Page 26 - Oil & Energy - March 2013
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26 • OIL
&
ENERGY
Smart Fleets
Onboard
Electronics
Add Precision
and Eliminate
Inefficiencies
FUEL RETAILERS CAN REDUCE DELIVERY
costs and improve customer service by
deploying electronic registers and related
onboard accessories.
SeanFlaherty, ProductManager for Liquid
Controls, told
Oil & Energy
that companies
can take efficiency and service to a new level
by switching from analog to electronic regis-
tration. “As soon as you switch to electronics,
you take the typical human factors out of the
equation, and all your deliveries are measured
and documented electronically, free of errors
and subjectivity,” he said. “It’s also instanta-
neous. The information is captured in real
time and controlled and automated, and it’s
done in a nice way that promotes efficiency
and reduces clerical errors.”
With electronic registration from ven-
dors like Liquid Controls, Total Control
Systems and Mid:Com, companies typically
collect the day’s delivery data in an onboard
recorder and at the end of the day transfer
the data to the company’s back-end system.
REAL-TIME COMMUNICATIONS
With new options that leverage cellular
technology, some onboard registers can
communicate wirelessly to headquarters
throughout the day. This enables them to
send delivery data in near real time, so the
company can update its records shortly
after a delivery is made.
Liquid Controls enables wireless com-
munication with its new i-Meter, a, plug-
and-play vehicle-tracking tool designed
specifically for refined fuels and LPG
delivery. The i-Meter is an add-on that is
compatible with all LectroCount registers
and the DMS i100. It adds a host of capa-
bilities, including PDF ticket creation that
immediately creates a delivery ticket with
price, tax and discount values.
With i-Meter installed, a company has
real-time GPS tracking of vehicles and
breadcrumb trails that show where the
vehicle has traveled and what it has deliv-
ered at each stop. The device communicates
to a web-based interface that enables a
company to track vehicle activities and
deliveries from any web browser.
FASTER BILLING
O’Flaherty says i-Meter can enhance the
benefits of electronic registration. “As soon
as the delivery is made, the delivery ticket
is printed, and it can be posted to the cus-
tomer’s account on the customer website.”
I-Meter enables a company to accelerate
its billing process, according to O’Flaherty.
“Whenever a transaction is made, it is imme-
diately available, so the back office can issue
bills and invoice immediately. You take a
delay of one shift out of the system.”
He said i-Meter appeals to small
companies that don’t have their own IT
departments. “You don’t need your own IT
people. We handle all the data crunching. All
they need is an Internet connection,” he said.
SATISFYING HUNGER FOR DATA
O’Flaherty said i-Meter is well suited to
the new generation of company owners who
expect to manage data in real time. “They
simply have an expectation of information
being available online immediately,” he said.
“If I’m operating a company, I don’t want to
have to wait until the end of the day to find
out from a stack of paper what happened.”
Another vendor of electronic registers
and related equipment is Total Control
Systems. Marketing Manager Dan Murray
said the company’s primary product is an
electronic flowcomputer that provides safe,
accurate management of fuel deliveries,
while increasing the quantity in a shorter
timeframe. “The accuracy is already a
given, but we can provide truck flexibility
for multiple product management, alarms,
electronic air elimination, pressure differ-
ential, multiple hose selection, reporting
and much more,” he said. Murray
explained that the company’s TCS3000
operates with an open software architec-
ture, so the unit will always be capable of
adding new features.
Electronic registration is also being
enhanced with add-on features at Mid:Com,
according to Sales and Marketing Manager
Jeremy Simpson. Fuel companies can
choose between the workhorse mid:Com
8000 and the new Road Warrior, which has
been available for a few years.
Designed for bulk delivery and home
delivery, the Road Warrior carries the com-
pany’s customer database on a memory stick
on the delivery truck, so that each delivery
is automatically coded for the correct price
and tax.
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