Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Neighborhood Fuel
Neighborhood Fuel fills clients’ tanks at work
The Miami-based service delivering gas to work sites is expanding in Broward and to Palm Beach counties.
When Madeline Mallon needs gas for her car, she just taps the Neighborhood Fuel app on her mobile phone.
Mallon works for beverage distributor Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits, one of the companies using the Neighborhood Fuel gas delivery for its employees.
The Miami-based service delivers gas to work sites throughout Miami-Dade County and western Broward County. It is expanding in Broward and plans to add Palm Beach County in September, according to Jorge Camaraza, founder and CEO of Neighborhood Fuel.
Other companies using Neighborhood Fuel include Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., Carnival Cruise Line, Perry Ellis, University of Miami Health System, as well as Enterprise, Sixt and Alamo rental car operations.
Workers at these companies simply tap the app to order gas, pinpoint the car’s office parking location on a mobile map and then pop open the gas tank cover. Neighborhood Fuel’s driver pulls up in an Isuzu truck outfitted for fuel delivery, fills the gas tank, and sends a text message when the service is completed.
Employees pay for gas by the gallon — an average of the prices in the area; there is no service fee, Neighborhood Fuel says. The employer pays nothing.
Using the service is a “nobrainer” for Mallon, who is an executive assistant at Southern Glazer’s in Miramar. Gas delivery while she’s working is “so convenient,” Mallon said. “I hate getting gas. I’m usually bone-dry and my husband is yelling at me.”
Linda Connolly, office and facilities manager for Southern Glazer’s, said nearly 330 — more than a quarter of the employees at the Miramar office — have signed up for the service.
Adding Neighborhood Fuel to the employee benefits was a “natural fit” with the dry-cleaning pickup and car wash service the company offers, she said.
Camaraza was inspired to start Neighborhood Fuel about three years ago. He could get gasoline delivered to his backyard for his boat, but there was nothing available for his car.
“People don’t like to pump gas — let me fuel up their cars while they’re working,” Camaraza said.
He began testing the gas-delivery concept by visiting condos, neighborhoods and companies. He soon recognized that fuel delivery could be a good employee benefit for companies, especially in hurricane-prone South Florida, where gas can run out quickly in a storm.
Camaraza said that before and after a hurricane, Neighborhood
Fuel’s customers are first in line for its available gas. In a shortage, however, the company can’t guarantee full delivery and may have to ration.
Still, Neighborhood Fuel was able to accommodate its customers — including Alamo Rent A Car in Fort Lauderdale — in last year’s Hurricane Irma, when many residents were seeking gas to evacuate before the widespread storm, he said.
“All of our customers were taken care of — it was a management issue,” Camaraza said. “In a time of crisis or act of God, our chances are better that we’ll be able to supply fuel and help our customers.”
That’s because Neighborhood Fuel buys gas directly from refineries at Port Everglades, taking its profit on the difference between the cost at a gas station and what it pays the refinery. That’s a “razor-thin margin,” Camaraza said, but he sees the more than 6 million vehicles in South Florida as a “massive opportunity” to grow the business.
Neighborhood Fuel currently has 22 employees, but expects to be up to 60 by year’s end. The company is hiring truck drivers, brand ambassadors, technology professionals, engineers and operations professionals. Drivers must have a commercial driver’s license and Hazmat training to drive a fuel truck.
Camaraza, 42, initially self-funded the business, selling his house to support it. Before founding Neighborhood Fuel, he worked in marketing for Miami Beach entertainment company Estefan Enterprises and managed a turnaround of his family’s Hialeah garment business, he said.
Neighborhood Fuel has since attracted $2 million in venture funding from Uber-investor SoftBank Capital and Lerer Hippeau. As a private company, Neighborhood Fuel doesn’t disclose revenues, but Camaraza said the startup did “six times the amount in 2017 that we did in 2016. This year, we will do 10 times the amount.”
Neighborhood Fuel does have some competition in the state and beyond. Coral Gables-based GasNinjas provides both business and home delivery in Miami-Dade, while another company, Yoshi, is servicing Tampa and other cities and regions across the country.
But Camaraza said Neighborhood Fuel is focused on building strong relationships with customers in South Florida.
He said the biggest challenge has been “overcoming the novelty” of gas delivery.
“When anything is new, there are the progressives and people who don’t get it,” he said. “But every day that conversation is easier and easier.”
“People don’t like to pump gas — let me fuel up their cars while they’re working.” Jorge Camaraza, Neighborhood Fuel CEO