THE COMPLETE ONLINE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

TUESDAY JAN 26 2010

TIPS FOR FILLING YOUR VEHICLES

THIS is a Message received from a friend: I don't know what you guys are paying for petrol... but here in Durban, we are also paying higher, up to 47.35 per litre. But my line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money's worth for every litre.

Here at the Marian Hill Pipeline, where I work in Durban, we deliver about 4 million litres in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline. One day is diesel; the next day is jet fuel, and petrol, LRP and Unleaded.

We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 litres. ONLY BUY OR FILL UP YOUR CAR OR BIKKIE IN THE EARLY MORNING WHEN THE GROUND TEMPERATURE IS STILL COLD. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground.

The colder the ground, the denser the fuel, when it gets warmer petrol expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening.... your litre is not exactly a litre. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the petrol, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products play an important role. A 1degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps. Compiled by Ramesh Patel on 16.03.2008 @ 10:00Hrs. Page 1 of 2

WHEN YOU'RE FILLING UP, DO NOT SQUEEZE THE TRIGGER OF THE NOZZLE TO A FAST MODE. If you look, you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low,
Compiled by Ramesh Patel on 16.03.2008 @ 10:00Hrs. Page 2 of 2
middle, and high. In slow mode, you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapours that are created, while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapour return.

If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapour. Those vapours are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less worth for your money.

ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT TIPS IS TO FILL UP WHEN YOUR TANK IS HALF FULL. The reason for this is, the more fuel you have in your tank, the less air occupying its empty space. Petrol evaporates faster than you can imagine. Petroleum storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the petrol and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated, so that every litre is actually the exact amount.

ANOTHER REMINDER, IF THERE IS A FUEL TRUCK PUMPING INTO THE STORAGE TANKS, WHEN YOU STOP TO BUY, DO NOT FILL UP - most likely the petrol/diesel is being stirred up as the fuel is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom. Hope, this will help you get the maximum value for your money. DO SHARE THESE TIPS WITH OTHERS! LET’S SHARE INFORMATION AND BENEFIT ALL, FOR THE BETTER OF MANKIND.

THE STORY DOES NOT END HERE

ONCE upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about who was faster.

They decided to settle the argument with a race. They agreed on a route and started off the race.

The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he'd sit under a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race. He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep.

The tortoise plodding on overtook him and soon finished the race, emerging
as the undisputed champ.

The hare woke up
and realized that he'd lost the race.
The moral- "Slow and steady wins the race. This is the version of the
story that we've all grown up with."

THE STORY DOESN'T END HERE

there are few more interesting
things.....it continues as follows......

The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some
soul-searching.
He realized that he'd lost the race only because he had been
overconfident,
careless and lax.
If he had not taken things for granted, there's no way the tortoise could
have beaten him. So he challenged the tortoise to another race.
The tortoise agreed. This time, the hare went all out and ran without
stopping from start to finish. He won by several miles.
The moral - " Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady.
It's good to be slow and steady; but it's better to be fast and reliable."

THE STORY DOESN'T END HERE

The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realized that there's no
way it can beat the hare in a race the way it was currently formatted.

It thought for a while, and then challenged the hare to another race, but
on a slightly different route. The hare agreed. They started off. In
keeping
with his self-made commitment to be consistently fast, the hare took off
and
ran at top speed until he came to a broad river. The finishing line was a
couple of kilometres on the other side of the river.

The hare sat there
wondering what to do.
In the meantime the tortoise trundled along, got into the river, swam to
the opposite bank, continued walking and finished the race.

The moral - "First identify your core competency and then change the
playing field to suit your core competency."

THE STORY STILL HASN'T ENDED

The hare and the tortoise, by this time, had become pretty good friends
and they did some thinking together.

Both realized that the last race could
have been run much better. So they decided to do the last race again, but
to
run as a team this time.

They started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till the
riverbank. There, the tortoise took over and swam
across with the hare on his back. On the opposite bank, the hare again
carried
the tortoise and they reached the finishing line together. They both felt
a
greater sense of satisfaction than they'd felt earlier.
The moral - "It's good to be individually brilliant and to have strong
core competencies; but unless you're able to work in a team and harness
each
other's core competencies, you'll always perform below par because
there will always be situations at which you'll do poorly and someone else

does well.

Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person
with the relevant core competency for a situation take leadership.
Note that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures. The
hare decided to work harder and put in more effort after his failure. The
tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard as
he could."
In life, when faced with failure,
sometimes it is appropriate to work
harder and put in more effort.

Sometimes it is appropriate to change strategy and try something
different.

And sometimes it is appropriate to do both.

The hare and the tortoise also learnt another vital lesson. When we stop
competing against a rival and instead start competing against the
situation, we perform far better.

To sum up- the story of the hare and tortoise has much to say:
Chief among them are that fast and consistent will always beat slow and
steady;work to your competencies; pooling resources and working as a team
will always beat individual performers; never give up when faced with
failure; & finally, compete against the situation - not against a rival.

Cheers!

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