Vehicle Misfuelling

[HowardD]

I spoke to our Fleet manager today and volunteered my company car for one of two new devices being trialled by the firm. One's called Fuel Angel and has been designed to physically prevent a driver from refuelling an oil burner with petrol. The supplier are going to fit the device, which needs neither tools nor talent.

I have been told that misfuelling is very common - 150,000 cars per year in UK, Wayne Rooney, Lancashire Police and AA / RAC recovery drivers have all been victims.

The device is not expensive - and here's the thing, for our 1300 car fleet, it might be cheaper to fit one of these to every car on the fleet, than for the cost incurred last year for cars where the driver fuelled incorrectly - and then turned the key.

Last week, one of our completely average fleet cars cost £3,000 in repair costs and replacement hire car costs to put right. The driver started the car after putting petrol in. The car is 1 year old.

Fuel Angel was featured on Dragon's Den and supported by two of the dragon's. It's also supported by MIRA.

If anyone is interested, the website is www.thefuelangel.co.uk and the company is called DDN limited.

 

[flango]

Charge the company car driver for the repairs they will never do it more than once. The company I used to work for had the following policy on misfuelling.

The employees cost centre would be charged the cost of repairs and this would be recovered from the employee by monthly payment over 12 months.

If you put diesel in a petrol or vice versa then your IQ must be lower than that of a goldfish IMHO

 

[The G.F.P]

my neighbour fat colin the ex hells angel mad man is chopping in his 2006 307 2.0 petrol for a 2009 207 1.4 derzel and im going to have a bet with the senile old git that he will put petrol in it within a month

as its going to do 60 odd to the gallon so he might fill it up once in the month and that might cost me £5

 

[219]

For someone who only rarely drives Diesel vehicles it really is a very easy mistake to make .

Having never owned a Diesel vehicle and seldom having occasion to fuel one , it is easy to forget . I once did it with a Diesel van I was driving , fortunately I realised my error when I had only put a few litres of petrol in - so I simply filled up the tank with Diesel thus no harm done .

 

[Dieselman]

For someone who only rarely drives Diesel vehicles it really is a very easy mistake to make .

Shows just how quiet diesels are then, doesn't it..

 

[wemorgan]

For a new car I would sometime have a look at the rev counter to distinguish between the two.
But even that doesn't always hold true.

 

[219]

Shows just how quiet diesels are then, doesn't it..

They're ALL quiet when switched off at the pumps

 

[wemorgan]

The employees cost centre would be charged the cost of repairs and this would be recovered from the employee by monthly payment over 12 months.

And when the employer made a bad financial decision that materially affected the employees earnings, I'm sure the employee was given full opportunity to send invoices to the employer for 12 easy-to-pay instalments!

 

[kwakdonut]

For someone who only rarely drives Diesel vehicles it really is a very easy mistake to make .

Having never owned a Diesel vehicle and seldom having occasion to fuel one , it is easy to forget . I once did it with a Diesel van I was driving , fortunately I realised my error when I had only put a few litres of petrol in - so I simply filled up the tank with Diesel thus no harm done .

But surely all modern vehicles have the fuel type not only embossed on the cap but, when they have them, on the inside of the fuel filler flap too?? Is it an indictment on our modern society that we cannot take 2 seconds to CHECK the fuel the vehicle, especially if it is not one with which we are familiar, uses?

 

[kwakdonut]

Charge the company car driver for the repairs they will never do it more than once. The company I used to work for had the following policy on misfuelling.

The employees cost centre would be charged the cost of repairs and this would be recovered from the employee by monthly payment over 12 months.

If you put diesel in a petrol or vice versa then your IQ must be lower than that of a goldfish IMHO

Now that IS an indictment on our 'blame culture' society! Accidents DO happen, we ALL make mistkaes (sic!).

Remember, we are just mere humans!

 

[davidjpowell]

But surely all modern vehicles have the fuel type not only embossed on the cap but, when they have them, on the inside of the fuel filler flap too??quote]

That would be no.

 

[Dieselman]

If people can't think enough to put the right fuel into a vehicle, are they concentrating enough to be able to drive it safely.?

Strangely it always seems to be the same people do it time and again. I've known one van driver do it 3 times, in a van they drove 3 days every week.
Another person did it twice in his full time car..

 

[kwakdonut]

But surely all modern vehicles have the fuel type not only embossed on the cap but, when they have them, on the inside of the fuel filler flap too??quote]

That would be no.

Sure? I am referring to 'modern' (2000 on-ish) cars & vans. Even my motorbike has a sticker (on the tank, next to the fuel filler) telling me 'Use 95+ RON Unleaded fuel only'!

 

[davidjpowell]

Not entirely sure, now. Just checked and the BMW does, I just am so used to seing it I obviously blank it. I don't think the Renault does though - it does not even have a conventional cap, but instead a pressure fitting which is built into the flap. Not entirley sure that the C class I had was marked, but now I have proven myself wrong I am not commiting to anything!

 

[kwakdonut]

Not entirely sure, now. Just checked and the BMW does, I just am so used to seing it I obviously blank it. I don't think the Renault does though - it does not even have a conventional cap, but instead a pressure fitting which is built into the flap. Not entirley sure that the C class I had was marked, but now I have proven myself wrong I am not commiting to anything!

I shall refer you back to my previous comments about taking just 2 seconds to check!!!

It is amazing that we blank out so much 'superfluous' information every single day even if it stares us in the face!

 

[tromppost]

for £45 it sounds good value, my wife has a diesel and I tied a bit of red string on the in side of the filler cap to remind her. It's worked so far!

 

[Satch]

It is far more common than you might think possible.

Anyway, if in that unhappy position remember that the AA Fuel Assist service is available to members and non members:

http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/news/aa-fuel-assist.html

 

[219]

It may have improved now , but it used to be the case that the colour coding of petrol pump nozzles was not standardized across different brands .

Now , I think , most use green nozzles for unleaded , black for Diesel , maybe red for leaded 4 star ( where you are lucky enough to find it ) or LRP .

There certainly used to be confusion with a certain colour representing one fuel on one forecourt and a different fuel elsewhere .

I normally am quite careful about this , however , I know at times our minds can be on other things and mistakes can happen.

Perhaps pumps which dispense multiple fuels are the problem and fewer mistakes would occur if completely separate pumps were used for each type of fuel as in the past .

As for this device which prevents mis-fuelling - is it simply the diameter of the nozzle that is restricted ? I know they did this with unleaded some years ago by making unleaded-only cars with a tiny filler neck that would not accept a regular nozzle . Thing is , many Diesel pumps have large nozzles for filling up trucks etc , others I have seen just look the same size as petrol pumps so I can't see how this would work .

BTW , my two newest vehicles are my 1986 W126 and my 1987 W201 ; I consider these 'modern' - they are certainly more advanced in many ways than a lot of the other vehicles one sees on the roads .

 

[Rory]

If you put diesel in a petrol or vice versa then your IQ must be lower than that of a goldfish IMHO

You can't put diesel in a petrol as the nozzle won't fit.

I drive both types and came within an ace of putting Petrol on my diesel Merc - I'd stopped at an Asda filling station that I'd never been to before and it was pay-at-pump only. The first card I tried wouldn't work and the queue was growing behind me. Feeling under some pressure, I got another card which worked, grabbed the nozzle and was just squeezing the trigger when, thank God, I realised it was petrol.

 

[oldcro]

Oops!