Prioritize Tank Monitoring Data to Improve Your Entire Operation

By Carolina Ruiz • Published July 31, 2020 • 5 minute read

In the previous blog post, we explained how actively using accurate tank data is essential to realizing a return on your investment. SkyBitz customer implementation team has a defined strategy for setting up benchmark data to achieve success and realize ROI right out of the gate.

Your entire operation will benefit from establishing proper notifications and reporting procedures. Plus, the information can be sent directly to a user’s mobile app, via text message, or distributed via email to multiple recipients, so your managers never miss an important event from your monitored tanks.

Dispatch management is one particular area that will benefit from tank data. Removing the human element of physically sticking a tank to get a reading will eliminate driver time, unnecessary vehicle use, safety risk associated with chemical exposure to certain tanks, and sheer human error.

Other people within your organization that will benefit from monitoring intelligence include accounting, maintenance, and compliance teams. Unleashing the value behind the data and training other departments to apply it to your business will increase the return on investment from your tank monitoring solution.

Setting up data thresholds is an essential step in creating an efficient flow of information from your tank to the users that need to receive it, analyze it, and use it for the company’s greater good.

Tips to help you implement or revisit how you’re monitoring your current tank activity

1. How to calculate the proper threshold parameters across all of your tanks:
   • Several factors determine when to set your alert thresholds. Industry-standard suggests that to be efficient, deliveries should be performed when tanks are at or below 25% capacity.
   • The location of a tank and the usage history of the product being replenished plays a role in gauging customer requirements. For instance, if a fuel tank is used to service equipment at a construction site where the weather can affect job site activity, your dispatch team may need to set alert thresholds to monitor drastic fluctuations more closely.
   • It’s important to take time to document these anomalies for each customer and set dashboards and reports up with this information in mind.

2. Who should be notified via alerts versus scheduled reporting?
   • Dashboards should be set up to help limit any extraneous notifications and alerts from becoming too cumbersome for your team, as they should only be triggered when thresholds have been crossed.
   • Your solution provider can work with you on setting up reporting, so it makes the most sense for your organization. Typically, the Dispatch Management team would receive any critical alerts, as they will need to identify how to service the tank with the available resources on hand, so it’s less impactful for the customer.
   • If set up correctly, you’ll considerably reduce your emergency refuel procedures because you will always know when your tanks are reaching the threshold. You can further refine your reports by looking at historical data over time, which can prompt you to discuss increasing tank sizes with your customer or predict changes to your distribution strategy so you can increase margins with fewer, on-target deliveries.

3. How do you set up your organization for anomaly management? 
   • Anomaly management is challenging to predict, but there are ways in which you can set up your tank monitoring process to catch any anomalies before they become emergencies.
   • Seasonal changes or customers in markets that experience sudden shifts in demand, such as agriculture or roadway and infrastructure construction, can contribute to significant changes in your distribution strategy.
   • Communicating with your customers, so you’re aware of how to update alerts and notifications will save everyone time, and those unnecessary text messages in the middle of the night.

The benefit of having 24/7 access to tank data means identifying more ways to predict higher profitability. Data is knowledge, and we can help deliver that data to you so you can focus on more opportunities to increase your gallons while decreasing your costs.

We will dive deeper into each of the above tips in later posts, so check back often or sign up for our email newsletter.