[07/07/08] Erik Wood, SB Roving Editor
Billions at stake, RFID busts fuel thieves is kindly provided by RFID Switchboard (www.rfidsb.com) and the article can be also found at http://www.rfidsb.com/showthread.php?p=426#post426.
With gas prices skyrocketing above $4 per gallon and analysts yesterday predicting $200 barrels by 2010, the ripple effect is causing chaos around the globe. These new price points are the catalyst on everything from the cost of corn to national security.
Buried amidst the clamor is the sinister byproduct: fuel is more tempting a target for large scale theft than ever before. Imagine the temptation of a tanker truck driver in Ecuador, Ghana or Lithuania who can change his life, and feed his entire family for more than a year, by siphoning a load of fuel and reselling it. Just one tanker load.
Not only does the theft of refined fuel impact costs, concerns about reliable access to fuel can have a far larger impact. It has never been uncommon for commodity markets to spike on whispers of political instability.
Can RFID provide a solution to this growing problem?
Stolen fuel could hit 10%
I had the opportunity not long ago to speak with sources at ExxonMobil regarding the problem of refined fuel "shrinkage". Unlike barrels of oil, refined fuel is a high valued item, easily use or sold to others. At least 6% of Exxon's total revenues are set aside to account for shrinkage in their supply chain.
They said six percent is an industry standard. If you consider that ExxonMobil alone took in a cool $347 billion in revenue last year, 6% of that is a pretty big number - and that is when the per-gallon price was $2. Set-asides for theft may grow to 10% this year, or more than $30 billion. That is a serious problem.
Here in the U.S., the theft of refined fuel is at an all time high. Major domestic fuel heists had been rare occurrences, once or twice a year. Reports I've seen indicate that they will be approaching weekly frequency soon.
The entire downstream fuel supply chain, from refinery to retail, is vulnerable to this "shrinkage." Tanker trucks are the primary means of transport in this segment. No place is this truer than in Third World and emerging economic regions. In developed nations, too, theft occurs at the retail station or the tanker truck, by people siphoning gas from transport or storage tanks, whether through actual hijacking, driver theft or retail theft.
aRFID to the rescue
Enter what has become a well developed, emerging technology. By leveraging wireless active RFID (aRFID) communication devices with integrated sensors, the capabilities exist to prevent, or greatly reduce, the problem of refined fuel theft.
The key question had always been, of course, since this is a hazardous, liquid asset - where the heck do you put the RFID tag?
The answer is you monitor the hatch point of entry into the container, and the valve point of exit out of the container. Customized mechanical enclosures can be integrated with "Open/Close" monitoring aRFID tags. In conjunction with GPS locationing, you now have your in-transit monitoring platform.
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