To ensure reliability MIS Fuel Monitoring has supplied a hardened version of its Merridale Auditor FT control unit, using stainless steel enclosures to protect the equipment against the corrosive nature of a waterfront environment.

Quay Marinas selected the Merridale solution following a competitive evaluation, undertaken by Quay Marinas’ company secretary, Paul Rye

‘Previously, fuel sales were recorded in a hand written log, reconciled daily against the pump meter readings. While there is a human element there is always going to be a risk of errors, said Jon Roberts, manager of the group’s Conwy Marina. ‘We needed a more reliable method. Keeping track on customer accounts and auditing fuel sales was becoming increasingly time consuming. When discrepancies occurred, it was not easy to establish which transactions were involved or who actually dispensed the fuel.’

The new system uses a smart key which identifies automatically whether the user is a customer account holder or a particular member of staff. As an additional security measure, a PIN number is entered on the keypad to turn the pump on. The system then records the amount of fuel drawn and details are stored in memory for downloading as required to the marina’s administration computer.

The information is processed using Merridale FuelFX software. This provides a print out at the end of each day to show how much fuel has been dispensed which can be reconciled against cash and account sales. Other functions include monthly reports for customer billing and stock control.

Jon Roberts added, ‘Keys have been issued to twenty account holders plus twelve members of marina staff who are authorised to serve fuel. Should a key go missing it is simply locked out of the system and a replacement issued. We can now reconcile all fuel purchased to fuel dispensed. With Merridale we have full management control. Should we have any anomalies, the system will show when that fuel was dispensed and by whom.’

MJ Information No: 22417