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Fuel fraud has been a thorn in the flesh of many a transport operator for decades. Every year in South Africa, wily thieves steal millions of litres of diesel and petrol, doing serious damage to bottom-line performance. In a fiercely competitive industry, no operator can afford to lose fuel and should have mechanisms in place to prevent the 'liquid gold' being stolen. Paul Collings attended the launch of a new product from Shell, called Shell Card, designed to prevent fuel fraud and better manage the flow of fuel from pump to truck. 

Fuel fraud necessarily involves a certain amount of skill, an understanding of the art of illusion and 'sleight-of-hand'. The 'tricks' fuel thieves use vary in nature, depending on the type of transport operation, where the vehicles are filled and what existing preventative measures are in place. Whether it's the siphoning of tanks or collusion between driver and pump jockey resulting in under-filling/overcharging, fuel theft is a constant risk that needs to be managed. 

New cards, new technology
Monitoring fuel usage in large fleets is a complicated task. Transport managers typically need to reconcile fuel bills with individual vehicles, making sure odometer readings match fuel consumption. This can be an onerous job if you're managing 200 trucks of different sizes, carrying different loads on different routes. Shell believes it has the answer in its new Shell Card, a suite of three cards that electronically register vehicle, driver, odometer readings, litres and Rands, channeling fleet-wide data to a central database where information is consolidated for reporting purposes. 

The PIN-based diesel cards enable diesel purchases, from retail forecourts (both Shell and customer-specific in SA and cross-border) and home bases. Says Schalk Erasmus, sales manager, Passenger Car Fleet, Shell Marketing: "The cards remove the need to carry cash to purchase fuel, lubricants and toll access. The cards give operators flexibility in the fuel management of different vehicles and the beauty of the product is that fleet operators receive one statement for both diesel and petrol transactions, what we call 'consolidated fuel management reporting'." 

Shell has added the power of the Internet to the product with a web-based interface where fleet managers can access information regarding the purchasing of fuel, tyres, batteries and other serviceable truck components.

"It's a 24-hour service where daily transaction activities can be viewed," says Erasmus. "Any exceptions in transactions not within set parameters will be automatically reported. Every month, customers receive a consolidated report of on-road and home-base purchases of all fleet vehicles. These reports can be customised in various formats to be used with other management software."
 

With the talents of celebrity illusionist Wolfgang Riebe employed at the launch to demonstrate the many Shell Card offerings, transport operators got an insight into how technology can be so 'tricky' it can stop even the sharpest crook dead in his tracks.

Anti-fraud and maintenance alliance 
Keeping operating costs as low as possible is imperative to all transport operations and with this in mind, Shell Card has formed a partnership with Wesbank to provide fleet operators with a hi-tech means to manage the two key contributors to running costs: fuel and vehicle maintenance.

Jeanette van Vuuren, director, First Auto (Wesbank) explains: "Together, Shell Card and Wesbank identified a need to pro-actively manage the risks posed by fuel fraud and theft, as well as the need to monitor and minimise maintenance costs on behalf of our customers. The Managed Maintenance Scheme is designed to manage truck maintenance and repair costs over the lifespan of each vehicle, delivering considerable savings and also identifying possible abuse."

The service is bundled with all three Shell cards and incorporates warranty claims on repairs and maintenance, tyres and batteries, costing of repairs as well as part prices and labour costs.

"The Managed Maintenance Service offering has built-in benchmarks and industry averages that identify any flagrant over-charging onlabour parts and prices," says van Vuuren. "Integral to the product is a fraud and exception reporting service which identifies exceptions on a daily basis, be it fuel or vehicle related. We investigate these immediately and compare the data to a national average countrywide. The exceptions are then e-mailed directly to the client for further investigation. If needed, Shell Card and Wesbank assist in recovery of monetary and moveable assets, forensic investigation of any exceptions, SAPS and court procedures as well as training in the prevention, investigation and identification of fraud within the transport environment."

The efficiency of exception reporting enables managers, via the Shell Card website, to log in and monitor CPK figures, multiple fill-ups, tank overfill percentages, lost or stolen cards, vehicle usage by Rand, litres or kilometres and weekend fill-ups. Once again, exception reports are customised with 33 variances, which gives fleet owners 'business intelligence' to make informed decisions about their vehicles.

An extra ace
Gaining market share is all about adding value and the Shell Card does pack a pretty bundle. For a 'rabbit out the hat' encore, cardholders receive AA membership at as much as 50% less the going rates, which includes roadside assistance, battery replacement, tow-ins, emergency rescue and technical examinations. AA services are more geared to car ownership than to truckers but maybe there's some way of doing a 'swop' deal here for the truck owner and/or his staff.

There are other fuel management solutions available out there that are perhaps a little more sophisticated than Shell Card but they require the fitment of hardware to the truck and cost more. The Shell Card requires no hardware fitment. Drivers simply enter a PIN number into the card reader, enter the odometer reading, wait for the tank to be filled and drive off.

The power of web technology and the massive data warehouse owned by Shell and Wesbank has allowed them to produce an elegant, low cost means for truck transporters to streamline both fuel and maintenance costs. Bravo!