How does a start-up that offers fuel delivery to businesses perceive the current situation with service stations devastated for several days? Ashley Poniatowski, president of Tankyou, was the guest of good morning business This Tuesday, October 11.
“Tankyou is the first mobile energy supply network, initially fossil fuels when we started 5 years ago, then gasoline and diesel, and now CNG, biogas and electricity”, summarizes the founder of the start-up (60 employees and 25 million billing euros).
A company that is not really affected by the fuel shortage that is currently affecting much of France:
“We have our own tanks and we have developed a network of alliances with our suppliers, but like all of them, it is a little more complicated than usual to find liquid.”
Priority to linked clients and essential sectors
“First we prioritize our loyal customers and essential sectors, waste collection with Veolia, RATP buses, ambulances… we stopped punctual customers, those who asked us to refuel once or twice a month,” says Ashley Poniatowski.
A popular service, particularly by large companies that have specific needs, without being able to have the in-house capabilities to fill the tanks:
“We have developed our own mobile units, which are vehicles of all sizes, utility vehicles, heavy trucks, large heavy trucks, and we come directly to our customers to refuel vehicle by vehicle on site. The advantage is that in this way large companies are avoided, the RATP for example, which does not have the capacity to have its gas station or its fuel tank, we come, we make a delivery within two hours, and we leave immediately, without leaving a trace”.
A complicated end of the year in perspective
No price increase is directly related to the difficulty of finding fuel at the moment, the manager underlines: the prices (fuel and commission paid to Tankyou) are fixed in a contract “which does not allow us to increase our margins as we wish”. But, “what we are currently seeing is significantly higher deposit prices than a few weeks ago.”
With OPEC’s recent decision to cut oil production and the oil price rising, Ashley Poniatowski is more concerned about the end of the year:
“I think there will be a somewhat complicated end of the year at least in December.”
A situation that is likely to worsen rather quickly in France: as prices rise, the government rebate will be reduced from 30 to 10 cents per liter on November 1, while TotalEnergies’s will be cut in half, from 20 to 10 cents. .
Source: BFM TV
