Over the last few decades, fuel tank systems have become increasingly complicated to monitor and manage, adding to the already significant load felt by fueling station managers. While much of this complexity can be attributed to the proliferation of double-walled tanks to comply with environmental regulations, it is further augmented by new industry standards for compliance and advanced technologies and solutions for monitoring them. The ensuing intricacy has provided the liquid fuel downstream industry with an ever-growing mountain of information to process.

As your inbox quickly fills up with alerts triggered by the many sensors placed in your fuel tanks, you may soon find yourself overwhelmed by overdue tasks and lose perspective of the health of your systems. Information is a powerful asset until you have far too much of it. Then it quickly becomes noise, lacking insights or ability to act.

There is no doubt that automated fuel tank monitoring is the smart way to ensure safety, compliance, and efficiency. But your monitoring system is just your first defense from critical safety, efficiency, and compliance issues. The second defense comes from managing your response to those alarms.

The problem of too much information

At Titan Cloud, we analyzed 30,000 tank systems at over 10,000 fueling facilities in an effort to understand the scope of problems that they were having. The sheer number of automated alarms generated by ATG systems doubled over our three-year analysis period and is set to surpass the 4 million mark this year.

But it turns out that not all of these alarms are worthy of dispatching a service call. In fact, most are not. Far too many are the result of misconfigured alarm systems, resulting in false alarms, testing activity, unnecessary maintenance trips, wasted hours, and a distorted view of your system. Even when you think your system is properly configured, you may find that your threshold settings were changed after a system outage or repair and no longer reflect the correct setting you intended for them. Without conducting a site-by-site audit of your system and sensors, how do you know which alarms require action?

For example, our assessment of one fueling chain comprising 700 sites showed that nearly 30,000 alarms were detected over the course of just 60 days. Our analysis of those alarms showed that only 17,000 were compliance-related issues, and of those, only about 2,000 were actionable issues. Of those, only about 350 required a field service dispatch. That’s only about 1% of all the alarms detected.

You may be wondering about the other 99 percent. Well, often, alarms can be sounded by a faulty sensor, fuel system testing, a wiring issue, or system connectivity issues. While important to address, these are the types of alarms that, once triggered, are prone to be repeatedly sent to one’s inbox until they get fixed. And, while they may not indicate a problem with the tank, they do add to the overall noise that a facilities manager has to deal with.

Cutting through the noise

Poorly configured systems lead to costly alarm overkill and wasted resources. An alert management system can help you cut through the noise and zero in on the issues that require immediate attention. By providing remote access to all your data and compliance records, and the ability to remotely monitor and troubleshoot alarms, you will have the tools for cutting through the noise and distinguishing between real emergencies and false alarms.

Titan Cloud offers solutions to sift through all these noisy distractions. Our AI-assisted tools can quickly analyze all of your alarms to give you a quick snapshot of your system that focuses on your most critical needs first. We have solutions for alarm management, remote ATG management, compliance documentation management, remote leak detection and more. And best of all, our tools are hardware agnostic, so they will work with the systems you already own.

Titan Cloud can also provide your company a personalized ATG system and alarm configuration assessment that will compare your alarm data to the latest industry standards and provide recommendations on how you can optimize your system for efficiency, compliance, and performance.

Sign up for your Personalized Alarm and Configuration Assessment with a Titan Cloud
Expert. In this one-hour session, you can expect:

• Overview of best-practice alarm management
• Benefits from Alarm AI and Configuration Management
• Current state vs. future state recommendations

According to AAA, the average regular gas price in the U.S. is $3.592 per gallon as of June 13. After falling for much of the second half of 2022, consumers are witnessing higher fuel prices this year due to increased demand and tighter supplies. Saudi Arabia also announced that it would begin cutting oil production by 1 million barrels per day in July to support the “stability and balance of oil markets.” This latest news is expected to increase prices over the travel season. And sadly, another trend that is increasing gas prices is fuel theft, with organized rings stealing enormous amounts of fuel.

Crime Ring Steals Fuel over Eight-Month Long Period

Eight people were arrested and charged last month with being part of a large-scale fuel theft network that stole more than 100,000 gallons of fuel from service stations in the Houston area. Between February 2022 and October 2022, local officials believe that up to 16 suspects are responsible for more than 60 incidents of fuel theft.
The suspects used a technique known as pulsar tampering, which involves manipulating fuel pump systems that measure how much fuel is being dispensed. A device is connected to the fuel pump to keep the fuel flowing while charging only a fraction of what was pumped. Crimes like this affect more than the gas station from which they are stealing, and we all end up paying more at the pump.

Real-Time Data Visibility & Detection

As the single largest expense fuel retailers and convenience store operators manage, every operator has a process in place to manage their fuel inventory. Surprisingly, many still manage fuel inventory and reporting using labor-intensive spreadsheets or outdated technologies incapable of monitoring real-time inventory fluctuations and eliminating sources of loss.

