Navman Wireless and OEM Data Delivery have jointly released a fuel management solution that includes the ability to measure actual fuel burn for any make, model or year of equipment. The release follows a successful large-scale pilot test by a California contractor that operates throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Fleet managers who deploy the new solution can track the entire chain of fuel events for each asset and jobsite as well as the entire fleet, making it possible to detect fuel theft and fuel-related equipment problems, eliminate unnecessary refueling trips, document fuel use for job costing, and provide visibility into a fleet's complete fuel inventory, according to the companies.

"Despite the fact that fuel accounts for 40% to 50% of an asset's operating costs, fuel burn measurement has traditionally been limited to algorithm calculations and even then only for newer machines equipped with OEM telematics," said Renaat Ver Eecke, VP and general manager, Navman Wireless North America. "Combining our asset-agnostic telematics platform with OEMDD's fuel delivery system makes it possible to accurately and automatically determine the real fuel burn for any asset for improved insight and control."

The joint solution utilizes Navman Wireless' construction-grade Qtanium GPS tracking device and OnlineAVL2 construction telematics software to automate the collection of equipment hours and location data; plus OEMDD's Pump Tracker fuel dispensing monitor, GoPOD mobile data capture unit and RFID Cube asset identification device to automate the collection of equipment fueling data.

The Navman Wireless platform integrates data collected in the field and generates fuel reports by asset, jobsite, fueling event, fueling vehicle and more — all without the need for manual documentation by fuelers or machine operators.

The Asset Fuel Report, for example, itemizes the location of each fueling event, hours since the last fueling, number of gallons dispensed, fuel burn rate in gallons per hour, current tank level and tank capacity for a given asset as well as that machine's total lifetime hours. According to the companies, with this and other reports, fleet operators can:

• Track fuel consumption for all assets in the fleet regardless of brand, type or age.

• Benchmark fuel burn by both jobsite and asset to enable comparisons.

• Identify excess fuel burn indicating fuel theft, machine, maintenance and/or operator problems.

• Optimize refueling schedules based on actual fuel consumption.

• Apply accurate fuel costs to each job for cost accounting.

• Manage the entire fuel inventory – including fuel in storage, on board fuel trucks and in asset fuel tanks – for improved budgeting.

The solution includes real-time equipment location reporting that makes it possible to dispatch fuel trucks to the precise latitude and longitude where a machine is sitting – even in the middle of a dirt field with no address.

Additional efficiencies can be achieved by equipping fuel trucks with integrated Navman Wireless M-Nav navigation devices that can send directions directly to the driver's dashboard.