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Fuel level monitoring system
what is it ?
It is the system of monitoring fuel levels in the given volume of in vehicle , a power generator , a fuel tanker , any working machine like caterpillar etc . The system achieve this capability by employing the devices called fuel level sensors which have to be installed at such a tank of a given machine.
There are various types of fuelelvel sensors one is called utrasonic fuel level sensor and naother is mechanical fuels sensors . Utrasonic fuel level sensor employs teh use of electromagnetix wave to read and detect the level of fuel in the tank and communicate this infromation to the attached gps. They offers flexible intallation type as they dont reuire drilling of the fuel tank .
Mechanical fuel sensor requirs drilling of the fuel tank to immerse the sensor deep into the fuel in order for it to detect changes in the fuel levels. this type of installation requires only qualified and experienced techncian as any wrong placement or callibration would results into having wrong readings and so rendering the whole sytyem meaningless.
unless it is necessary installationof the utrasonic fuel sensirs offer much flexibility than mechcnaial fuel sensor , because what you need to do is just attach thesensor to teh surface of teh fuel tank , and in few minutes it starts sending our its reading to the connected gps. This means you dont have to drill a fuel tanker to get system work , but if it is for mechanical fuel sensor installing it into a fuel tanker can be a little challenging task.
utrasonic fuel level sensor
How it work ?
Fuel level sensors get installed at the fuel tank of (plant /machine) in conjunction with a gps device which in turn it will send all information regarding fuel level drop/increase in volume to the management software in the remote server
A user of the system will monitor and get such information via computer or mobile phone. The fuel level sensors sends its information to the gps devices and the gps devices send the such information and other related information such as time , location etc to the central management software for user consumption.
Any such changes in fuel volume (refill/drop) will be detected by these fuel level sensors and reported accordingly such that you will get to know time ,location and amount of fuel that has been taken /increased into such a tank of that machine/plant (vehicle or generator the same )
The system can tell whether such fuel drop is due to a normal consumption by the engine of such machine or is a theft /siphoning, this way fuel theft can detected and monitored accordingly.
what type of machines can use the system
- Vehicles – all types of vehicle can use the system to detect , monitor and prevent fuel theft
- Fuel tankers(carriers) which transport fuel loads from place to place obviously needs this system to monitor the fuel loads from the tanker chambers and prevent fuel theft
- Power generators needs this system to detect , monitor and prevent fuel theft
- Heavy duty plants and machine like caterpillars which traditionally consumes huge volume of fuel needs this system installed to detect , monitor and prevent fuel theft
pre-requisite for installation
- There is no such restriction in installation of such devices to monitor fuel levels into the tank , but it becomes easy to install, test and configure a regular shaped tank rather than a tank with irregular shape whose volume changes can not follow a certain path, but the system works fine in any case
- The fuel level sensor monitoring system employs gps devices (tracker) as control device on these fuel level sensors. Since the tracker must communicate with the central monitoring servers, then it needs sim card to be installed in it . The client must have one sim card (authenticated with his fingerprint ) per gps device for installation
Installation costs
A complete working fuel level monitoring system would involves the following device/components
- Fuel level sensors (ultrasonic or mechanical fuel level sensor)
- A gps devices capable of working with fuel level sensors
- Monitoring platform – online platform or a mobile phone where a user would login and get those information regarding fuel level monitoring. The system is available online and is charged monthly
- The cost of the devices would vary as per selection of the manufacturer, quality and specifications it gives
- ultrasonic fuel sensors tends to be abit high but easy installation and offers a wide range of installation options eg in fuel tankers
- while mechanical fuel level sensors are little cheap sometimes but requires drilling of the fuel tank
- Advanced 4G GPS device - Tsh 350,000
- Utrasonic fuel level sensor - Tsh 420,000
- Installation , training and comissioning charges -Tsh 250,000
- Monitoring system service charges -Tsh 35,000 per month -
Preventing fuel theft?
fuel theft in vehicles, generator and tankers(carriers) is very serious problem and if remain unresolved it can huge operational costs to the business and take out your projeted profit. Imagine a fuel tanker loaded with diesel from Dares salaam sea port to Arusha in the northern part of Tanzania. When in chalinze , the driver maek a stop and siphon about 100L of diesel from either the load itself or from the fuel tank and decide to sell it to get extra money to use. The owner of vehicle doesnt know anything unless there is a physical person at site who will a whistleblower somewhere to come and inform the owner of such fuel theft. If this happens again and again and with many drivers , then the overall cost to the business in huge.
