High-tech fuel monitoring: aboveground storage tanks are friendlier to the environment

Concrete Producer, The, August, 2005 by Daniel C. Brown

Rinker Materials Corp. has begun installing wireless fuel management systems at several sites throughout the nation, says a well-placed source within the company. The company that makes the fuel management systems, SCI Distribution of Clearwater, Fla., says the systems will be installed at 50 Rinker locations in Florida and 17 Florida Rock locations in the Southeast.

The SCI systems have a leg up on the competition because they're wireless; they use a radio frequency, says Tal Ezra, SCI's chief executive. No trenches must be dug to install wires underground. When a Rinker truck pulls in for fuel, the operator holds a special key in front of the key reader on the fuel controller box, and the fuel pump can be turned on.

With Rinker's system, the driver will use a keypad at the controller to enter vehicle miles and/or hours. The SCI system can be equipped with a Smart Mile system to collect the miles and hours information wirelessly from the truck.

Next, the vehicle number, the vehicle miles, hours, type of fuel, driver who pumped the fuel, and location of the fuel site all is fed by wireless communication to the ready-mix plant computer. "We're talking with Rinker about more fuel management systems in Washington state and Nevada," says SCI's Ezra.

Commonly, a new fuel management system might be installed when a concrete producer removes its fuel tanks from underground and puts in aboveground tank storage. "Rinker called us and says they're taking their tanks out of the ground," says Mike Evans, president and owner of Memco Inc., Killarney, Fla. Memco supplies Envirosafe Tanks for aboveground applications, as well as the pumps, hose reels, and associated equipment. Aboveground tanks are more environmentally friendly, because one can see and repair any fuel leaks that develop.

Ezra says Rinker plans to funnel all fuel cost accounting information to its corporate office in West Palm Beach, Fla. There, the producer will be able to analyze fuel usage by vehicle, location, and division, and will use the information for accounting purposes.

Fuel savings

Public works fleets also are working hard to monitor and control fuel costs. Officials in Montgomery County, Md., credit improved technology, restructured bus routes, and fewer snowstorm-type events with helping to slash fuel usage in recent years. The county's fuel use dropped from 7.5 million gallons in 2002 to just 5.4 million gallons last year, counting compressed natural gas, diesel fuel, unleaded gasoline and E-85, or ethanol. "That's a significant drop," says Mark Ricketts, program manager II with the county's Division of Fleet Management Services (FMS).

To monitor fuel use, FMS purchased an automated system from Rapac Network International, of Hackensack, N.J. By tapping into the Rapac database, Ricketts can obtain miles-per-gallon information, transactional fuel volume at a site or by pumping hose, and volume by fuel product pumped.

FMS, which operates 14 automated, unattended fueling sites, uses the fuel system to reconcile fuel pumped to fuel purchased. "We come up with less than 1% difference between the fuel we pump and fuel we bought," says Ricketts. "The industry's acceptable average is 2%."

With the Rapac system, each vehicle has a programmable Vehicle Unit Interface (VUI), or a ring around the fuel filler neck of the vehicle. When the dispenser nozzle is inserted into the filler neck, the VUI transmits via a corresponding ring on the nozzle the vehicle identification number, its mileage or hours reading, and the type of fuel the vehicle needs.

That information is instantly transmitted to a site controller, which merges that string of vehicle information with the site location, the hose being used, and the volume of fuel being pumped. "That information is stored at the station controller until we poll it," says Ricketts. "When it's polled, it goes into a Rapac database. Then we can export that information to our FASTER database, or our vehicular management database."

(SCI Distribution also makes similar ring technology, called RF Fuel. "We have installed the ring technology with Allied Concrete in Houston," says Ezra.)

Billing advantages

And once Montgomery County's information is in the database, the county uses it to determine fuel billing to various agencies. That's not all. "Fuel is part of your cost per mile, and you need cost per mile to develop a replacement cost system," says Ricketts. Plus, the county uses the fuel system's mileage information to schedule preventive maintenance on vehicles.

Automated mileage entry is more accurate than manual entry, which is needed with credit-card-type systems. "You can't guarantee that operators will put the correct mileage into the system," says Ricketts. And automated card systems often control the amount of fuel pumped based upon mileage. So if an operator puts in the wrong mileage, he could be denied fuel with a card system.

Ricketts is pleased with the Rapac system. It runs 24/7, unattended. It takes only two people to manage the fuel for nearly 4000 vehicles and pieces of equipment. And in just one hour, the system runs a report verifying proper operation of each hose at the 14 sites.