City of La Mesa Installs New Fuel Management System

LA MESA, CA - The City of La Mesa installed on June 25 the FuelMaster fuel management system on its fleet of 210 vehicles and equipment.

Fleet Maintenance Supervisor Jack Phillips had the AIM2 (Automotive Information Module) platform installed into 70 police, fire, and Public Works vehicles. It interfaces directly with the vehicle's On Board Diagnostic computer to pull vehicle information, including odometer and the average speed at which the vehicle had been driving since the last fueling. It also prevents fuel theft by shutting off the pump immediately after the nozzle is removed from an AIM2 equipped vehicle.

On the remaining fleet of 140 vehicles and equipment, Phillips chose the FuelMaster ProKee Access Control Device. A chip embedded in each ProKee stores information such as vehicle number, odometer, and hour meter reading.

Phillips looked into purchasing a new system after having problems with his previous fuel management system. After researching the available options, "I called people about their different systems. Most everybody said they just loved it," he said.

In addition to fuel management, the AIM2 equipped vehicles will also capture and report vehicle error codes, vehicle ID, current mileage, date, time, fuel quantity, fuel type, engine hours, PTO hours, and more via OBD II interface on the vehicle. This eliminates mileage input errors by the person fueling the vehicle and reduces the time spent to correct inaccurate mileages. It also makes preventive maintenance reports accurate so vehicles will be serviced at the appropriate mileages.

"I'll be able to start looking at engine idle times, and other data so we can further reduce fuel consumption that way," Phillips said. He added that so far, he has had no problems with the system, even during the startup process.