Fuel is the biggest operational expense (>50 per cent) in any transportation business. With ever-increasing fuel prices, effective management of this expense is crucial for the success of any business. Pilferage and less optimal driving patterns end up causing high margin loss to businesses. AssetTrackr’s fuel monitoring solution helps track fuel consumption, estimate mileage and automatically send alerts on fuel refills, pilferage detection, etc.
Very often fuel theft occurs at the pump when refuelling is done. Gas station attendants collude with drivers during refuelling. The business owner knows he cannot rely on the bills produced as they are manually generated and can be easily manipulated. Many business owners solve this problem by identifying and working with the designated fuelling stations only. However, this is not a fool-proof approach.
The AssetTrackr solution sends alerts when refuelling is detected or if there is a drop in the fuel level without vehicle movement. Alerts are also sent if the engine is turned on (with AC running) and the vehicle is stationary. This ensures that the owner/fleet manager is aware and keeps the driver honest.
AssetTrackr’s vehicle tracking-cum-fuel monitoring solution T-FMS uses advanced fuel sensors to provide accurate fuel readings. It checks the current fuel level from the web/smartphone with utmost accuracy, as well as the exact amount of fuel refilled along with the location and time. This helps the owner reconcile the fuel bills provided to him by the drivers. It also provides the mileage between successive refills which is useful to estimate the mileage, identify vehicle maintenance requirement and rate drivers.
The device checks refill locations on the map along with the quantity refilled, gets fuel consumption for a particular trip, and compare fuel consumption information for the same trip across drivers/vehicles.
With the AssetTrackr RFID solution, driver behavior and fuel-related issues can be tracked and analyzed.
Highly reliable
The fuel sensor is specially designed to ensure high reliability in fuel readings. Smart algorithms in the sensor ensure that the fuel reading is normalized against any variations due to vehicle movement, sudden jerks, uphill climb or downhill descent of the vehicle. This ensures accurate and reliable readings.
Vinayaka Handlers, Chennai, which has deployed the fuel tracking solution on all its long-haul trucks, finds it extremely useful to consolidate fuel consumption, track and locate vehicles, etc. “Having used other fuel sensing solutions with limited success, we found the AssetTrackr fuel management solution works extremely well and is reliable. Their reports, graphs and analytics help us profile driver behavior, identify vehicle performance issues and address fuel pilferage issues easily”, says Mr. Ramesh, Managing Director, Vinayaka Handlers.
AssetTrackr further helps businesses analyze driving patterns and associate accountability to drivers. Combined with driver identification using RFID, driving patterns like harsh breaking, acceleration, coasting, over speeding, fuel consumption and derivative mileage can be easily assessed. Using the data collected during the trip and across trips, valuable insights can be had on the actual and expected mileage for sections of the trip.
Businesses can enforce best practices by monitoring how drivers are following safety practices by not over speeding or taking breaks at regular intervals.