If you have spent some time reading our blog posts, fuel theft might be one of your concerns. Maybe it’s not one of your topmost concerns, but that might be because you do not realise it could happen to you or your fleet. However, you may have experienced high bills or excessive fuel consumption which left you puzzled as to exactly the reason why you are spending out so much.
There could be a lot of reasons: a driving style that consumes a lot of fuel perhaps, or the use of vehicles for purposes for which they aren’t designed, or not keeping to a regular maintenance schedule and so on. But there is also the possibility that fuel theft is to blame... however implausible it may sound to you. It does not have to be something as physically obvious as syphoning the fuel tank, but it can, for example, involve fuel card transactions. If you do not use those and distribute cash instead, it could still happen—once it is happening it is too late and your bills are inexplicably rising.
Some things are easier to control than others, and fuel purchases are definitely not the easiest things to check (assuming you do not have a system in place that monitors these transactions). Why is that? Because if you have staff using fuel cards you are not there when they actually purchase the fuel. There are actually no simple solutions, but today we want to discuss 4 great strategies to help prevent and deter fuel theft. Let's go!
#1 - Ensure drivers are aware of the rules
Make sure drivers always use the same card and do not swap it with colleagues (this might happen involuntarily), or worse, lend it to people outside of the company—that’s probably how fuel theft happens in most cases. Make sure you also inform drivers of the consequences of such behaviour so they won’t think it will go unnoticed, and in fact can cost them in sanctions or even their job.
#2 - Make sure you have a fuel policy
Develop specific fuel policies that focus not only on fuel consumption and driving style but on preventing fuel card abuse. Make sure everyone is on the same page and is involved in preventing all potential fuel theft.
#3 - Have complete visibility on fuel purchases
Use a fleet management system to track every single step of your fuelling process: this will help prevent mistakes in recordkeeping, provide valuable information, and, of course, eliminate the problem of theft or incorrect fuel card usage.
#4 - Make sure your fuel card is suited to the scope of your requirements
Is your fuel card actually a fuel card and not simply a credit card provided by a fuel supplier? Can you only purchase fuel with your card and therefore prevent misuse such as irrelevant and needlessly expensive transactions (on maintenance at the service station, for example)? Make sure the cards you distribute have the correct settings; this will also help you in saving money on fuel.
