Why Every Trucking Company In California Should Fuel At CFN Stations

It is surprising how many fleet owners and managers have not heard of the CFN network in California. After all, there are more CFN stations in California than there are truck stops. But you may be wondering why trucks purchase fuel at these locations?

Let’s take a look and see why every trucking company in California should consider fueling at CFN locations.

Pricing is number one on the list because it’s on the top of every fleet manager’s mind, especially during the last 12 months as diesel prices have climbed to nearly $5 per gallon in California.

When you fuel at a CFN station with a CFN card you will get wholesale based pricing. The CFN network which is comprised of 1200 CFN stations in California uses the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS) as a base for pricing.

Here are the two benefits of wholesale based OPIS pricing:

Consistent Network Pricing – Drivers will get consistent pricing that will only change by pennies from CFN station to CFN station. Regular gas stations and truck stops can differ by 30¢ per gallon in the same city. You don’t have to worry about drivers using expensive locations.

Wholesale Market Changes – At CFN stations prices rise and fall based on wholesale cost than retail posted price. Have you ever noticed that gas and diesel prices will jump quickly and fall slowly. That’s because as soon as the wholesale cost rises, gas stations raise the price so they don’t lose money, but as the wholesale price falls, gas stations will lower prices slower than than the wholesale market to make extra money in a down market. A down market is usually when we will see the most savings at CFN stations.

So what’s the expected savings when purchasing fuel at a CFN station in California? We typically see a savings of 10¢ to 35¢ per gallon on diesel compared to average retail gas stations prices depending on the market.

As an example, here’s how CFN diesel prices compared to retail prices in California for 2021.

To see current savings, check out CFN fuel price finder and compare it to the average retail price.

Most truck stops in California are located in rural areas, but a lot of trucking in California revolves around the Los Angeles and Oakland area ports which are located in urban areas. That is where CFN stations come in handy. CFN stations are built in both rural and urban areas to provide trucks fuel no matter where they travel in California.

In fact there are 245 CFN fuel stations in California compared to the 131 California truck stops. You’ll nearly double your network size if you start fueling at CFN stations.

You can find CFN fuel stations with the CFN Site Locator or use the maps below.

CFN stations provide the highest level of point of sale (POS) fleet card purchase controls compared to any other retail fuel network.

With retail fuel cards you can restrict dollar limits and purchase attempt limits, but you can’t restrict product types at retail locations due to the way they process their transactions.

At CFN locations the CFN card can restrict a card to only purchasing diesel, which prevents drivers from fueling their own personal vehicles with gasoline.

In addition CFN stations usually don’t have c-stores or retail traffic so your drivers can get in and out of the station quickly.