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OFFICIAL INFORMATION and
INFORMATION FROM OUR CUSTOMERS
1. Mobile Tankers
The customer has got a fleet of
tank trucks which deliver products from Dar es salaam to Moshi
about 600 kms apart, he has the problem of drivers stealing
product from the tankers while in transit. This is done in two
ways:
1. Illuminating kerosene or paraffin like (Jet A-1) used for
cooking and lighting in rural areas is tax free here in
Tanzania and that makes it cheaper in price than other
products like Diesel and Petrol.
The drivers would siphon out a
certain quantity of Diesel or Petrol from the tank truck and
fill it with same quantity of Kerosene, the driver would then
sell the diesel or Petrol and net in his pocket the difference
in price of either Diesel or Petrol.
The product in the tank becomes
contaminated or adulterated and is passed to a motorist
unnoticed until when he starts having problems with his
vehicle. Motorists lose confidence in the customer retail
sites and sales go down.
The customer wants to control
and prevent this from happening.
2. Drivers just siphon out a certain quantity of product and
sell it while on transit, and on reaching the destination they
use some tricks which the receiver never understands and they
end up getting short landed quantities - Product losses.
The customer wants to prevent
this.
The Solution:
If the drivers are made aware that someone is monitoring and a
demo is shown to them they will refrain from stealing.
The fuel level sensors will tell
the customer when, where, how much the product is being taken
out of the tank truck while in transit. The controller will be
able to send alert messages to the driver of what is happening
and also to take further action.
(I don't know exactly what the
right solution might be here, I'm just trying to use the
sensors as a solution to the customer - can you think of any
other solution? Immobilizing the truck when the level of fuel
goes down etc etc?
I have also heard of electro -
mechanical lockers/seals?
Where by the driver can not open
the valves or any openings but only by the authorized remote
controller from the customers office.
The trucks are "truck and
trailers" with both truck and trailer fitted with a 20,000lts
tank. Each tank having 5 compartments which can carry 4,000
lts of product, the compartment height is 1.6 meters high.
I need to start with one truck and put a sensor on each
compartment, I will then monitor the performance for a certain
period of time with the customer and see how it works out.
2. Remote Fuel tank
The customer has got petrol
service stations, the service stations are located all over
the country, about 1200km away from his office. He wants to
monitor fuel stock sitting from his office.
To start with we will install the sensor in one of his home
station's diesel underground tank of 1.9meters in diameter.
They have only one diesel pump at the site for their own
person use, so this is ideal for a pilot project. The office
is located about 50 meters away from the underground tank.
The other project might be vehicle tracking not for security
but for driver control purposes only, the customer would like
to know where the driver is at a particular time, speed, etc
etc whether he is following the specified route.
3.
From life ....
(history of our customer)
..... I am undergoing
similar problems on our normal long distance freight trucks
and trailers where drivers siphon the fuel and sell.
I can shade some light in your #2 below as to what trick the
drivers may be doing that owners can not understand. It is
clever!
Before they go to fill the diesel/petrol at the depot, the
drivers put containers inside the tank in such positions that
it is difficult to see. These containers are tied secure so
they don't move.
The tanks get filled up
normally....and they reach the destination normaly. The owner
measures the level of the received product with deep stick in
tankers..and they find it full to normal. Then the product is
offloaded to service stations. When it is offloaded, the
filled containers inside the tankers remain! The truck is then
let go. The drivers then go and get the containers filled with
diesel/ petrol from their tankers and sell! amazingly
clever..not many owners know this!
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