Looking for the right angle to help kick-start a telematics conversation with customers?
For one fruit transporter based in Poland the hot topic was fuel theft. Knowing this a local dealership, Thermo Systems, talked TracKing™ – and has now equipped 70 new trailers with the technology.
The key takeaway: exploring the fuel management benefits of telematics can open up new opportunities for your business.
Fuel: a tempting target
Fuel theft is of course a problem that can exist inside any supply chain. That’s because it’s a commodity easily exchanged for cash, which in turn makes it a tempting target. What’s more it can be easy to do, with methods that include:
- Declaring incorrect consumption – where fuel is filled into other vehicles, an action made easy when manual logbooks are used to keep track of purchases
- Fuel removed off site – from old-fashioned syphoning to fuel being pumped out of the tank, which in turn creates the potential for damaging fuel feeding systems
- Odometer tampering – where external devices such as an impulse generator are used to add more kilometers than actually travelled (to support additional fuel purchases)
- Fuel tanks not completely filled – with part of the purchase pumped into a waiting container, a movement involving small but frequent amounts
The manual challenge
As the customer was finding out, managing fuel consumption manually is also a difficult task. That’s because there are many factors that impact usage, from the type of vehicle driven, to the characteristics of the load, the amount of traffic and even the wind direction.
Further complexities include driver style, short and split fillings, inaccurate odometer readings, and incorrectly recorded fuel stops.
A focused solution
The headline for the TracKing™ solution is that it uses a GPRS/GPS system to provide transporters with full visibility of their assets – from the desktop.
What Thermo Systems were able to do however was focus in on the fuel management benefits:
- Optimize fuel consumption by unit using remote OptiSet + setup
- Monitor sudden drops in fuel levels
- Detect abnormal fuel movement
- Review fuel usage based on regular readings
- Receive real-time event notification alerts relating to fleet fuel levels
Practical benefits
For the Polish fruit transporter, this meant 70 new trailers being fitted with TracKing™ to assist with monitoring unit behavior and driver utilization. In addition, Thermo Systems are also providing continuous support in setting up reminder alerts – tied to agreed fuel usage thresholds.
This activity has led to three principal benefits:
- Fuel theft has been noticeably reduced in day-to-day operations
- The company has achieved increase fleet efficiency and real cost savings
- They can now remotely identify drivers changing RPM settings
Turn fuel efficiency into extra business
As Thermo Systems have shown, the fuel theft story can certainly open the door to new customers. The opportunity for you is to take the same TracKing™ message to market, and to give customers the reassurance of knowing that they’ve got fuel ‘security’ covered.
