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Product Description FMT

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Product Description

For

FMT

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-Table of Contents

1. Background

2. The FMT System

3. The Benefits

4. How the Benefits are Achieved

5. Additional Benefits

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1

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Background

Fuel is the second largest single running cost of a heavy commercial vehicle. However the profit margin of the vehicle is typically only 5% of running cost ie ~$9000 USD pa for a heavy class 8 truck.

Vehicle purchase influencing criteria are rapidly changing among fleet operators.

Concern regarding fuel efficiency is expected to be rising to first place in importance to fleet operators and is becoming the top vehicle purchase determining criterion, superseding

vehicle brand.

2. The FMT System

The FMT Fuel Management System

for commercial vehicles consists of a vehicle performance monitoring processor module with an optional sensor for fuel tank contents measurement and an Analyser software package. Its purpose is to provide continuous monitoring of all aspects of fuel and fuelling policy and to eliminate losses. Potential exists for doubling of the annual profit margin for operators.

The processor module can be fitted into a spare radio sized slot in the vehicle dashboard or into an auxiliary unit cradle on the vehicle dashboard. It is attached to the vehicles own data and control system via the vehicle manufacturers own isolation module. It collects and stores data relating to vehicle identity, fuel consumption, speed, distance covered and a lot of other vehicle and driver related information.

If fitted with the optional FMT precision tank contents sensor it can also collect tank volume data, corrected for thermal expansion and varying fuel constituents. This removes the errors associated with vehicle manufacturer supplied tank float sensors which with use become typically have a 7.5 gallons uncertainty in a 100 gallon tank.

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If fitted with the optional radio and GPS data module it can also collect vehicle position and radio it, via the internet, along with the other information to a vehicle tracking service and to the operators base. There it can be displayed on a computer running the FMT Analyser application software package.

There is no known product as advanced as the FMT system for monitoring fuel being manufactured anywhere in the world.

3. The Benefits

The FMT system will assist the fleet operator to save the company’s money by highlighting losses from :

Thermal variation in fuel delivery.

Seasonal temperature changes over the year cause under-delivery or over-delivery to occur when fuelling. This is made worse by geographic latitude and above-ground storage tank installations which are used for many secure fuel outlets and are subject to exposure to hot sun and cold winter weather plus hot and cold spells outside the normal average annual variations. It may be that the temperature of an above ground tank may vary by 30 degrees over the course of a year. The resulting variation and uncertainty in the amount of fuel delivered would be ~3%. When filling a 150 gallon vehicle tank the effective cost of fuel would vary by ~$18 per complete refill depending on the time of year and the weather. A heavy truck with a 150 gallon tank and covering the typical 120,000 miles per year refills its tank 133 times. The overall uncertainty in fuel bill may average out over the year but the seasonal cost variation might be up to $2400 which is ~26.7% of the profit margin and is enough to impact profits if not taken into account when quoting to customers.

Vehicles travelling long distances between north and south may encounter an annual temperature range of twice as much ie. 60 degrees. The resulting variations in fuel cost will be double the above figure at ~$4800 ( 53% of the vehicle profit margin).

The uncertainty in the amount of fuel purchased can conceal the equivalent amount of pilferage, short delivery, fraud, leakage or spillage.

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Fuel management for commercial vehicles is not secure despite being number one in strategic importance to the industry.

- FMT will measure the delivered quantity and correct it for temperature by normalising it to a user specified temperature. This reveals any real fuel losses and allows for easy quantifying of the benefits or disadvantages of refuelling from different types of fuel storage facility dependent on the weather and time of year.

Increased fuel costs caused by reduced engine efficiency.

The average long-haul truck consumes 23 thousand gallons of diesel fuel a year and averages 6 mpg. There are 2.35 million heavy trucks in the North American Free Trade Area. If they all suffered reduced fuel efficiency by just 1% (ie their fuel consumption increased by 0.06 MPG) then they would emit an extra 6 million tons of CO2 per year, roughly equivalent to the weight of 60 Nimitz class aircraft carriers, and cost their operators 10% of their annual profit. In practice much larger losses in efficiency would be required to alert a fleet operator quickly so losses per vehicle are liable to be much higher until they are finally detected.

- FMT has precision temperature corrected fuel tank level measurement capability and will detect these losses at a very early stage. Tank level measurements are corrected for temperature and can be compared for a given route and load without the obscuring effects of temperature.

Refuelling short delivery produced by delivery pump errors.

Even with the delivery pump within Trading Standards allowed error band of +/-0.3% there could be an extra cost of around $3.60 USD each time a 150 gallon tank is filled from a pump that consistently over-reads compare to one that under-reads. If the same pump was used all year then the wasted cost would be around $483 USD (ie ~5.4% of profit margin for a typical heavy vehicle doing 120,000 miles per year) plus additional losses in the summer due to thermal expansion.

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Some pumps in the UK have been shown to out of specification and overdeliver in some cases by up to 4.4%. Identifying and using these pumps would save up to $3370 per year ie 37% of annual profit.

There are anecdotal reports of greater ierrorin the delivered quantity. Although this is unusual to this degree, if even a small short delivery occurs with the pump that a truck uses regularly then it could affect profits significantly.

- FMT will allow an operator to identify disadvantageous fuel delivery pumps and to avoid them and the associated excess cost in favour of advantageous pumps and the savings that they represent.

Fraudulent refuelling short delivery.

