Arriva Railways Poland
Arriva RP Sp. z o.o. is a Polish private rail carrier providing services in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian, Masovian, Pomeranian and Warmian-Masurian regions of Poland. After entering the Polish rail market through a joint venture with PCC Rail, Arriva has grown to become a significant passenger rail services operator in the country.
Operating out of multiple depots, refueling of trains takes place overnight and is overseen by a variety of employees, including by train drivers themselves. Arriva were looking to secure the refueling process at these depots and to increase the visibility of the movement of fuel throughout their trains and sites.
By using the EasyFuelPlus Automatic Vehicle Identification (AVI) system, Arriva are able to control the dispensing of fuel into all tanks on the trains. Utilizing robust Passive Tag Adaptors, which are custom manufactured to fit easily and securely on each train’s specific tank inlet, the solution enables nozzle to tank authentication, providing the security of knowing that the right amount of fuel is being dispensed only into authorized trains.
The fueling process is convenient, secure and efficient: the train stops at the refueling facility and the driver/employee identifies themselves by presenting their individual handheld keyfob tag to the tag reader on the pedestal. Meanwhile, the Vehicle Identification Device (VID) mounted in the cab of the train has been wirelessly recognized by the system and the distance traveled since the last refueling, derived via a GPS Odometer Sender also mounted in the train’s cab, is automatically read and recorded. When the dispensing nozzle is inserted into the train’s fuel inlet, the passive tag is read by the RFN mounted on the nozzle and is linked by the system to the previously read VID, after which the business rules are checked and, if authorized, refueling commences. At any time during fueling, if the nozzle is removed from the fuel tank, the pump will be stopped until such time as it is replaced into the original tank; this eliminates fuel being dispensed for unauthorized purposes.
The three Arriva depots are equipped with OTI PetroSmart’s EasyFuelPlus EFM5 Homebase Pedestals, which allow all components necessary for implementing the automatic identification of the trains to be housed together in a single secure and robust pedestal positioned next to the refueling pumps and tanks.
Each of the three refueling locations are equipped with a lockable emergency box, in which a designated “emergency override tag” is kept. The emergency override tag is a handheld keyfob tag which ensures that train refueling can still take place in the event of failure of one or more of the tags attached to the train. The emergency override process is carried out using the tag reader and keyboard mounted on the face of the EFM5 Pedestal. The EFM5 pedestal is also used to register bulk fuel deliveries to the on-site tanks.
Finally, all train refueling, distances traveled, emergency override and bulk delivery data is recorded by the system and uploaded to a central server. By utilizing OTI PetroSmart’s FuelReporter web service, Arriva are able to remotely analyse refueling patterns, assess fuel consumption and monitor operational issues in a simple and efficient manner.
