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March 2005 |
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BP improves electronic
refueling
system |
BP claims to have stolen a lead on the fleet management industry by being the first to introduce remote encoding of its FuelMaster Fleet tags in an effort to further improve electronic refuelling and provide hassle-free tank-to-bank transactions.
Nkosinathi Solomon, who heads BP's FuelMaster Fleet electronic refuelling system, says remote encoding allows changes to be made to the computerised information on the FuelMaster system without downtime for the vehicles. He says the major benefit of this for fleet operators is that they no longer need to take their vehicles off the road to make data changes.
"Remote encoding of tags (RET) will save our customers thousands of Rands in income because their vehicles will not have to be off the road at all. In the past, all encoding had to be done at a FuelMaster Fitment Centre or by intervention by a FuelMaster technician but this can now be done remotely. Aside from the cost savings, it also translates to a major saving in vehicle productivity for our customers," says Solomon.
He adds that further product enhancements will be added to the FuelMaster offer over the next 18 months to include more differentiating functionalities. He says that to date, the product has already helped prevent fraud and added savings of up to 25% of the fuel bill for some major fleet operators.
The FuelMaster tag works on radio frequency contact-less smart card technology, provided by OTI Africa (On Track Innovations). The system ensures that the right amount of fuel is dispensed into the right vehicle, to the exact requirement specified by each fleet operator.
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