Wanted: Fuel Meters for Commercial Trucking

If your drivers are similar to the US versions, they are going to steal your fuel.

I would think that the cost of the meters will be prohibitive. You might try graded dipsticks stuck in the tanks every time the truck passes the gate. As you upgrade your fleet, remember this problem. There are systems that can be used to track locations of vehicles by GPS. They should have the ability to also send an additional data item along with the location. This would allow your company to monitor fuel losses better than a meter carried with the truck. As long as the driver does not know when the fuel gauge is being monitored, they will be more cautious about removing fuel. They will still steal, only less. Good luck.

hi Bob.

thanks for your reply, we are considering to use 2 detections options: METER on gate + online monitoring by GPS/GSM units. its a dubble check system.

the GPS/GSM unit we already have, we are looking for the METER now and hope to be able to send the METER data into our software system.

please advise if any news, thanks.

dor.

I knew a plumber that had installed the system in his trucks. Lowered his insurance bills. I would think the taxi assns would have systems that could accept the additional input.

Hi Dorharif

My company in the UK has these meters for sale, and it is designed for exactly your purpose of reducing fuel theft!

Basically, what it is is an adding and subtracting meter with two flow meters and a summing algorithm fitted internally. This is to measure the amount of fuel going to the engine and also the amount of fuel returning to the tank from the injectors and pump. Its a nice simple unit with a digital display that is easy to fit and program! It can also handle the rough environment of a truck.

Fluid Power Design can be found at www.fpd.uk.com

hi Beej50.

thanks for your reply.

i couldn't find the product in your web, can you sent the product data sheet ?

thanks.

dor.

I as well couldn't find the fuel metering equipment in your site, I have been looking at several systems lately that I could use to monitor fuel consumption on equipment as well as off shore vessels. Send your information please.

Hello If your trucks have eletronic engines a scan tool like prol-link or a snap-on scaner or laptop with the software can read the fuel consumption per trip this figure with full tank out and refueled on return should equal

I hope I helped

Mike

hi Mike.

thanks for your reply.

do you mean that this fuel consumption data is available ? were exactly i can take this data from, is it the truck computer ?

please advise.

thanks.

dor

In the marine world we use mostly electronic controlled engines for new builds and for upgrades. All of these electronic engines have the ability to count the number of injection pulses and multiply by the known flow per pulse. This data is then available for fuel consumption calculations. Some engine manufacturers now base warranty on how much fuel has been run through the engines. By also including GPS data in the form of a NMEA 0183 or later version fuel flow as a miles per gallon can be displayed at the control station.

Almost all marine engines are derived from truck engine blocks. So the technology is the same.

For non electronic engines more complicated fuel flow meters such as FLOSCAN are available.These have been used by truck fleets for monitoring fuel use.

If you have already installed GPS, you can at least monitor truck use and movement. Any non scheduled stops can then be checked. I assume the dispatch office will automatically be provided with the routing data from these senders. It would not a big task to enter the route distance as well as the speed ( from GPS) and calculate fuel consumption. High fuel burn rates can be associated with potential fuel theft. This should be something you can do with a spread sheet program automatically.

Simply tell the drivers that the high consumption truicks are being checked carefully for cause as to high fuel consumption. Simply letting them know they are bein gwatched will slow down the problem even if you cannot catch them red handede.

The GPS should be able to provide the dispach office with information of unscheduled stops that allows the driver to siphon fuel. Once they learn they cannot stop without causing a alarn they will think twice about theft.

Sorry, the following site is the interesting one : Rochester Gauges, Inc. of Texas, and we used to use those floating gauges as a level gauge in tanks of LPG (top mounted or side mounted).

Rochester Gauges builds Quality, Accuracy, and Reliability into all of our products. New designs and technologies are being introduced to further enhance your satisfaction with all products, where are constructed of quality materials to insure durability and longevity.

Consider something that logs the exact time of the tank being opened and a GPS for the position.

Also consider that some truckers never steal the fuel from the tank, they steal it from the pump while filling up!!!!!!! it must be fairly simple for an electronics engineer to design a small unit, that reads the fuel gauge info, (needs calibration for the tank), that logs say once every 15 minutes, the amount of fuel in the tank, also at each time, the tank cap gets replaced......it must only be correct to a pint or two......then you can control the amount of fuel in the tank at any time, the amount when the cap is replaced and the amount on the fuel receipts.....as a sensor, use something that senses steel, not a contact due to possible sparking and fire...

Make each driver pay into an account, the aproximate value of a full tank, if he gets caught, he forfeits both his job AND that money!!!! Put it in his contract.

If your trucks are new enough to have computer controlled engines, the following site may be helpful to you. The tool that is used to diagnose these emission engines is called the Pro-Link-9000. At least this is one of the popular scan tools for these engines. The following link should be able to tell you what info can be pulled from the specific engine combinations that you have. He has always been helpful to me.

Kurzawa, Richard [Rick.Kurzawa@nexiq.com]

Good luck.

BEEJ50 seems to have the problem solved if you ever find hi ssite!

Be aware though as it looks like you are in Tropical region that fuel expands quite considerably with heat. Filling your tanks in the cool morning and measuring volume in the hot afternoon will mean you may actually gain fuel.

A better option for hot climates is to weigh the tank with pressure sensors on the mounting brackets. 20kg is 20kg regardless of temperature!

the above fact also explains why text books from different countries have a different air/fuel ratio for stichiometric - as the given ratio is in volume not weight, they use different standard temperatures ( eg 25 degrees instead of twenty) and consequently the fuel volume is different for a given weight.

Have you thought about going low-tech? Here at a construction site in Northern Alberta we use a simple accounting method. We have several hundred company and sub-contractor vehicles that are permitted to fill up at our fuel depot. The simple check we use to keep honest men honest is to keep track of the fuel input (by licence plate, input by the pump jockey at time of fill) and the odometer reading of each vehicle (reported by each driver every week).

Pretty soon you start seeing who the bad actors are. The problem goes away when the suspected driver is called in and we offer to take the vehicle away for a day to have it inspected and serviced because he is suddenly getting such crummy mileage compared to his peers. We are usually told maybe he received a load of "bad fuel", an explanation we accept once. We let him know we will keep an eye on his consumption just to make sure the engine is not having mechanical problems. We have yet to call anybody in for a second meeting after such a discussion.

IF your fuel is purchased with company credit cards,it can be arranged with the card and fuel company(s) for the trucker to be required to input his odometer mileage when fueling up his tank.The odometer reading becomes part of his PIN number, and this makes it easy to track mileage and usage data.If mileage drops, and no mechanical problems are found, suspect "leakage". H Phinn

In India many fleet operators come to an agreement with the drivers on the average consumption & pay a nominal % extra to the driver for the trip towards diesel. The drivers tend to be more efficient & pocket the savings. Probably the cheapest & most practical option

Please contact me direclty to discuss this issue - thanks Robert Coffey 918 292 8787