Loss due to deliberate short delivery, diversion of fuel into a separate container or fraud by the forecourt operator in collusion with the driver can not be concealed.

- FMT will record the volume of fuel placed in the tank at the delivery temperature thus making for easy comparison with fuel receipts.

Over-filling that results in spillage when the tank temperature rises.

A vehicle tank that overflows after being filled to the top and left in full sunlight (eg for a lunch stop) before being driven away (heating the fuel further as it goes) will be detected and highlighted to the operator. A temperature rise of, say, 10 degrees before the engine has had time to use much fuel will result in 1.5 gallons of heat expanded fuel being spilled onto the road for a 150 gallon tank. This could cost around $6 USD each time it occurs.

- FMT will record the loss of fuel associated with spillage of this type.

Pilferage.

Thieves are known to drill a hole in a fuel tank from which to drain the entire contents into a container. Each time this happens to a 150 gallon tank it will cost $600 USD at current

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contract prices - plus the cost of a new tank. Theft of this type is on the rise. (A 500% increase in fuel theft from vehicles, recorded in London in 2008, was thought to be due to increasing fuel prices).

A study by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners in Germany has been reported as finding that typical employee fuel theft accounts for a 6% loss of revenue. As the typical heavy vehicle profit margin is only ~5% of running costs then typical levels of theft can wipe out the entire fleet profit.

Fuel theft is rife worldwide. A variety of devices such as locking fuel tank caps, anti-siphoning devices and different types of fuel level sensing instrumentation are available to counter fuel tank theft. Tank armouring is also used but to little effect against an electric drill or other destructive means of entry to the fuel system.

View these two videos to see the nature and impact of aggressive fuel theft.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8m-cjllYcE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpPJ227Tj5Q&NR=1

- FMT will detect and accurately quantify fuel theft – siphoning, breach of tank - from the tank and sound an alarm. Sabotage of the FMT tank sensor will cause activation of an FMT on-vehicle alarm relay while the system notifies the owner via radio with vehicle location coordinates.

4. How the Benefits are Achieved

The Unique selling Point of the FMT System.

FMT's patent pending tank measurement sensor is it's Unique Selling Point. It removes

the sensitivity to temperature and biofuel constituents which its competitors are subject to.

The FMT system will have greater precision than any of its competitors’ systems which function more as rather crude anti-theft and short delivery detection devices.

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The amount in the tank is logged every few minutes.

Fuel purchases can be reconciled against the fuel receipts with the accurate amount delivered to the tank and the temperature at the time being displayed by the Analyser software.

The total fuel consumed and distance covered are continually monitored in real time.

All the events affecting fuel management and performance will be recorded continually, will be downloaded over a radio and internet link and made available for scrutiny by the fleet operator.

The vehicles own CAN bus data is accessed by the FMT Fuel Monitor.

- an accurate measure of the fuel quantity being consumed by the engine can be taken from the vehicle CAN bus because it has been calibrated against the fuel tank measurement system.

The company is freed from the need to exclusively use managed fuel outlets

Managed fuel outlets do not eliminate all the problems affecting fuel and incur costs including limiting the choice of vehicle route and refuelling points.

5. Additional Benefits

Accurate quantifying of the disadvantages of purchasing fuel in the summer and the advantages of doing so in the winter as well as the additional effects of purchasing from above ground storage tanks.

Fuel purchasing policy could be altered to take advantage of above or below ground storage tank installations with respect to weather conditions and time of year thus minimising the additional cost of fuel in warm weather and maximising purchase value for money in cold weather. These considerations will be greatest for vehicles travelling abroad throughout the year.

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Savings could be up to 6.5% of the total fuel bill versus the cost of consistently making inappropriate decisions. This is approximately half of the vehicle profit margin ie greater than $4500 USD pa for a 38 tonne truck .

Much greater accuracy in profit forecasts, ability to maintain vehicle efficiency and greater effectiveness of efforts to minimise additional losses due to small-scale pilfering, short forecourt delivery or fraud.

Fraud and pilferage could be eliminated altogether if the thief knew that it would be detected promptly; thus preventing the biggest common threat to profit. Fuel theft can be undetectable because it does not take the vehicle performance outside of the normal variation in fuel consumption due to load, weather, terrain etc. eg Terrain variation can produce a 10% reduction in MPG for only a very slight gradient of 1:1000. The equivalent amount of fuel, if actually taken by a thief, would represent half the vehicle profit margin while driving on the gradient. Other variables such as tyre inflation pressure, altitude, road surface and winds merely increase the overall fuel cost uncertainty and the scope for theft.

6. FMT Analyser Application.

After downloading the data from the vehicle to a desktop computer a graphical display will show tank quantity, total fuel consumed, fuel consumption over distance and vehicle speed information. These data will be graphically displayed covering a time period of several weeks. The amount of fuel delivered to the tank during filling will be shown when highlighted by the user.

Comparison between fuel consumed and tank contents will audit the fuel usage and allow discrimination to be made between fuel pilferage and leaks. Pilferages will be highlighted by the Analyser software.

It will be possible to ascertain the fuel consumption over distance for any subset of the recorded data by highlighting the points of interest on the display screen. Thus the fuel consumption over distance for a particular trip or for a particular distance covered or between particular dates and times will be available from the graphical data.

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The system and its Unique Selling Point thus constitute a ‘must-have’ package for fleet operators and vendors intending to remain competitive in the future against a background of rising fuel costs and competition.

References

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