The forecourt protection system from Vars Technology has reached the milestone of detecting one million visits by drivers of vehicles previously blacklisted for fuel theft, across the petrol stations it protects.
It says that by highlighting these potentially rogue motorists before they are able to carry out further criminal activity, it has saved operators from losing millions of pounds in further petrol and diesel losses.
Figures from the RAC Foundation show that there was a 77% increase in incidents of fuel theft in 2023 compared to the previous year. Over a five-year period, fuel theft incidents have increased fourfold.
Drivers that have previously failed to pay for fuel from a site protected by Vars, including those that had no means of payment and later failed to rectify the missing payment, are added to a national blacklist. When those vehicles are then recorded by automatic number plate recognition technology while entering another protected forecourt, automatic notifications are provided. This allows cashiers to refuse to open a pump, and to prevent drive-offs before they happen.
With a blacklist of known offenders shared across all sites, Vars says that its customers are protected by an ever-growing database of vehicles and drivers known to have previously committed fuel theft. Over 72,000 vehicles have been added to the blacklist by more than 1,300 sites. No means of payment or drive-offs can be reported and added to the blacklist in less than two minutes. And Vars claims to offer the highest recovery rates in the industry, typically in as little as two weeks.
Vars Technology director John Garnett says: “Fuel theft is a growing problem for forecourt retailers, so we are very proud of the fact that our customers are increasingly bucking that trend and protecting themselves from drive-off incidents.
“As our database of vehicles that have previously committed a drive-off continues to grow, forecourts ranging from independent retailers to large chains have a growing additional layer of protection against fuel loss. With many drive-offs coming from repeat offenders that target sites where they experience little or no repercussions, they are quickly learning theft from sites protected by Vars results in rapid and effective debt recovery.”
Vars also allows forecourts to manage their available parking, helping to free up spaces for paying customers, and is a fully accredited member of the British Parking Association.
