Fuel Monitoring System in Akola: Diesel Level on Your Phone

Start with the vehicle that burns the most diesel. A heavy truck hauling soybean meal or edible oil from the food-processing units spends long days on the highway, and for it the Omnicomm LLS-AF 4 is the natural pick. It is a wired probe in a sealed IP69K body, powered from the vehicle supply, with its cable running to the analog input of the tracker. There is no sensor battery to remember, which suits a truck that may work for many years without a long rest in the yard.

Cotton pickups and small tempos do a different job. They stop at a farm, a ginning unit and a pressing yard many times a day, and they are often parked in crowded lanes where an extra cable run is a nuisance. A Bluetooth probe such as the Mercetech removes the signal cable between probe and tracker. The probe itself still goes into the tank from above, so the tank must allow that. A wireless probe works on its own battery, and that battery is a consumable part outside the warranty.

Buses and tempo travellers for the coaching institutes and the Shegaon route are a third case. If the tank on such a vehicle is plastic, or awkward to wire at the fitting point, the Mielta Fantom may suit it better. It uses Bluetooth 5.0, sits on a four-bolt steel flange that works with metal or plastic tanks, and senses temperature and tilt. BearTech confirms the exact model and probe length after checking your tank, and may supply an equivalent model if the listed one is not available.

All three options cost the same, ₹19,999 per vehicle, so the choice depends on the tank and the working conditions and not on the budget. A mixed fleet is perfectly normal: wired probes on the long-haul trucks, a Bluetooth probe on the pickups, and everything visible under one Trakzee Premium login. Send the registration number and a photo of the tank on WhatsApp, and BearTech will name the option that suits each vehicle. The probe is cut to your tank depth at fitting, up to about 3 m.

A good enquiry saves a day. Message 97526 44035 on WhatsApp with five things: the type of vehicle, its registration number, how many vehicles you have, the fuel it burns and the tank size in litres if you know it. Diesel is what this package is built for. If you run a truck, a bus or a pickup, say so plainly, because the choice of probe depends on the tank and on how that tank is mounted on the chassis.

Add a photo of the tank if you can, taken from the side and, where possible, from above, so that the cap and the opening are visible. Mention whether the tank is steel or plastic, whether it has ever been repaired, and whether the vehicle has more than one tank. The package price covers one sensor per vehicle, and a second tank or sensor is quoted separately on request. Also say where the vehicle will stand during the fitting, for example your own yard in Akola or a plant premises.

Tell BearTech at once if your need is a generator, a storage tank, a car or a bike, because this package is built around a vehicle tracker and those cases deserve a straight answer before any order. Anything that needs a lock on the tank also falls outside this product, since the system reports and alerts only. Raising this at the start means nobody is disappointed at the handover, and BearTech will tell you honestly what fits.

What happens next is short. BearTech replies with the sensor and probe length that suit your tank, the final price for your order, and the travel and stay charges for coming to Akola, which the client pays. Delivery takes about two working days, subject to availability, and COD with a token amount is available for orders outside Bhopal. Payment in full is taken at installation, and there is no return, refund or exchange afterwards, so settle the sensor choice at this stage.

The fitting follows six steps. BearTech first checks the vehicle and tank, noting the tank type, the fuel and the probe length needed. A hole is made in the upper surface of the tank, the probe is cut to depth, and the sensor is fixed and sealed. The Teltonika FMB920 is wired to the vehicle and linked to the sensor, by cable for the Omnicomm or by Bluetooth for the other two. Calibration then matches the readings to real litres, and the vehicle is added to Trakzee Premium.

For Akola the arrangement differs from Bhopal. In Bhopal the fitting at your location is included in the price. Akola lies outside Bhopal, so a BearTech executive travels to your yard, and the travel and stay charges are paid by the client. BearTech states these charges before you order, so there is no surprise on the day. If you have several vehicles, bring them to one place so a single visit covers all of them; a fleet spread over many sites may need more travel.

Prepare the vehicle and the tank. The vehicle must be at the site, the tank must be reachable and reasonably clean, and for calibration it should be filled and drained as the executive directs, because a badly filled tank gives poor readings later. Keep the registration number and tank size handy, and have the driver or someone who knows the vehicle present. You do not need to buy, cut or wire anything yourself, as the whole job is done by BearTech.

