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The problem is that gasoline weighs approximately 6 lbs. and diesel is 7. That means for each meter tested, someone has to lift and walk 30-35 lbs. across the station driveway to the tank field and pour into a 4” opening 5 gallons of fuel 16 to 24 times or up to 840 pounds. Now when you calibrate a station with 24 meters, it will require up to 5 attempts on each meter to reach an exact 5 gallon reading. That means 120 trips to the tank field totaling 3600 lbs…. without spilling a drop. Calibration time, 7 hours. How accurate to you think the calibration process will be by the half way point??
A meter out of calibration or in other words, a meter that gives product away or keeps it, is nothing new. The agency that regulates measuring devises here in the United States is known as NIST. (National Institute of Standards and Technology) According to NIST, a meter can dispense 5 gallons of fuel and be off +6 cubic inches or be under -6. Any measurement above “0” into the + is giving away product. It’s a known fact that gasoline meters generally favor the driver not the station owner. The meter wears out easily because gasoline is a corrosive not a lubricant. Now a gallon of fuel is also measured in cubic inches, 231 to be exact.
Take the price of a gallon of fuel and divide it by 231. Example: $4.059 divided by 231 equals $ 0.017 or almost 2 cents per cubic inch. The average meter out of calibration ranges from +3 to +5. That means +3 @ .017 cents equals $0.051 total cents per 5 gallons sold or 1 penny per gallon. If a station is selling 200,000 gallons a month, then that station is giving away $2,040.00 each month or $24,480.00 a year. If a distributor has 300 locations that loss totals over $7 million a year. And by the way, that loss cannot be used as a deduction on your taxes.
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