Managing transport vehicles fuel usage is a cumbersome exercise, how well it is executed has direct bearing on business performance, in a country like Kenya where majority of the commercial transport vehicles are under bank financing, failure to manage fuel expenses often leads to expensive vehicle repossession and eventual auctioning of the same, luckily fuel theft prevention technologies have matured and are helping in managing and reducing fuel related expenses therefore offering an advantage to those who have deployed the technology, traditionally transport managers manually took odometer readings to determine kilometers travelled and carry out a computation against an imaginary number of litres of fuel a vehicle should consume to arrive at the fuel cost data. Today with the help of new approaches comprising of purpose built fuel management systems in Kenya, commercial transport is poised to overcome most of the challenges of the past.
So what are fuel management systems?
Generally, fuel management systems are multifunctional; they consist of hardware and software working together to monitor in real time the location of the vehicle plus the amount of fuel in the tank. This information is relayed in a desirable format to the transport managers or vehicle owners through mobile and web applications.
Like any piece of technology fuel management systems in Kenya are diverse and are offered by a few GPS tracking companies, it is therefore imperative that anyone shopping for the best fuel management system in Kenya have some basic understanding on the workings of the solution to arrive at a platform that can meet desired requirements.
What constitutes a true fuel management system?
The key consideration when sourcing for the best fuel management system in Kenya is the accuracy of the system, in most cases this is usually a factor of the quality of the hardware used and the inherent software algorithms. Another consideration is the functions provided by the platform, first and foremost it must have the ability to show in real-time how much fuel is in the tank, secondly it must show statistics related to fuel usage, thirdly it must have the ability to detect fuel theft or siphoning, fourthly is the ability to communicate with the vehicle owner or the fleet manager whenever critical events happen for example fuel fill or fuel siphon.
Are there reliable fuel management systems in Kenya market?
Smart Embedded Systems riding on powerful IoT platform and leading edge sensors sourced from world’s top manufacturers pioneered the first homegrown fuel management system in Kenya, the platform adopts machine to machine communication protocols and modern low latency computing and communication architectures putting African customers mostly the commercial transport operators on the same level with the world best with regard to technological adoption.
What are the benefits of smart embedded fuel management system?
Smart Embedded Systems solution dubbed Sesfuel is feature rich, it has proven to be the most effective tool that a fleet manager can have in his hands to reduce running costs, optimize operations while ensuring return on investments for the vehicle owners. Amongst all telematics technologies adopted in Kenya i.e. speed governors and location tracking, it is fuel monitoring that has real and tangible benefit to the vehicle owner.
The government of Kenya through the national transport and safety authority(NTSA) has been instrumental in pushing for the adoption of technology in the commercial vehicles sector, notably, to reduce cases of over speeding hence accidents, the government introduced the rules requiring all commercial vehicles to be fitted with speed governors at vehicle owners expense, adhering to regulatory requirements earns one the license to do business unhindered but without a real benefit at the bottom line, it is Smart Embedded Systems view that only through fitment of fuel management system in Kenya commercial vehicles that the vehicle owner can enjoy tangible benefit, fitting speed governor is merely for meeting regulatory requirements with no direct effect on vehicle owners profit!
So what are some of the features of Smart Embedded fuel management system?
Real-time fuel fills information capture
While at the fueling station a lot can happen, there could be outright collusion between pump attendants and the driver, the way this happens is that the vehicle owner pays for fuel of a certain amount but the attendant puts less fuel and share some of the money with the driver, without fuel management system in Kenyan scenario it will be impossible for the vehicle owner to know how much fuel has been put in the tank, Smart embedded systems is able to capture all fuel fills data, whether it is done in a fuelling station or from jerry cans on the road, this feature allows the fleet manager to know with precision how many litres of fuel including fractions of litres have been put in the vehicle, while at the same time showing the precise location through the mobile application. This has become one of the most powerful tool enabling the vehicle owner to know if there is any dishonesty happening at the pump or on the road; therefore, prevent it on the spot hence realizing considerable savings in fuel costs. In addition, real time fuel fill information has proved to be effective in determining which fuelling stations have tampered with fuel pumps calibration to dispense lesser fuel for the amount paid, many of our customers have praised our system ability to reveal the hidden secrets within the oil industry thereby enabling smart embedded systems become the preferred fuel management system company in Kenya.
Real-time fuel theft alerts
Secondly the solution by Smart Embedded Systems enables the vehicle owner to receive instant notification on his or her mobile phone whenever there is an instance of fuel siphoning taking place, this alerts come with real-time location of the vehicle as well, further the number of litres stolen are logged for future disciplinary action and recovery of the money lost in such theft.
Real-time view of the fuel tank
Thirdly a truly professional fuel management system in Kenya in particular where driver dishonesty is the order of the day must provide fuel tank visibility, many a times and in most cases the driver will never allow the vehicle owner to know the amount of fuel in the car so that for every trip the owner will be forced to add more fuel more so in theory, since this money ends up in drivers pocket. Smart Embedded Systems solution has been instrumental in becoming the third eye to help the vehicle owner know exactly how many litres are in the fuel tank at all times, how many litres have been fuelled and how many litres have been consumed.
Downloadable Fuel monitoring reports
Fourthly, Smart Embedded Systems provides detailed fuel monitoring reports to enable the vehicle owner understand the overall performance of the vehicle and its fuel efficiency. The reports availed by the fuel management system in Kenya situation includes daily kilometers covered plus fuel consumed in litres, also provided is the analysis on fuel consumption to indicate if the vehicle is over consuming or is working normally. Finally we provide real-time information on fuel level graphically against time; therefore, one is able to tell how the fuel has been utilized as the vehicle moves along the road. To crown it all, information on undesirable behaviors for example long hours of engine idling is also availed to the vehicle owner to enable them take corrective actions like warning the driver against such.
If one is shopping for a robust and reliable fuel management system in Kenya, Smart Embedded Systems is a telematics service provider with proven technology and with all products having extended warranty for a trouble free operation and tangible benefits.