With a comprehensive data analytics platform, stakeholders can collaborate more effectively to understand anomalies. It is about gathering information together and then sharing those insights with personnel to examine operations with precision. Furthermore, a data analytics platform permits monitoring of locations remotely and at scale. Companies can monitor key systems from afar, ensuring that equipment is operating properly, and remain on top of exceptions.

Traditional back-office systems simply cannot keep up with daily reconciliation, especially for most accounting team’s typical 4-to-7-day audit time and high-loss threshold. Additionally, it is tough for a remote account team that isn’t actively running the business to determine whether dispensers are being used at unusual hours or if data from the tank system matches the pump record.

With an intelligent analytics solution, every fuel touchpoint including terminal to hauler, hauler to tank, tank storage, and dispenser to customer vehicle, can be reconciled in real time making it easier to quickly identify the root cause of an issue and recommend immediate resolutions.

As thieves are becoming more sophisticated and employing technology to evade discovery, they are counting on you to carry on as usual while they steal fuel covertly. However, if operators had access to the right software technology, scenarios like the one in Houston would have been identified quickly and not allowed to persist for eight long months.

Account for Every Drop with Frictionless Fuel Management

The advantages of the right software platform extend beyond data insights for fuel theft detection. Convenience store owners and operators utilize Titan Cloud’s Frictionless Fueling software to gain real-time visibility into their tanks’ inventory levels as well as to track other deviations across tank charts, meters, deliveries, temperature, and leaks. What’s more, Frictionless Fueling significantly enhances the customer fueling experience by identifying and preventing fuel issues like sluggish flow, nozzle unavailability, or tank shutdowns to have a real impact on the bottom line.

Operators rely on Titan to have total insight over all fuel movements, allowing them to make informed, proactive fueling decisions to track every drop of fuel purchased, stored, and sold.

Frictionless Fueling’s powerful benefits include:

• Detecting and responding to usage and demand changes in real-time
• Avoiding run-outs and overfills
• Optimizing operator and carrier management
• Identifying priority issues automatically with rapid first-time resolution
• Lowering overhead with true just-in-time inventory management

According to one Titan customer, after implementing Frictionless Fueling, they significantly reduced inventory variance, lowered acceptable delivery variances by 60%, and increased fuel sales by .5% per site.

Getting Ahead of Fuel Theft

As fuel theft is pervasive throughout the oil and gas sector, it is critical to adopt a comprehensive strategy to quickly uncover and address any issues in near real-time. While criminals will navigate new ways to evade security measures, focusing on the fundamentals will help operators stay ahead of criminal activities. Companies will benefit from hardening core infrastructure, real-time data, and purpose-built software to gain a deeper understanding of the problem.

In this eBook, get detailed tactics you can implement now to stop fuel theft before it becomes a major problem for your business, as well as:

• Trends every fuel facility should be aware of
• Building a more granular accounting picture to understand your fuel inventory
• Educating and training your staff to be safe and prepared
• Best practices to implement a data analytics platform, and more…

Download the eBook

There’s a lot to keep up with when you start as a new fleet manager. To help you keep up, here are ten things fleet managers need to know to understand, track, and stay ahead of your UST compliance.

1. Every state has different regulations: As a fleet manager responsible for UST compliance, you need to know that every state has different regulations. Even though the regulation comes from the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), each state has the authority to create its own rules. You can find those here.

2. Your inventory cycle may change depending on the state: Every state is a little different regarding requirements. In some states, you must do inventory variants on a ten-day cycle. Some are 30 days. In other states, you don’t have to do it at all. Learn about state requirements here.

3. Some states require a third party inspector: Some states require a third party inspector to come out and inspect the system to get your permit (i.e., Illinois). In other states, you pay a fee. Other states don’t even have an annual process. You can learn the specifics here.

4. There are three types of operators: The three types of operators are Class A, Class B, and Class C. Class A operators must operate and maintain your UST system. Class B performs your monthly walkthrough inspections. Class C is often the first respondent to emergency situations. 

5. Violation fees multiply until you pay them: Regulators can issue violation fees monthly if you don’t resolve a violation immediately. For example, if you have a $1000 violation and it takes you six months to get it fixed, that violation could ultimately cost you $6,000 total.

6. You need a follow-up process for inspections: All deficiencies that crop up in an inspection require not only corrective action but also a way to track that action. With a process in place, you’re able to produce the required documentation whenever someone needs it, be it a technician or an inspector. Without the proper paperwork, the next time a technician goes out, they won’t know there is an issue. 

7. You must maintain a record of deficiencies and corrections: Monthly walkthrough inspections now have a monthly compliance report that includes any deficiencies. As noted, you have to have documentation for every deficiency as well as the corresponding corrective action. You need a means to attach those corrections to your compliance reports easily and linear linkage–when each document links to the next one in the chain–is the most efficient method.

8. Implement a standard practice to triage alarms: Some alarms will clear themselves, such as needing a fuel delivery, low volume, and high volume, but most will need you to respond. Having a standard in place to triage and respond to alarms can stop you from wasting hours sorting them.

