The Importance of Proper Fuel Management
Tristan Kruth
Dec 17, 2021
Good fuel management helps you keep track of fuel levels and keep your operations running smoothly. Find out how important fuel management can be for your organization.

Proper fuel management keeps your business running smoothly by saving you money on fuel costs and ensuring you always have the fuel you need. With the right fuel management system, you’ll be able to track your fuel use in real-time – here’s why that instant visibility is a must-have for any company relying on fuel.

Why Fuel Management Matters

Typically, organizations track fuel use with hand-written records: drivers write down how much fuel they’ve taken (as well as any additional information they need to report) on a piece of paper near the pump. These paper records, however, can be lost or damaged by weather, resulting in incomplete recordkeeping and fuel reconciliation for back-office staff. Similarly, manually tracking fuel use can’t catch if a tank is leaking or if fuel is being stolen from an unattended tank. Fuel is money – undetected losses (commonly called ‘slippage’) have a direct impact on your organization’s expenses and bottom line.

Fuel management systems (FMS) make accurately tracking fuel a breeze and help you ensure you never run out of your biggest asset. In addition, these systems give managers and business owners more control over fuel access and decrease the risk of fuel theft.

Track Your Inventory

Ensuring your tanks have enough fuel is very important for organizations to continue to operate efficiently, but keeping track of how much fuel each tank has – especially for remote tanks – can be difficult. Tracking fuel levels and fuel use is significantly easier you make tracking fuel levels easier with proper fuel management enabled by the right fuel management system.

When you have regular access to fuel tanks, spotting and preventing theft becomes easier. Besides restricting access to fuel tanks to only people authorized to use that tank, an FMS may alert you to attempted theft on a connected pump. Some FMS providers like FuelCloud are cloud-based, allowing managers to check on their fuel levels at any time and from any location.

Better Data Analysis

The higher the quality of the data you collect, the better data analysis you’ll be able to do. A good Fuel Management Systema will deliver precise data for measuring fuel use at many different levels, from the organization overall down to an individual driver or vehicle. By using really accurate data to analyze fuel use, you can identify areas of inefficiency or misuse that you can correct.

Data analysis can also help you lower your fuel cost per gallon. By understanding how much fuel your organization uses or needs at each site, you can help your jobber better plan deliveries and, in turn, negotiate for better rates. Alternatively, you can re-configure your fuel delivery volumes or schedules if you’re buying more fuel than you need.

Keep in mind that tracking individual fuel usage for equipment isn't quite the same as doing so for on-the-road vehicles. While you'll need to assign drivers to specific trucks and can easily see how much fuel they use, doing this for equipment is relatively inefficient. Off-road equipment also has special tax exemptions for fuel use, but those volumes must be carefully recorded for accounting teams to file for those refunds.

More Control Over Tanks

Fuel management systems control access to fuel tanks, ensuring that only authorized drivers can access fuel when they need it. This may mean controlling how much fuel employees can use at a time or who can access tanks and when. The result is better fuel security overall and more controlled use of fuel by your entire organization.

What Industries Use Fuel Management Systems?

Any company that manages bulk fuel will see the benefits of an FMS - every manager can use an FMS to discover inefficiencies, protect fuel supplies, and even anticipate vehicle or equipment maintenance. Some industries do benefit more than others. For example, delivery and trucking companies depend on having fuel

How Can FuelCloud Help?

The best FMS systems make it easy to monitor and manage fuel supplies. FuelCloud is designed with ease of use in mind, using the latest in cloud-based and mobile technology to create a fuel management system that fits how modern business works. As a mobile fuel management solution, FuelCloud is flexible for the needs of any organization managing their own fuel.

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