Every litre of fuel changes hands several times on its way to a customer: from depot tank to truck, from truck to customer tank, and on paper between supplier, transporter and buyer. Each handover is a chance for product to go missing, and for an honest mistake to become an argument.
The common causes
- Short loading at the depot that is not caught before the truck leaves.
- Diversion — part of a load sold off along the route.
- Tampered or missing seals on tanker compartments.
- Temperature: fuel loaded cool in the morning and measured warm in the afternoon reads differently.
- Poor tank dipping and record-keeping at the receiving site.
What good practice looks like
The fix is not one tool, it is a chain of evidence. Record the loaded quantity and temperature at the depot. Seal each compartment and write the seal numbers on the waybill. Check the seals and dip the tank on arrival. Convert both readings to a standard temperature so they can be compared fairly, then have the receiver sign for what was actually delivered.
Why temperature correction matters
Petrol and diesel expand as they warm up — roughly one percent for every 10 to 12 °C. On a 33,000-litre load, a modest temperature swing can make hundreds of litres appear or disappear on paper. Industry volume-correction tables exist precisely so that buyer and seller measure the same thing.
Where technology helps
Paper waybills and phone calls make it hard to spot patterns. Recording loading tickets, seal numbers, trip times and delivered quantities in one system makes shortages visible per truck, per route and per driver — and turns a dispute into a lookup. This is one of the reasons Enychem is building its own digital supply platform.