The Farm Fuelling Challenge
Modern farm operations run significant diesel plant: tractors, combines, telehandlers, JCBs, irrigation pumps, grain dryers, generators. Each needs fuelling regularly — sometimes daily during peak seasons. Getting diesel to these machines across a large farm estate, on often-poor ground and in changing locations, is a genuine logistical challenge that most farm operations still solve the same way: a bulk tank at the farm yard and a journey with a bowser lorry or jerry cans.
Neither approach is ideal. Bowser lorry visits are infrequent and expensive. Jerry cans are a manual handling risk, a spill risk, and COSHH-regulated. And neither method easily gets fuel to machines in the field on soft or waterlogged ground.
Fuel Storage on Farm: Legal Requirements
The storage of diesel on a farm is regulated primarily by Environment Agency PPG26 guidelines and, for volumes above certain thresholds, specific oil storage regulations. Key requirements include:
- Tanks above 200 litres must be bunded (secondary containment of 110% capacity)
- Bunds must be impermeable with no drainage
- Storage locations must prevent spill run-off to drains, watercourses or ground
- Fill points must be secure and supervised during filling
Agricultural operations in nitrate vulnerable zones (NVZs) or near protected watercourses have additional obligations. The Environment Agency actively enforces these requirements, and fuel storage violations can result in significant remediation costs where contamination occurs.
The Labour Cost of Traditional Fuelling
The real cost of getting diesel to farm plant is rarely calculated precisely — it's treated as an overhead. But for a farm running 5–10 pieces of powered plant, the time spent fuelling (locating machines, driving to the bulk tank, filling containers or connecting a bowser, driving back to the machine, dispensing) adds up to significant hours per week across the year.
At an agricultural labour rate of £15–£24 per hour, even a conservative estimate of 2 hours per day of fuelling-related activity costs £3,750–£6,000 per year in labour alone.
The MW Equipment FuelBag is a 2,000L bunded diesel bowser designed to be repositioned by tractor loader, telehandler or farm JCB — no tow vehicle or bowser lorry required. Fuel goes where the plant is, not the other way round. Learn more about the FuelBag →
Positioning Fuel Where It's Needed
The key operational advantage of an excavator-compatible bowser like the FuelBag is that it can be repositioned anywhere on the farm that the loader or telehandler can access — including soft ground, field headlands and remote locations where a tow vehicle would get stuck. The 60mm lifting pin engages directly with the tractor loader or telehandler forks, requiring no chains and no second person.
During harvest, for example, the FuelBag can be positioned at the field being harvested, refuelling the combine directly without the combine leaving the field. During cultivating, it follows the tractor fleet. The machine goes to the fuel, rather than the fuel going to the machine.
Safety and Environmental Benefits
The FuelBag's integral bund contains any fuel spilled during filling or dispensing — directly reducing the environmental risk from agricultural fuelling. The 8-metre hose reel allows filling without the bowser being positioned immediately adjacent to the machine, reducing manual handling and splash risk. No jerry cans means no repeated lifting of heavy containers in the conditions (mud, uneven ground, darkness) typical of peak agricultural seasons.