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The idea that truck drivers could be responsible for diesel
Page 47
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theft has always been a difficult and controversial issue for the industry to confront.
It is another area where different sectors of the anti-siphon industry have clashed over what is considered to be the correct approach.
TISS marketing director Matthew Rose makes it clear that policing drivers is something hauliers have to be aware of. He argues, for example, that the increase in the number of diesel cars has "created a much larger number of places where it [diesel] can be sold".
Rose even suggests a scenario where a truck driver might be approached by a motorist on a petrol station forecourt when they are filling up and pay them to fill up their car as well. The fuel would be put on the haulage company's bill and the driver would take money from the motorist.
Unlikely? Perhaps. But TISS advises customers to look very carefully at mpg variations in their fleet to identify possible fuel thieves. "If there is a lot of variance it should set alarm bells ringing," says Rase.
Such suggestions are hard to prove or disprove, but they do provoke annoyance. Another implication that drivers might be dishonest elicited a letter last year (CM 10 April)from, among others, TruckProtect chief executive Russell Fowler, who condemned such accusations, adding "to brand them thieves by implication is neither true, nor acceptable".
Yet, privately, several in the anti-siphon industry acknowledge that one of the reasons that the biggest fleets put anti-siphon devices in their trucks is, sadly, to make sure their own staff are not helping themselves to fuel, either for their own vehicles or to sell to others.