, you will need to make us aware prior to leaving so we can activate that state. If you are going to stop using cards in a state indefinitely, you will need to inform us so that we can set the appropriate restrictions and set up a State Lockout. Once the State Lockout is added, the cards will not be able to be authorized in that particular state. If you are an older account and you have started using your fuel cards in a new state in the last three months, you will probably become restricted to that state since use would not have occurred during the analysis period. Accounts that were opened after 3/15/19 will be reviewed by our team to make sure your restrictions are placed appropriately.

For new customers: During the card ordering process we will need to find out which states you expect to use your fuel cards in so we can “unlock” those states only.

If you are an account that has no state restrictions set, you may be automatically disqualified for any fraud protection even if the fraud takes place in a regularly used state.

With this new requirement for fraud protection, it is important that you check your card’s restrictions to ensure there is no disruption to your service.

If you have any questions regarding this added protection, please feel free to contact Aryana Trams at aryana@gregspetro.com or Tristan Regan at tristan@gregspetro.com.

About Us:

With 24-hour cardlock sites throughout the country, our fleet fueling service is both convenient and efficient. Contact us today to learn more!

Right now, National Oil and Lube News (NOLN) is asking automotive installed professionals to take their online Fast Lube Operator Survey. The results will be published in the September issue of NOLN’s magazine.

We encourage all of our Havoline® and Valvoline™ operators to participate in the survey and to take the time to provide complete, accurate responses.

The data is a strong indicator for what’s happening within the industry and is used in benchmarking operator results.

Benefits of the survey include:

- Enables fast lube owners to benchmark their performance to U.S. industry averages
- A great tool to use with installed fast lube prospects
- Ranking in the survey helps create a sense of pride for our products and brands

For surveys like this to continue to be a powerful tool in providing industry standards for measurement, a high level of Fast Lube Operator participation is key, preferably using their POS data. More branded participants will help improve data quality.

We thank you in advance for your participation in helping your industry! If you have any questions regarding the survey, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

About Us:
As your commercial fuel and lubricant supplier in Bakersfield, Fresno, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clarita or Ventura, California areas, we are available to help answer any questions you might have. We have the knowledge and expertise to help your quick lube franchise become a success. Visit us online or give us a call to learn more.