The price of fuel has bounced around quite a bit in recent months, with some impressively low prices to be found in some places. Of course this has made people consider whether or not it might be a good idea to buy as much of this cheap fuel as possible to get the most out of their money. In theory this certainly would work, but storing fuel is not necessarily as easy as you might think it is, and a little bit of thought does need to go into it. Let’s take a look at both the safety considerations, and also the associated rules and regulations with storing fuel.
Of course, safety comes first. Fuel can be extremely dangerous indeed, and improperly stored or handled, it can cause severe fires that can damage property and harm people. For this reason, if you do intent to store fuel of any volume at your business premises, you must be committed to the safety of yourself, your property, and most importantly, the people around you, whether they’re customers, employees, or members of the general public. Never cut corners when it comes to storing flammable liquids – buy the proper equipment, and follow the rules exactly. You can get such containers and equipment from Commercial Fuel Solutions.
So what exactly are the rules and regulations?
Most rules pertain to the vessels you actually use to store the fuel in, and the chances are, if you’ve never stored much fuel before, you’ll need to buy some of these. The following guidelines are for the United Kingdom, but the chances are that the rules will be very similar wherever you are.
If you’ve only got a small business, and want to store just a little bit – perhaps just a few tank’s worth of fuel for your company car, then you shouldn’t have too much difficulty. Up to a maximum of 275 litres, you simply need to notify the relevant authorities that you intend to store the fuel, and make sure you’re doing it in the appropriate container(s). Those appropriate containers are usually in the form of robust demountable fuel tanks. If you’re wanting to store more – perhaps you have a fleet or many generators to run, then it’s likely that you will need a proper licence to store the fuel, which means demonstrating that you know exactly how to handle fuel safely.