How Secure is your Fuel? External & Internal Theft
External Theft
Thieves are always looking for ways of stealing fuel, and siphoning is a known way of getting fuel out of any vehicle. A hand-operated siphon pump will only require a few pumps to start the fuel flowing out, and an automatic one will most likely only need a switch to be flipped, making the process fast and easy for any thief.
Cutting fuel lines is also common and bigger vehicles are higher off the ground, becoming more vulnerable to such attacks. Locking caps that are weak, or that are easy to open, make certain vehicles high targets for fuel theft.
How to Prevent It?
One step you can take to help prevent your employees from being targeted by fuel thieves is to educate them about defence parking. Even if your employees are only stopping for a short period of time, parking in well-lit and well-trafficked areas, and staying away from back alleys makes your fleet vehicles less susceptible to being attacked. Parking in spots where fuel tanks are harder to access is also an option.
Internal Theft
A lot of fuel theft comes from inside the company itself, with office members or drivers taking advantage of their position in the company to steal fuel. If a company doesn’t keep track of how much fuel is consumed, it’s easier for employees to misrepresent the amount of fuel used. A common theft practice is to misuse the company car for non-business related reasons, resulting in long term loss for the company.
Fuel theft by your employees’ results in lower profits for the company, which forces you to spend more money to cover the rising fuel costs. The general morale will lower with loss of trust in your drivers, especially ones that haven’t stolen fuel.
How to Prevent It?
A tracking system makes every employee accountable for how much fuel there is in their vehicle, by monitoring fuel storage and tanks. By being aware of stock levels every day, and with knowledge of your employees’ movements, you will be able to stop any unauthorised use of fuel.
Addressing the issue of fuel theft in a company wide way will prevent possible future thievery, and it will pass across the message that it won’t be tolerated. By letting all of your employees be aware of how this affects the company financially, you’ll be taking a positive step to control theft or, hopefully, keep it from happening altogether.
If you need information on how to prevent fuel theft in your company, contact us on 01254 291391 or find us on Facebook and Twitter to receive all of our latest news.
