QT Petroleum On Demand (POD) is expected to launch an updated model of its self-served fueling system, which will be capable of dispensing multiple fuels – including the ground fuels its parent company EPIC Fuels is beginning to offer.
EPIC recently announced it would expand its capabilities by offering ground fuels for ground support equipment in addition to the company’s aviation fuels.
Ground fuel products will include blended gasohol, reformulated gasoline (RFG), and both summer and winter blends of Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) gasoline. Clear or conventional gasoline (gasoline without ethanol) is available as well. EPIC’s ground fuel products also include ultra-low sulfur diesel, premium and winterized diesel blends.
“We often find that our aviation customers need ground fuels in addition to Jet and Avgas. By providing a full suite of ground fuels including all grades of gasoline, diesel and off-road diesel in addition to aviation fuels, our goal is to make it easy and efficient for our customers to get the fuels they need to help their business thrive,” Lee Jones, EPIC Fuels vice president of supply, said in a press release.
Currently on its third generation of self-serve fueling systems, the M3000, QT POD is represented at more than 1,400 airports throughout the U.S. and Canada. Tentatively called the M4000, the company’s upcoming model is being tested by USAirports at the Greater Rochester International Airport.
“The driving force behind the development of this new product is to expand the capabilities of our fuel management systems beyond self-serve fueling into ground fuels, marina fueling, fleet operations for municipalities and private entities,” explains QT POD’s sales and marketing director Matt Duncan.
The new system is capable of dispensing both fuels for ground support equipment as well as aviation fuels.
“It can do either. Our system doesn’t care what fuel is being dispensed,” Duncan says.
Because ground fuel is an area QT POD is looking to operate in, Duncan points out his company’s system is able to track multiple accounts, provide the information collected in real time and share that information with customers through its updated software hosted in the cloud.
“At an airport, you may have various ground support companies that come and need to fill up their equipment – tugs, whatever that may be. There is going to be a need for separate accounting by who is getting that fuel,” he says. “We would be able to track that and track those accounts accordingly.”
Duncan adds that the new system can handle up to eight pumps with a single kiosk – twice as much as the M3000’s capacity. The new model will allow temperature compensation for better accuracy when reconciling fuel. Plus updates have been made to improve the communications, keypad, display and cabinet.
Duncan says the newest QT POD fueling system, planned to be launched at the NBAA Schedulers and Dispatchers Conference in Fort Worth, Texas, this February, will allow information to be integrated more effectively, which will help streamline fueling operations.
“Being able to reach a wider variety of customers and provide those solutions is going to be great for our company,” he says. “But I think it’s going to offer a lot more to our customer base that they’re not currently getting.”
