Fuel theft. How is diesel stolen and what solutions are there?

Fuel is a precious resource for any company operating in the field of transportation. Especially if you own a fleet of trucks, it is very important that the level of fuel consumption is always within optimal parameters. A significant problem is represented by the situation where drivers steal fuel. Although you can be sure that you have reliable employees, it not infrequently happens that they try to manipulate the company’s resources in their personal interest and resort to fuel theft.

In the following, you will be able to find out how you can tell if the driver is stealing fuel. Find out what the signs are, how drivers steal fuel and what solutions there are. Find out how you can investigate the situation and what steps you can take to make sure it doesn’t happen again, should your suspicions turn out to be justified.

Fuel theft. Why and how do drivers steal fuel?

The reasons why drivers you trust can end up stealing fuel from the tank are not hard to guess. There are times when the price of diesel is on a permanent rise. Thus, it is an important resource, and when you have unlimited access to fuel, there is a possibility to take advantage of this fact. Drivers steal fuel because it is an expensive resource and one they can obtain in large quantities without much effort.

A first method by which truck drivers allocate fuel illegitimately is that represented by the use of the company’s fuel card, for personal gain. The access to such a card causes many of the drivers to resort to it also when they drive for personal interest. This type of theft is easy to detect, by tracking the dates and times when transactions were made using the cards issued by your company.

However, there are also more difficult to identify methods by which drivers misappropriate your fuel. A relevant example is that of stealing directly from the tank of the truck I drive. This method is implemented with a hose that allows the redistribution of part of the fuel from the tank to another vessel. The method is a rudimentary one and can be bought with those of stealing with the bucket or the can. These involve adding a significant amount of fuel to such vessels, directly from the pump. The methods are some that can cause significant damage to your business.

Although the solutions unscrupulous drivers come up with to steal fuel are often innovative and surprising, there are methods you can use to ensure you protect your resources. In the following, we will present you the options based on modern technologies, which you can use to always be one step ahead of dishonest drivers.

How can you avoid fuel theft from the tank? Fuel theft monitoring solutions

The reason why it’s so important to make sure your drivers don’t steal from you is an obvious one. Diesel costs, and fuel is one of the significant expenses of a fleet. They say prevention is better than cure, and that should be your motto when you want to avoid fuel theft.

With the help of modern checking systems, you can benefit from automatic level and fuel consumption checks. Using modern fleet monitoring systems that you own is a measure that will not only allow you to find out when things are not going as you would like. The technologies will also be a warning to drivers who have bad intentions and will prevent them from acting, as they will be certain that any attempt will be noticed automatically.

CargoTrack offers fuel monitoring services through which you can be informed, in real time, how the vehicles in the fleet are fueled. You can check both the fuel level in a car’s tank and the recorded consumption. You can know which driver is using the car inefficiently and you can keep a transparent and clear report of the amounts invested in fuel. You have the option of connecting the system to the car’s on-board computer or by installing fuel sensors.

The system is extremely simple to use, as it can send you real-time notifications via email or SMS. It also helps you evaluate the efficiency of the cars in the fleet, as well as the quality of the drivers and their driving style. You receive information about refueling, potential fuel thefts or very sudden drops in the level of diesel in the tanks.

Choose to use modern services to keep up to date with the activity of your drivers. CargoTrack offers you software products and hardware products that have the ability to streamline your activity and turn your business into a much more profitable one!