In a day-to-day operation, fuel diversion is a threat that can significantly affect your financial results, but fraud prevention is not always on managers' radar.
From unauthorized purchases to falsified maintenance records, these activities can lead to more than financial losses and put trust between teams at risk.
To protect your fleet and ensure its smooth operation, it is crucial to implement a robust supply control strategy. So, let's explore together some important tactics that can help identify, control and avoid these problems.
What are fleet supply frauds?
How to identify fraud in fleet supply?
How to control fraud and fuel diversion?
How to avoid fuel diversion?
What is the role of fleet management in fraud prevention?
What are fleet supply frauds?
Fuel diversion is a serious problem, which ends up compromising the integrity of supply control.
This can happen due to a series of factors, from changing records to the use of physical methods, such as installing devices in vehicle tanks.
These frauds can arise in a variety of ways and can come from the drivers responsible for supplying supplies, suppliers or third parties.
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How to identify fraud in fleet supply?
Some ways to identify fraud in fleet supply include analyzing the amounts supplied in relation to the consumption of each vehicle, identifying unscheduled stops and unusual route deviations.
Other warning signs are regular incompatibilities between the fueling record and vehicle data or even reports of suspicious behavior.
For these and other reasons, identifying fuel diversion in the fleet can be quite a challenge, but monitoring these indicators can avoid situations and be the starting point for effective supply control.
How to control fraud and fuel diversion?
In general, keeping a detailed record and analyzing consumption patterns are two of the essential steps to identify any signs of possible irregularities. Here are other important actions to take to keep fuel diversion under control:
Map fleet supply
To start, you need to have a comprehensive view of the entire process. Map out each step, from fuel request to transaction recording, as this can help identify vulnerable points.
Mapping helps to understand the productivity of this routine and what actions can be taken to improve and optimize your resources, in addition to saving time.
Identify bottlenecks
After mapping the processes, it's time to find the risk areas, which may be related to a specific gas station, a specific shift or certain vehicles.
With this identification, it is possible to direct your attention to more problematic and urgent issues, applying more effective solutions. Solving the problem from the source is one way to ensure that it does not happen again in the future.
Suggested reading: Own filling station in fleet management: is it worth it?
Use a fuel card
O fuel card works as a great control mechanism. Thanks to him, Managers can set limits, monitor transactions in real time and restrict fuel purchasing locations.
This way, every detail of the transaction is recorded, which makes it easier to identify suspicious patterns and allows for more accurate auditing.
For the same reasons, the risk of fraud and fuel diversion decreases considerably, as drivers are aware of this practice and use the company's resources with even more responsibility and transparency.
Compare disparities
When wondering how to control fraud and fuel diversion, remember to compare the quantity filled with the consumption recorded by each vehicle.
It is also important to take into account factors such as vehicle efficiency, type of load transported and operating conditions. After all, disparities may indicate fraud, but they need further investigation before reaching any conclusions.
Keep an eye on unplanned stops
When observing unplanned stops and unusual route deviations, analyze the duration and frequency of these situations.
This monitoring is simpler with the help of a fleet management system, which records activities and allows the identification of suspicious patterns. I.e, a hand on the wheel to take preventive measures and avoid fuel diversion.
Suggested reading: All about telemetry: what it is, how it works and what the benefits are for fleet management
Understand the fleet’s supply pattern
Another solution is to investigate whether any patterns are out of control, as some signs of fraudulent activities are multiple supplies in short periods or in unauthorized locations, for example.
However, Make sure you are analyzing these quantities in relation to the routes and operational needs of the vehicles.
Inspect vehicles
Performing periodic inspections of fuel tanks and other fueling-related components can also help identify signs of tampering, such as tamper marks or the presence of illegal devices.
Limit access to gas stations
To avoid fuel diversion and record who refuels what and when, it is possible to implement an access control system at fueling stations, such as fleet cards or identification codes.
Audit the records
Having supply control with periodic audits of records is yet another strategy to identify discrepancies, inconsistencies and suspicious patterns that could indicate fraud. These audits must be conducted systematically and documented appropriately.
Check consumption data
In this case, it is recommended to make the most of the potential of a fleet management system. With this tool, it is possible to examine consumption patterns over time and under different conditions, in addition to considering variables such as divergent locations and posts without location.
Suggested reading: Supply control: automate your company's fuel management with Golfleet
How to avoid fuel diversion?
The same strategies for controlling fraud are used to prevent fuel diversion. But preventing these situations goes far beyond monitoring, because they can happen again if there is no change at the organizational level.
Therefore, don't forget to promote a culture of responsibility and transparency to strengthen your fleet management defenses. Some examples to make this happen are:
- Regular trainings
- open communication
- Implementation of clear policies
And, once again, we need to reinforce the importance of adopting technology in these cases. Thus, you have security and valuable data for continuous optimization of your operation.
Suggested reading: Zoetis celebrates a 28% reduction in fuel consumption and a 56% reduction in fines with telemetry
What is the role of fleet management in fraud prevention?
Centralizing supply control and data analysis is imperative to normalize consumption patterns and, as a result, identify somewhat suspicious situations.
In this sense, a fleet management system allows you to monitor transactions in real time, driver behavior and evaluate vehicle performance.
The integration of monitoring, detailed reports and insights transforms the way you control fuel. Furthermore, you can enhance the tool with an add-on module dedicated precisely to supply control and which offers benefits such as:
- Reduction of supply costs
- Operational efficiency
- Vehicles with better performance and performance
- Making informed decisions
- Spending predictability
- Identification of consumption habits
Having this tool is an opportunity to put an end to fraud attempts and contribute to the creation of an environment of greater transparency and responsibility, as we highlight its importance.
In other words, an indispensable but complex task without the right support becomes simple. With Golfleet, you face these and other challenges with even more confidence.
To fully understand the full potential of a telemetry system, follow a complete and free guide on the subject:
