Business Process Challenge

Mini Tankers delivers fuel to customers’ vehicles, equipment and machinery in a wide variety of locations such as logging sites, quarries, construction sites and airports. A key component of this service is being able to accurately identify the asset that the fuel has been delivered to. This is not always easy when the asset’s identity details have been scratched, worn off or obscured by mud. At times the details have also been affected by petrochemicals. Mini Tankers needed a fast accurate process for vehicle identification.

Another challenge was accelerating the process of recording asset identification information and matching it with information on fuel dispensed from the tanker’s pump. The manual process was time consuming and created an unacceptable opportunity for data entry error, especially through operators selecting incorrect equipment records in the database / handheld application.

Thirdly, Mini Tanker customers were asking for more accurate information linking the fuel they were being charged for to each item of equipment. This was being supplied with the manual process but was susceptible to data entry error and Mini Tanker administration staff was spending an unacceptable amount of time dealing with customer enquiries on their fuel bills.

Finally, Mini tankers wanted to minimize, if not eliminate, the potential for fraudulent transactions and fuel theft.

Options that were considered included Bar-coding and internalising the RFID reader in the Psion WAPC. Bar-coding was dropped due to dust and dirt covering the bar-codes and making the labels unreadable. The internal RFID reader was dropped as Mini Tanker operators wanted to keep the Psion WAPC in the cab to minimise use outside cab – where the unit could be damaged if dropped.

Mini Tankers chose RFID for their solution because it presented a highly automated and efficient way of identifying fleet assets and the appropriate fleet management record. RFID also provided a close fit with Mini-Tankers philosophy of value-added delivery service.

Factors considered when choosing Tracient’s Padl-R HF reader for the solution were connectivity to the Psion WAPC, the ruggedness of device, and it’s compatibility with handheld application software. A hardware compatibility check was carried out to ensure the Psion WAPC and the Padl-R HF would communicate to each other – Tracient supplying a device and tags to allow Mini Tankers to complete the testing.

FieldAtWork Pty Ltd, the software company that developed Mini Tankers existing application, liaised with technical staff at Tracient to ensure understanding of the Padl-R HF then embedded the Padl-R functionality within the FieldAtWork designer software. The business processes were designed to keep the application as simple as possible for operators. Operator training in the use of the hardware and how to use the new business processes within the existing application was found to be straightforward