We would like to extend our gratitude for your support and contribution to our St. Patrick’s Day Dinner and Dance Fundraiser held on March 16^th, 2013.

The fundraiser was a tremendous success and we are immensely grateful for your support in helping us surpass our fundraising goal of $5000. Our fundraising team worked extremely hard towards our goal and with your help and generosity, we proudly share that we have raised a total of $13,597.03

The proceeds go towards the Alberta Cancer Foundation in support of the Edmonton Cross Cancer Institute. The institute provides the best cancer care available to patients and families who require cancer care in Alberta.

Once more, Fireball Equipment Ltd. would like to thank you for your charitable support in, not only reaching our fundraising goal, but exceeding it by far.

Thank you,

Fireball Equipment Social Club

Historically, Fuel Management has been about accounting for probably the most difficult of all assets to track, fuel. Fuel is delivered by your supplier to the tank at your fuel distribution site and from there you have to rely on the accuracy, integrity, and caution of every person that uses the facility to ensure that your shrinkage (difference between the amount of fuel you purchased and what you can account for) is only due to natural causes such as evaporation.

With ever rising fuel costs, shrinkage is becoming a great concern for Management and Accounting departments in both the private and public sectors. Being able to account for every liter of fuel purchased becomes more critical all the time and universal questions arise from management when forced to increase fuel budgets:

• Do we know where all our fuel is going?
• Do we have a problem with theft?
• Do we have a leak or spillage problem that will have environmental implications?
• Are operators forgetting to log their fuel transactions?

A basic Fuel Management System will give you much of this information allowing accounting, finance, and management to accurately account for fuel in and out, reduce the amount of shrinkage and more accurately forecast fuel budgets. Virtually every private fueling site where multiple users and vehicles refuel should have some type of access control that will electronically track data for each transaction. Even a basic system will reduce error, shrinkage, untracked transactions, and man hours entering in the data. In most cases refueling becomes easier and faster for the operator as well.

Obviously the more vehicles, equipment and users an organization has, the more work it is to track fuel usage manually with any accuracy. Fuel however is only one part of fleet management. Scheduling Preventative Maintenance is crucial to the longevity and safety of vehicles and equipment. Optimal scheduling of Preventative Maintenance is done based on mileage or operating hours; however manually tracking these statistics can be onerous and maintenance departments often opt for calendar scheduling of vehicle maintenance as it is much easier to track. Calendar scheduling, though reliable in ensuring that the work actually gets done, it is not reliable in ensuring that the work is done when it needs to be. Periods of down time or extended times of operation can result in, for example, oil changes either being done too often which is wasteful, or not often enough which leads to premature wear on the vehicle.

• Now what if that system was able to require the user to enter an odometer or chronometer reading at each refueling?
• What if that information was able to be automatically uploaded into a Preventative Maintenance System?
• What if this information from multiple fuel sites could be tracked remotely with one single system in your head office no matter where those sites were located?
• What if your Preventative Maintenance Schedule could tell the system to notify the operator of the vehicle at the next refueling that they were required to bring the vehicle in for an oil change?
• What if you could even restrict access to refueling until the maintenance was preformed?
• What if all your shop fluids, such as oils and glycol, could be monitored via the same system so you are able to account for them as well?

With a system like this in place, not only would access to fuel be secure and transactions be recorded accurately and automatically from all your fuel sites, but service and maintenance staff would be able to be more efficient, vehicles and equipment better maintained and your organization would get more for every dollar spent on its fleet.

• What if instead of a card or key to access the fuel, a device could be installed in the vehicle which would automatically identify and authorize that vehicle to refuel?
• What if this device could also ensure that the proper fuel was being delivered for that vehicle, as well as automatically download odometer or chronometer readings directly to your head office with no operator interaction other than inserting the fuel nozzle?
• What if engine fault codes and other OBDII and CAN BUS information could be sent directly to your maintenance staff to ensure that issues are dealt with promptly and properly?
• What if this device could also automatically open gates to maintenance yards or fuel sites, and even control car washes?

These options and more are all available through the FuelMaster Fuel Management System. From basic to full automation, FuelMaster can meet the needs of virtually any organization that operates its own fuel sites, vehicles and equipment.

 -Mike Sorochan

Mike Sorochan is the Technology Manager at Fireball Equipment.  He has over 20 years in the technology field and has been working exclusively with Fluid and Tank Management Systems since 2005.  Mike is a certified installer and technician for both FuelMaster and Pneumercator and has a wealth of experience in the selection and configuration of these systems in a broad range of industries and applications.

• Do you have a fleet of vehicles and\or equipment?
• Do you currently or have plans to operate your own refueling sites?
• Do you need to control who has access to your fuel and site?
• Do you need to accurately account for fuel usage?

If you answered yes to some or all of the questions above then it is likely that a Fuel Management System is right for you.

In its most basic form, Fuel Management is accounting for fuel utilized within your organization. This can be done with paper and pencil, but like using accounting software instead of a ledger book, it can be done much more accurately and efficiently with a Fuel Management System.

A basic Fuel Management System consists of equipment and software designed to automate control and accountability of any metered liquid (water, oil, glycol, etc.) or　fuel product.

If you have or are considering having your own fuel site to service your fleet, compliance with Fire and Electrical Codes along with many local and federal regulations and environmental codes, make having a complete Fuel Management system a must.  These can range from a simple basic card lock to a fully integrated fuels accounting system that includes automated data collection from vehicles and tanks.

When it comes to choosing what type of Fuel Management System you require, you may want to start by considering the following questions:

• Does your current method of tracking fuel allow you to account for Shrinkage (the differential between the amount of fuel purchased and the amount you can account for)?
• If not, how are you reconciling your deliveries and dispenses for code compliance reporting required by law in your area?
• If an inspector requested your last 6 months of reconciliation reports, could you provide them this information?
• If your current method of tracking fuel is a manual process:
• How much time is spent by the person refueling recording the transaction?
• How much time is spent by your administrative staff entering the manual transaction records into your accounting and preventative maintenance systems?
• How accurate is the manual system in recording the information from the transaction log to the accounting and preventative maintenance systems, especially if multiple people are involved in the process? (Are mileages and dispense quantities reliable and accurate?)
• Is security an issue at your fuel sites?
• Is securing access to fuel important to your organization?
• Do you supply multiple fuels and if so how do you control which vehicles have access to which fuels?
• Do you have a need to track or restrict which vehicles are used by which operators?

A Fuel Management System can assist with and even automate most tasks related to the questions listed above as well as provide many additional features and functions.　　Please read our Fuel Management, FuelMaster and Pneumercator pages for additional information on Fireball’s Fluid Management products and services and watch our blog for more valuable information on these topics and more.

 -Mike Sorochan

Mike Sorochan is the Technology Manager at Fireball Equipment.  He has over 20 years in the technology field and has been working exclusively with Fluid and Tank Management Systems since 2005.  Mike is a certified installer and technician for both FuelMaster and Pneumercator and has a wealth of experience in the selection and configuration of these systems in a broad range of industries and applications.