The Problem with Fuel Cards As A Deterrent Against Fuel Pilferages

Shell Fleet Card (courtesy of Shell Philippines)

 Our Company maintains a fleet of about 39 20-ton Cargo Trucks delivering to all points in Metro Manila. Since Fuel is accounts for a significant portion of our Distribution  costs, the Management decided to enrol our trucks and drivers to the Fuel Card program offered by our Fuel supplier (Shell and Petron both have these programs).  This is how it works:

1.  The driver would present the Fuel Card to the gas pump boy before filling up.  The Gas pump boy would then swipe it in say Shell's swipe machine and this would message if the Fuel card is still valid or has been cancelled.  The gas boy is supposed to also check if the license plate of the truck conforms with the data on the Fuel card and to take note of the odometer reading of the truck.

2.  If ok, the gas boy then pumps the fuel.  When done, the gas purchase in liters and pesos are entered into the POS which will also capture the data on the Fuel card.

Is the fuel going to your truck, or somebody else's (courtesy of workitmom.com)

3.  At the end of the month, Shell or Petron would issue a monthly report to us showing:

a.  Plate number and driver name

b.  Distance travelled

c.  Total Fuel purchases (in pesos and liters)


d.  Kilometer per liter

 Based on the data of the kilometer per liter per truck , the company will know of a potential problem with the truck's fuel system or warn of possible fuel pilferage accounting for the high fuel consumption.

The problem is that the bulk of cargo trucks in the Philippines arrived as chop-chop units.  A Chop-chop means that the truck was chopped up to smaller pieces at the Point of Origin and imported as truck parts at a lower Customs duties rate. Things like speedometers and odometers are either not functioning or never checked for accuracy.

One solution suggested by a trucker friend of mine who has more than 100 trucks servicing Nestle Philippines:

Pumping dollars to the wind (courtesy of marinrealestate.com)

a.  All trucks are not allowed to load fuel elsewhere other than the Fuel Depot at the company's garage.

b.  Every trip of a truck is evidenced by a Trip Ticket prepared by the Dispatching Staff.  In it is contained the customers' names and general location (as in province or state). Another Staff would then compute the estimated distance to be travelled (based on a prepared kilometer distance template of all points of destination served by their trucks with their Main Garage as the Point of Origin).  The same Staff will also compute the amount of fuel to be loaded plus a certain allowance (based on the historical fuel consumption of each truck/engine combination).

c.  Driver presents the Trip Ticket to the Gas pump boy and fill-up the fuel.

d  If the truck should run out of fuel while along the way or on the way back, the driver is obliged to purchase fuel at his expense since there is already an inputted allowance.

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