5 Ways To Combat Fleet Fuel Theft

You might have not discussed fuel consumption with your driver, because you trust them, but are you aware of the loss associated with it?

Loss increases when your fleet experiences a high fuel consumption and you don't know about it. It might be possible due to the number of different reasons: vehicles need maintenance, drivers performing harsh driving, unnecessary idling vehicle, or drivers could be stealing fuel. If this fuel consumption issue does not improve even after vehicle timely maintenance, this could be a sign of fuel theft either by your drivers or by someone else while on parking.

Fuel theft is a critical problem in the logistics sector which almost costs a minimum of 7 percent of fuel budget and the inability to prevent this could lead to significant financial loss to your business. Here, we are highlighting some methods to reduce fuel theft with the help of technology.

1. Educate your drivers

The business should have a clear guidelines regarding the fueling and fuel purchasing and every driver should know about these guidelines. The driver should be aware that failing to follow these guidelines and misusing the fuel, will cause serious consequences to them. Explain to them that the company has already implemented a fuel monitored system which monitors fuel continuously. Also educate them about basic vehicle security, such as parking the vehicle securely at night and making sure fuel tanks are locked.

2. Keep your fleet yard secure

Fuel theft isn’t always because of your drivers, some time outside thieves may break into your yard to siphon fuel from your vehicles. You need to keep your yard secured with CCTV cameras around every corner to keep an eye on every entry and exit point of your yard.

3. Invest in fuel management software

If you own a fleet business, it is very difficult to record fuel consumption and fuel-related expenses manually and you will always find some inefficiencies in the data. Also, you would not be able to track the mileage of all vehicles in real-time. Without a proper fuel management system in place, there’s a good chance your fuel inventory is at great risk. Therefore it is highly recommended to invest in fleet management software which provides real-time visibility of fuel consumption of your fleet. With the software, you have the complete fuel usage report of all the fleet in real-time and you will be alerted every time whenever your fuel level reduces sharply.

4. Keep track on odometer tampering

Odometer tampering ('Firki') is the common practice of fuel theft in the transportation industry. It is done by drivers to save money on fuel consumption by showing less mileage and it is very important for fleet owners to tackle such types of fraud. Tampering not only cost you more in fuel but also damages your vehicle's speedometer. But with fleetx, you don't have to worry about such frauds anymore because we have our unique way to filter out such cases and will alert you whenever any tampering happens with vehicle odometer.

5. Install fuel level sensor

The sensor keeps you informed of the real-time fuel level inside the tank with great accuracy. It gives you the current fuel volume and change in volume (refueling or draining) of fuel in the tank. This way, you have always keep an eye on your fuel inventory and you would get alert whenever your fuel sharply declines which might be because of fuel theft.

These all are the necessary and precautionary steps to keep track of your fuel inventory and save that 7 % from your fuel budget.