Fuel Management - Choosing the Right System

Wed, May 15, 2013

The fuel management market has two very distant ends of the spectrum. The top end is your extremely fancy, all-singing-all-dancing systems that the likes of Tesco and Eddie Stobart may have.

The type of fuel management system where the lorry might only have to drive towards it and it automatically scans the registration plate, knowing which vehicle is about to refuel, and then records every last bit of transaction data. The lower end of fuel management is simply an electronic lock, which stops unauthorised users from accessing the fuel pump; the type of system a man with one truck may install.

The Piusi fuel management systems are somewhere in the middle. We describe them as being designed for the small to medium haulier - the type of transport operator that wants to know who is taking what and when, but isn’t overly concerned with all the bells-and-whistles like wireless data transfer and registration scanning.

Fuel Management System in use

Choosing the right system for you depends on three main things: level of security required, time saving required and budget available.

  • Level of security – with finger print identification and vehicle registration scanning, there is no way anyone other than the authorised user and vehicle can use the fuel. However this is very costly. The budget version of an electronic lock may be economical but this only manages the people who can use the fuel, not how much they use (they could also be filling their own cars!). The middle option, which is where the Piusi fuel management systems come in, is an electronic key system that records who is using the fuel and how much they have use.
  • Time saving – wireless data transfer is automatic, giving the transport manager instant access to refuelling transaction data. An electronic lock would require refuelling data to be written down on a note pad (extremely time consuming, and not to mention open to mistakes and a bit of fibbing!). The Piusi systems offer a middle ground here. All data is automatically recorded, but to access it the transport manager would need to download it from the system.

When making the decision as to what level of fuel management system you require, weigh up the benefits of the level of security and/or time saving relative to your budget and the savings you envisage going forward.