Blue Tree Systems, provider of the R:COM fleet-management system first launched in 1995, now offers the new Fuel Auditor feature on all new and existing customers. It’s been fully evaluated by TransAm Inc. across its 1400-truck fleet.

It’s designed to allow carriers to audit the fuel being burnt across their fleet easily and accurately and to drill down to examine fuel usage per truck and/or driver.

The Fuel Auditor addresses a challenge the industry has faced for years, according to Blue Tree, namely the lack of trust fleet operators have in the fuel-use data collected from engine ECMs. If the data’s inaccurate, assessing a truck or driver’s fuel performance will obviously be flawed. As well, fleet operators will have difficulty in making smart truck spec’ing and purchasing decisions.

Blue Tree says its R:COM technology includes advanced algorithms capable of calibrating the ECM fuel data quickly and easily to provide accurate fuel-usage data. The Fuel Auditor program compare the amount of fuel burned by each truck in the fleet to the amount of fuel purchased. Fuel-purchased data can be imported from electronic fuel cards, on-site pumps, or typed in manually from receipts. Any discrepancies between fuel burnt and fuel purchased are immediately highlighted in the Blue Tree reporting system which includes drill-down capability to determine the exact time window and location of the discrepancy.

Fleet operators who have been hesitant to challenge drivers on their driving style now have a monitoring tool in place that they can trust, allowing them to identify the drivers who need coaching to improve their performance.

The Fuel Auditor also monitors a truck’s fuel-tank level constantly to detect all fuel fills and extractions with great accuracy and can map the location of the fuel-level change event. Fleet operators can thus verify that all the fuel they purchase is going into their tanks, and staying there until it’s burnt by their engines. Blue Tree calls it "the perfect audit trail.”