To address this, then fuel level sensors are connected to teh fuel tanker via a special GPS that in turn send information to the management system. A system user on the other end on the computer or tables or a phone will get updated on the changes on fuel level each time such changes occur. The system is smart enough to ell if such a change is due to engine consumption or is due to theft. Instant notifications by email , sms or system allrts will enable such an ownerr to get notified instantly ofany theft that is happening including location and time that a theft happened
This system is widely used to prevent fuel theft in vehicles , plants and machines, generators and fuel tankers transporting fuel from point to point with high efficient and accuracy
why monitor fuel ?
- During fuel refilling at petrol stations (so if you ask driver to go and refill the vehicle 50L, then 50L will read on the system) , giving you time and location where that refill has happened. The notification will come in the way of sms to your mobile phone and messages in the system or email , whatever configuration you set
- Because normally if you give money to a driver to go and refill the vehicle , unworthy driver will buy less and buy a separate receipt from the pump attendant usually at less than Tsh 5000/= to send to office, but actually the volume he bought is less than what required . With this system you will get reading direct when fuel get into the tank , using your phone or computer . And these reports /information get stored permanently , anytime you can retrieve them and get information
- Fuel theft by unworthy drivers will be traced and known
- Fuel siphoning – (if driver siphon 20L of fuel from the tank , system will tell you 20L has been siphoned from the tank , giving you time and location where such event has happened)
- This same system can be used by fuel tanker (when transporting loads of fuel ).In tankers each chamber is installed with the fuel sensor without drilling them , and in case of any changes in volume in any chamber then notifications will be sent to the control number and to the system, notifying that such volume of fuel has been taken or added into the chamber number “X” etc . This would completely prevent s the theft of fuel from tanker during transportation from eg fuel depots in Dar es salaam to upcountry regions
- Any vehicle involved in any project , or machinery like bulldozers , tractors , caterpillars etc is essential that are installed with these sensors to monitor fuel and make sure that the fuel never get vandalized
- If you have installed power generators in the remote telecom sites far away from the office , it’s of paramount importance that you install these devices to monitor the volume of fuel into these power generators. Often times people tend to siphon diesel from these generators and sell them for own benefits and so increasing the operational costs. Installation of such fuel sensors will prevent fuel theft from these power generators and cut down the huge operational costs and so increase profits
- In fact the fuel level sensors can be installed in any fuel consuming plant /machine or any fuel transporting loader to monitor , track and prevent the fuel theft and so prevent unnecessary costs to the company /entity
Does it matter if I don't have this system?
- Do you know that thousands of volume of fuel (eg power generator diesel) get stolen each month from power generators that have been installed in remote telecom sites ?
- Do you experience fuel theft from your installed power generators installed into the remote telecom sites ?
- Do you know that people including own staffs/service engineers and vendor’s service engineers can siphon and sale the diesel from these power generators when visiting these sites for maintenance purpose
- Do you know if you add the overall fuel stolen from all power generators that you have installed all across the country , in all remote telecom sites will make up a huge cost which tremendously adds the burden of operational costs to the company ?
- Do you know that such a problem is no longer viable today given the advance technology we have which can completely solve and address that problem once and for all and saves huge amount of dollars which can increase profits to the company ?
- Do you know that fuel can also be stolen from the vehicle’s tank by unworthy drivers seeking to get own money ?
- Do you know that giving a driver money to refill the vehicle at petrol stations is also not a good idea given that always will buy less volumes , buy a separate receipt from the pump attendant at less than tsh 5000/=and submit it back to the office . But the actual volume into the tank is less than what is required , and you can’t know because you only have to see the receipt ?
- Do you know that drivers can stop the vehicle during the transit , siphon fuel from the tank, sell it and proceed with the transit ?
- Do you know that fuel theft can add up huge burden to the project costs or to the operational cost and reduce the profit if remain unresolved as it is in many cases ?
- Do you know that it is not such easy to detect , monitor and reveal fuel theft especially if you have not installed any fuel monitoring devices into that vehicle or a generator ? because suspicions will always build mistrust and bring in quarrels.?
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