9. Keep track of your UST operators: It’s important you know which operators are on your roster for each location you manage. Each class of operator has different training requirements and different frequencies for training in order to be up to date. Fleet managers need to know that every facility has the right class operator with up to date training ready to respond to any issues.

10. Know every facility’s testing requirements: Every UST system is a little different with different components and requirements, and this is especially true for fleets. Because of these variations, there are few standards for maintaining facilities. New fleet managers need to know what they’ve got and when testing is done or you risk falling behind and getting hit with major fines.

How to get ahead

Being a fleet manager is rewarding, but, in the past, it required juggling reams of papers containing all the dates, personnel info, deficiencies, and corrective actions you need to stay compliant. Luckily, these days, you can invest in technology that keeps you on track and documentation at your fingertips.

Discover technology that does the tracking for you.

Beep. Your employee looks up from his work. Beep. He walks to the back of the convenience store to check the UST alarms. Beep. He looks confused and silences the alarm. And then…he does nothing.  

We get it. For forecourt owners and operators this is the stuff of nightmares. Managers are always concerned about prioritizing and responding to UST alarms correctly and effectively and don’t want an important alarm to fall through the cracks. This constant worry about alarms would keep anyone up at night, especially if you’re relying on on-site personnel to correctly identify an alarm and begin the resolution process on their own. Not to mention that if one of the ignored alarms happens to be a leak detection, then any delay in response could end up costing thousands in remediation and environmental fines.  

Managing thousands of alarms is time-consuming and inefficient, but fortunately there are solutions that can help. Titan Cloud’s alarm management software, Alarm AI, is powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to filter, prioritize, and resolve UST alarms, so users can rest assured their alarms are being addressed properly. While Alarm AI 1.0 filtered out “noise” with unparalleled accuracy, Alarm AI 2.0 goes far beyond filters and conditional logic to prioritize and escalate alarms from one centralized platform. With Alarm AI 2.0, users have access to the tools, diagnostics, and insights necessary not only to manage alarms, but also to determine the root cause of the problem.  

Titan’s solution completely automates the alarm management process by using new algorithms to classify true positives, prioritize alarms, and create detailed work orders for the maintenance team. From there, Alarm AI can dispatch to primary and secondary vendors for a quick resolution, every time. The ability to set site-specific protocols and integrate with existing ATG equipment means Alarm AI saves owners and operators more than 50% on alarm dispatch costs.  

With Alarm AI 2.0 up and running, convenience store professionals won’t hear anything going bump in the night anymore. But if they do, here’s a hint: Don’t look under the bed. 

Want to know how you can save money with Alarm AI 2.0? 

Contact us. 

Leaders in the convenience store industry have always turned to technology that helps maximize revenue. But in a year like 2020, software solutions that provide high returns are vital to continuing operations. That’s why Titan Cloud focuses on creating software that helps users manage their business more efficiently for a greater return on their software investment. Titan offers a range of solutions for environmental compliance, wetstock management and facility maintenance, but the shortest and easiest path to a great ROI is with Titan’s tank shutdown analytics.  

While flow rate, nozzle downs, and inventory management are all important, if a tank is shut down, it’s not pumping fuel. If the tank isn’t pumping fuel, then there are zero fuel sales and your customer leaves the site. Minimizing tank shutdown events requires a focus on reducing both the duration and frequency of shutdowns. Reducing the frequency, in particular, has an enormous impact. We have learned from our customers that sub-optimal ATG configuration drives most preventable shutdown events. Fortunately, Titan has the most advanced ATG configuration tools on the market. 

One primary example of the negative impact of tank shutdowns comes from a customer who implemented Titan Cloud software because their tanks were frequently shut down due to groundwater alarms. Even though the alarms were only for the diesel pump, it was shutting down all the tanks for the entire facility and not allowing any fuel movement. Across all of their facilities, this meant this retailer lost sales of about $550,000 on more than 240,000 gallons of fuel per month. 

Right away, Titan identified the configuration issues and corrected the gauge programming so that only the pumps that were impacted would shut down and so that other fuel sales could continue. In just one month of using Titan solutions, our customer went from losing fuel sales of more than 240,000 gallons to less than 60,000 gallons, and after four months had reduced their average loss by more than 83%.  

It can be easy for owners and operators to think their ATG programming is “good enough,” but without optimizing ATG and alarm configurations, convenience stores can lose out on thousands or even millions of dollars in sales. That’s why Titan Cloud’s software help users identify inefficiencies and streamline store processes, so owners and operators can become more profitable and get a greater return on their software investment. While there are still plenty of opportunities to increase fuel sales by optimizing flow rate, inventory variance, and other aspects of the customer fueling experience, operators must first minimize tank shutdowns or else there is no fuel to sell.  

Want to learn more about how to optimize your fuel program for greater profitability? 

Get in touch with one of our specialists, so you can start generating a greater ROI today.