SAP Fleet Management and Fuel Fraud

Our recent work integrating SAP Fleet Management with fuel consumption data has raised the issue of identifying potential fuel fraud. Large fleets face the risk of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in unauthorized fueling, so distinguishing fraudulent and legitimate consumption is critical.

When a fleet is vulnerable to siphoning, side fueling, cloned fuel cards, and other shady behavior, Fleet Managers should of course watch out for unusual purchases such as multiple pump transactions in quick succession, irregular fueling locations, and purchase quantities that exceed a unit's actual tank capacity. Some of these occurrences may have perfectly acceptable explanations and reasonably easy fixes—for example, a driver who fills up his truck and the equipment it's towing with the same gas card, contrary to policy of using cards unique to each asset.

But other situations require a bit more detective work when reviewing mileage and odometer readings in SAP. Dramatically lower fuel economy could be due to hauling something heavy—or an indicator that fuel purchased with the company's card may be going into another vehicle. A new odometer read that's lower than the prior read could simply be an inadvertent transposition error—or a bungled attempt to hide an unauthorized fuel purchase. The HPC Fleet Management template for SAP pinpoints these anomalies, such that Fleet Managers can interpret the data within the full context of their departments: who's driving, which vehicle, where and for what work? And in our experience, that's key: while the data in SAP is foundational, results come from the analysis of it and a real understanding of staff behavior.