Finding Nigeria's missing fuel trucks

[lordbanks]

This sounds like a job for Delivery Science.

Government to track fuel trucks to curb diversion

[xolubi]

@lanreezy you have been summoned.

[lanreezy]

@lordbanks @xolubi Lol. We sent a cold email in to DPR in December. If anyone knows someone we can talk to, I’m ready to hop on a plane to Abuja today.

[akindolu]

This was my final year project. Device to track, control and monitor fluid(liquid actually) in a tank, hoping Schlumberger or Haliburton will pitch into it after school as impressive. Lol. Those days mhen.

[xolubi]

Baba Y U NO work for DS?

[akindolu]

(redacted)

[techscorpion]

It seems the problem is trickier than just tracking trucks. i got this from today’s Businessday:

[lawwyy]

how so? cant read the prints.

[techscorpion]

@lawwyy

how so? cant read the prints.

You should be able to click on the image to zoom in. If not, it starts getting interesting here:

Sources say the fuel smuggled into Benin is both on artisanal and industrial scale, with modes of transportation including fully loaded fuel tankers, motorcycles carrying plastic jerry cans, cars in which the back seats have been replaced with fuel tanks, and trucks with smugglers using both main roads and back roads. Others use small boats in the coastal lagoons or sailing offshore, often towing groups of jerry cans tied together or even larger barges.

and finishes with this money shot:

Filling stations, according to our sources, deliberately exist to service the illegal trade.

and adds this bit for extras:

Customs officials did not respond to request for comments.

[lawwyy]

LMAO! My naija people, good grief. That’s a huge challenge but it most likely starts with the tankers apart from illegal bunkering, so its still within range of a tracking solution, the truck and the content volume at every point in time but that’s easy for me to say. The filling station station issue is outright bunkering.

Any real Nigerian tech solution will be an overkill in other parts of the world.

[ValentineO]

irrespective of what ever means of smuggling that was written in the paper, i still believe this is something tracking devices will take care of provided its a case of rerouting fuel tankers from their intended destination to some other places(and not a case of illegal bunkering) . This isn’t rocket science. Geo fencing can prevent trucks from leaving a particular geo area, while you can have some other proceses that can monitor the point were the fluid(in this case fuel/disel/kerosene) is dispensed from.

[neo]

wow! This screen shot reminds me of my father. Been a long time i actually saw an open newspaper. The best i’ve read from a physical newspaper in a long while is the paper’s homepage, sorry, front page.

Maybe DPR is waiting for BlackBerry to pitch its own truck tracking service (BlackBerry Rader) to them and then go ahead to spend tax payers’ money exorbitantly when Delivery Science will probably do the same if not a better job.

[techscorpion]

@neo

Maybe DPR is waiting for BlackBerry to pitch its own truck tracking service (BlackBerry Rader) to them and then go ahead to spend tax payers’ money exorbitantly when Delivery Science will probably do the same if not a better job.

Deals aren’t closed on forums nor are they closed by waiting for DPR’s call.

He is lucky who realizes that luck is the point where preparation meets opportunity

- Seneca the Younger

[techscorpion]

@neo

wow! This screen shot reminds me of my father. Been a long time i actually saw an open newspaper.

BusinessDay is a damn fine paper. It’s devoid of the political noise that’s Punch, Thisday et al, and always contains at least one gem. You should read it more often.

[Tola]

It’s called youthful optimism…Never grow old my friend, Never.