Community Lincs launched its Bulk Oil Buying Scheme for domestic heating oil in January this year. The scheme aims to save members money by bringing communities together to make the most of their joint buying power so reducing the price of oil and passing the benefit on to the scheme’s members. The scheme is open to households, businesses and community organisations that use oil to heat their premises.
The scheme is already helping Lincolnshire people cut the cost of their domestic heating bills. Having just negotiated the third months oil purchase members have saved an average of just over 5.75p per litre. This gives an average saving of £28.90 on 500 litres and £57.80 on a 1000 litres. Members pay the same low price whether buying a 1000 litres or just ordering the minimum 500 litres.
Only four months since its launch and the scheme has already signed up Co-ordinators in 16 communities. The scheme has generated a lot of interest with nearly 2000 web- page views. One of the commonly asked questions is ‘How much will my oil cost?’ and as our new members will tell you the price varies from day to day but with the benefit of collective bulk ordering our buyer follows the market and negotiates the keenest prices.
New Co-ordinator for Tealby and Market Rasen Lynda Bowen says ‘the scheme helps sustain our village by reducing the impact of fuel prices, something that affects us greatly in our rural area. It also helps reduce the impact on the environment by rationalising oil deliveries. It is therefore not surprising that our members are appreciative of the scheme and the benefits it provides!’’
The scheme now incorporates a new joint initiative with Lincup – Lincolnshire Credit Union aiming to encourage regular saving and boost spending power when prices are at their lowest. Lincup has developed an Oil Savers Scheme which encourages people to make regular saving toward their oil purchase so that the money is there when they need to make a purchase. Additionally regular savers will have access to guaranteed loans so they can make their purchases when heating oil prices are at their lowest and then spread their repayments over the year. More information on this initiative is available through either Community Lincs or Lincup.
There are two ways you can become involved in the Oil Buying scheme. One is by signing up as a member and gaining the best possible price for your heating oil. For this benefit you will need to complete the registration form below and pay a small annual membership fee (Individual households £20, Community buildings £30 and Businesses £100 – see attached leaflet). New members are eligible to place an order in the same month they join the scheme, as long as they submit their application form and pay their membership fee two weeks before the ordering deadline. Although the minimum quantity that can be ordered is 500 litres we charge the same as we would for any other quantity – an obvious benefit of bulk buying.
The second way to be involved is to consider becoming a local co-ordinator for the scheme. This will give you free membership in return for co-ordinating the monthly orders for your community. Your job will be to tell us each month how much oil the people in your village want to order, and then to tell those people when the oil will arrive and how much it will cost. We’ve made it as simple as possible because we know people are busy. Local co-ordinators won’t have to do the negotiating with the oil suppliers and won’t have to deal with any money, so we don’t expect this to take much time. In fact we are so convinced about this that Fiona White our Chief Executive has offered to be the co-ordinator for her village. (see attached leaflet)
Bulk Oil Ordering Dates
Final deadline for Community Lincs to receive all orders for inclusion in the next Bulk Oil Order is 12 Noon on Wednesday 13th June 2012 and the July order deadline is 12 Noon on Wednesday 18th July 2012.
Full details of how the scheme works are set out in two leaflets – one for local community co-ordinators, and one for members of the scheme – which can be downloaded below. You can also download an application form to return to us if you are interested in joining the scheme and a summary document.
The scheme will also help to reduce the carbon footprint of the actual delivery system. Every time a tanker comes out to make a delivery, it’s using a lot of fuel – a full tanker may only get about 8 miles per gallon! So if deliveries are organised so that one tanker can reach as many customers in as small an area as possible, the fuel consumption is reduced.
PDF
