Where Did My Diesel Fuel Go?

We talk about fuel theft and having to make sure you have the proper processes in your fuel management program to ensure the best you can from theft.

In Sunday’s paper here is an example of diesel fuel theft that no one knows where the fuel went.

LORIDA, FL — The Highlands County Sheriff’s Office is conducting a criminal investigation into the events surrounding a diesel fuel spill that occurred May 8 at the county landfill.
County “rack sheets,” which are used to track deliveries, show 17,446 gallons of fuel missing between Oct. 16, 2008 and Sept. 17, 2009.
The documents show over 62,390 in deliveries accounted for, but just over 44,944 accounted for in usage.
As we see it, 17,446 stolen over 11 months. This works out to 1,585 a month or 52 gallons a day over that period of time. Now, 52 gallons of diesel fuel a day doesn’t seem as big at 17,446 over an 11 month period.

It still works out to be about $45,000 gone away with the average price for the last year around $2.60 a gallon for diesel fuel. That is a lot of money to be “fueling around with.”

That fact proves that most companies don’t have a fuel management system and/or a fuel audit platform to catch 52 gallons a day. That could be 10 fleet management drivers stealing 5 gallons of diesel fuel daily.

My fleet fuel management question to this company is; at what point did you realize you had an off balance? If you can count 62,390 delivers but account for 44,944 was there a point, when you had 3 deliveries and only 1 accounted for, shouldn’t that have been the time to catch the fleet fueling theft.

My guess:

1. No real fuel management program
2. No daily fuel audits or monthly fuel audits
3. Person who is running the fuel program lacks the proper fuel planning skills
4. The person running the fleet fuel program probably doesn’t have enough time to fuel audit

This along with thousands of other stories is why you can not let your fuel management, fuel planning and fuel consulting go on auto pilot. When that occurs your fleet management program is sure to crash

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