At handover the executive checks the live fuel level and the alerts with you at the site. Payment is 100% at installation, with COD on a token amount possible outside Bhopal. Rusted, dented or altered tanks can disturb readings, and recalibration after a tank repair is chargeable. The package carries a one-year warranty with AMC on the tracker and sensor, and service visits later are chargeable, with travel and stay paid by the client outside Bhopal. For login, alerts and fuel-report questions, the support line is 99937 84035 during working hours.

BearTech quotes about 95% accuracy under normal conditions, after proper installation and calibration. The word normal matters. Tank shape and condition, fuel quality, road slope and vehicle movement all move the figure. The Akola district is a flat plain, which helps, but a ramp at a mill, a loading dock or a bumpy village lane still makes the diesel slosh. Rough driving, dirt, water or sludge in the diesel, and a tank that was not filled or drained properly during calibration can also bend the numbers.

Treat the reading as a monitoring figure and not as a measuring instrument. It is not meant to settle fuel for sale, billing or a dispute with a customer or a pump. Its strength is the pattern: a vehicle that normally shows a steady curve and then departs from it. The system also cannot physically stop anyone taking diesel out, and BearTech is not liable for fuel lost through drivers or other people. It records, reports and alerts.

Data travels over the Airtel network, so a weak patch on a feeder road can hold a reading back until the tracker finds coverage again. A late point is a network matter and not a sign of a faulty probe. The Omnicomm takes power from the vehicle, while the Mercetech and the Mielta Fantom run on internal batteries, which are consumable parts and not covered by the warranty. The tracker's own backup battery is also a consumable.

The commercial terms are plain. The package is ₹19,999 per vehicle, and there is no return, refund or exchange after installation. Damage from tampering, repair by anyone other than BearTech, water or overvoltage is outside the warranty, and refitting after a tank repair is chargeable. The one-year warranty includes AMC on the tracker and the sensor. From year two the software and SIM renewal is ₹3,000 per year, and live data may stop if the renewal is missed.

Akola's economy gives its vehicles a steady stream of work. The area counts 490 food-processing units centred on soybean meal and edible oil, 97 textile units and 144 metal-fabrication units, with ginning and pressing behind the cotton trade. All that output leaves by road, and a transporter with a handful of vehicles has many loading points to keep straight. For such an owner, diesel is among the heaviest running costs and the one least visible from the office.

The usual way of watching it is trust and a pump slip. A driver fills, hands over a bill, and the owner has no independent check of how much reached the tank or where it went after. That is not an accusation against drivers, most of whom are honest, but a gap in information. A probe in the tank closes that gap by producing a dated record of the level that neither the owner nor the driver can edit later.

Passenger work adds its own pressure. Coaching hubs and the agricultural university generate bus and van runs every day, and Shegaon draws pilgrim groups along NH 548C. Schedules here are fixed, so a bus that burns more diesel than its twin on the same run is easy to spot once the numbers exist. Without them the same difference is guessed at, argued over in the yard and eventually forgotten, while the extra diesel keeps being paid for week after week.

What the sensor changes is knowledge, not the market. It shows how much diesel a vehicle holds, when it was filled and when the level fell suddenly. BearTech does not promise a particular saving, because what you gain depends on your routes, your vehicles and how you act on the reports. Owners who read the data every week and speak to drivers about specific entries are the ones who get the most from it.

When diesel goes in, the level in the tank rises, and the platform records that step as a refill with its date, time and place. The entry appears without the driver doing anything. This gives the owner a second record to hold beside the pump slip. If the slip shows a bunk on NH 161 and the map places the refill near that bunk at the same hour, the two agree. If the map places it elsewhere, there is a question to ask.

Compare quantities as well. The rise in the graph should be close to the quantity on the slip, allowing for the accuracy of about 95% under normal conditions. A small gap is ordinary and means little. A large gap that keeps repeating on the same vehicle, or after the same driver's fill-ups, is what deserves a conversation. Keep the slips for the week with the report, so that the comparison takes minutes on Monday and not hours at the month end.

Fair readings need fair conditions. A vehicle that is filled on a slope, or one that is moving while the pump delivers, will show a step that is slightly off. Ask drivers to stand on level ground for a minute after filling, which lets the diesel settle before the next reading. For depot or plant refills, agree with the loading supervisor where the vehicle will stand. These small habits make the refill record steadier and spare you pointless arguments.

The refill record is also useful when diesel is supplied by someone else, such as a customer who issues fuel against a freight contract or an institute that fills its buses at a depot. The record shows what the tank received on the day. It is a monitoring aid and not a legal measure, so do not use it to bill or to settle a dispute over supply. Used as a cross-check beside the slip, it makes a tidy, honest habit for the whole fleet.