Understanding Automotive Problems

Fuel fraud is a potentially serious problem for anyone running a fleet of vehicles.  This is especially a problem since the cost of fuel is going to be one of the biggest expenses for any fleet company. It's not uncommon for con artists to try to rob fuel from you either directly or through a scam with one of your employees. Fortunately, there are some features you can get installed on your vehicles to prevent this from happening.

Real-Time Monitoring

Some systems install into your trucks' fuel tanks and allow you to monitor your fuel in real time. Such systems can be calibrated to tell you exactly how much the fuel costs and exactly how much is actually making its way into the tank.

This type of monitoring technology is important because it's common for fraudsters to make use of fuel cards given to employees to charge fuel to a card that is then not transferred fully into a vehicle. The card is instead used to fill up the vehicle, and then the extra fuel is secretly transported and sold elsewhere.

Real-time monitoring helps to prevent this from occurring.

GPS Fuel Logging

Another feature of monitoring services that can help prevent fraud includes when a GPS device is used in conjunction with sensors in the fuel tank. This tech can be used to have a complete record of when fuel was added into or removed from a tank. The log can also contain information about exactly where the truck took on fuel or lost fuel. This will make it considerably easier to detect potential fraudulent activity quickly.

In fact, some of these systems can actually be set to send you a text message on your phone or else notify you on your computer when each event occurs. So if you get a text message that says that a truck is losing fuel or gaining fuel in an area and at a time that doesn't make sense based on your operation, you can respond to it immediately.

In general, a fuel log as well as real-time monitoring and notification features will make fuel fraud against you difficult. This is because even if you miss something as it occurs, you can go back through the log to notice anomalies, and then ask employees responsible for the truck at the time the anomaly occurred.

Fuel fraud relies on a lack of organization and awareness about your fleet's fuel practices. Modern monitoring tech ensures that you always know when your fuel is coming or going so fraud can't happen.