Case Study: Fuel Management

Manually based systems were failing to capture all the volume of fuel being dispensed from the customer’s home base tank, as volumes per month were increasing this became a concern.

Administrators were spending hours chasing down erroneous entries and recording, as well as being unable to establish any use analysis.

To compound the challenge, more than one branch uses this tank creating a requirement for inter branch reconciliation to ensure that the correct branch (and thus the correct plant / job / user) is being captured.

Using the FlowInfo cloud based software combined with world leading data capture technology means that every litre of fuel used by the site is recorded and captured, even via fuel card.

The site uses a combination of heavy trucks and local plant as well as different divisions through the tank, with average monthly volume around 35,000 litres prior to engagement, calculated on the bulk delivery records not the dispensing records.

The location’s 15,000L bulk storage tank had single manual (Type42) meter relying on manual transaction capture (pen/paper) and without any secure functions to prevent fraud, other than the pump was padlocked each night.

Weekly tank dip provided information (approximate) on volume of fuel in tank, and this highlighted the inability of the users to accurately record data as discrepancy between dip and dispensed was significant.

Several benefits have been put in place by the Customer as part of the on-going use of FlowInfo technology:

• The reduction in Admin time for the operators has improved productivity on operations and reduced overtime by staff
• Has saved hours of paper based data recording reducing cumbersome and unwieldy reporting processes in the business.
• A joint working group of Operators and Managers has seen more effective planning of fuel in mobile tanks and Operators more comfortable managing the operational fuel requirement.
• This has resulted in;
  • Operational productivity is up by 5.5%
  • Operational cost is down by 11.2%
• Accurate recording of fuel used per operation has resulted in re-pricing of operations to the customer with the benefit of increased sales of operations.
• An additional benefit to the introduction of FlowInfo technology is reduced mileage, and therefore fuel use, for the vehicle the tanks are situated on. This has also been introduced into the sales calculation assisting the customer in increasing their competitiveness in a very competitive market.

By reducing overall fuel use – despite increased operations – and managing fuel stock more closely the customer has seen a fuel based financial benefit saving in excess of $ 500,000 per annum

Operational costs have been reduced by less overtime and more planning resulting in competitive pricing, leading to increased sales and revenues.

Operators are now more comfortable in managing their fuel use both in their mobile tanks and for their trucks. The SmartMeter™ technology removes the area of human error around recording of data – or even forgetting to record transactions. Operators find using the APP technology quick and effortless.

The Smart Technology captures all transactions individually during the operational window, at the end of the day the operator simply checks the APP for transactions captured and clicks end.

Data is uploaded automatically when the device reconnects with the 3/4G network.

FlowInfo Smart technology also captures, in this instance, out of hours transactions reducing the potential for fraudulent transactions from the mobile tank.