Community Oil Buying Scheme

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26th January 2012

Rural Action Derbyshire recently launched a new Oil Buying Syndicate, bulk-buying scheme for domestic heating oil. The scheme aims to bring communities together to make the most of joint buying power so that greater savings can be made and passed on to customers.

We are currently looking for local Co-ordinators to help run the scheme. We want the it to be rooted in communities – because that’s the way that Rural Action Derbyshire works – and are looking for local volunteers who will act as ‘go-betweens’ for us. Their job will be to tell us each month how much oil the people in their village want to order, and then telling 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. However, you do not need to have or be a local coordinator to join the scheme - just complete an application form and return it to us.

We believe that finding a way to keep fuel costs as low as possible is particularly important in rural areas, where many households don’t have mains gas. Research commissioned by our national RCC network has shown that in Derbyshire, more than half the people who live in fuel poverty (ie with fuel costs that are more than 10% of their income) live in rural areas. This is out of proportion to the number of people who actually live in rural areas (37.7%). We don’t think that’s right. For a limited time only, we have secured funding to offer free membership to those people at risk of fuel poverty. Have a look at the eligibility form below to see if you qualify.

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.

Full details of how the scheme works are set out in two leaflets – one for local community co-ordinators, and one for individual 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.

The scheme has been running for three months and we have now more than 50 members and have placed two orders. On November 26th 2011, we bought oil at 55.5ppl and on the 6th January this year, we bought at 54.9ppl. We easily saved new members the cost of their membership fee on their first order!