How this major freight company keeps costs down on the road with BP Plus

Keeping the wheels turning as costs continue to rise is no easy feat, but freight operator Jolly & Sons has found a shortcut. 

Sponsored by: BP Plus

The cost of doing business is on the rise, particularly for major players like national freight operator Jolly & Sons.

The family-owned and operated business boasts more than 30 trucks in its fleet that criss-cross the nation every day, providing dependable freight channels for its clients.

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Jolly & Sons is now a nationally recognised transport and logistics firm operated by the third generation of the same West Australian family. Kenworth and Mack trucks form the bulk of the prime mover fleet, while Isuzu and US trucks round out the transport solutions on offer. 

Managing director Steele Jolly explains that Jolly & Sons transports a wide range of general freight – from parcels to full semi-loads that include oil and gas, industrial freight and vehicles and boats loaded from all capital cities into Darwin, Perth and North-West Australia. 

It’s a huge undertaking. Steele spends his days crunching the numbers, dealing with clients and ensuring that safety certifications are met. 

But as the cost of doing business continues to rise, he admits there’s a growing emphasis on the importance of corporate partnerships that help a business save on everyday operational costs and business expenses. For more than two decades, a critical piece of the puzzle for Jolly & Sons has been the BP Plus fuel card to ensure tanks remain full. 

Steele says: “In all businesses, there’s a percentage of cost that you can pass on, and there’s a percentage that you can't, and obviously we work hard to minimise what you can’t pass on.”

Aside from discounted fuel, the BP Plus membership also gives the company convenient access to truck washing facilities, with a network of more than 1400 sites across Australia. Key for operations is the ability to utilise the bp card to manage cash flow by taking advantage of extended credit terms to help mitigate the financial ebbs and flows of running a business. 

“The process of signing up for a BP Plus card is a similar process to signing up to any major finance vendor, except that the BP Plus card gives us access to discounted fuel,” Steele says. 

The company needs it too. The fleet of trucks travel around three million kilometres a year, stopping at a bp station every single day to fill up. “bp runs a great regional network to ensure that we have fuel available whenever we need it, and also offer competitive pricing. It’s all we can ask for from a fuel supplier.” 

The BP Plus card also includes the option to earn Qantas points on fuel and shop transactions, meaning every time one of the company’s 55 employees swipes to pay for fuel, points are racked up. 

“For the most part, the long-haul trucking industry has come a way, because we can pass on the fluctuations in fuel pricing to our clients. The industry has been able to set that expectation in the market.”

But no matter how you look at it, saving where you can, particularly on our biggest everyday expenses, makes good business sense, Steele says.