A fuel management fuel surcharge method comprising;
- (1) Queuing customer cargo for transport in a customer load cargo database;
- (2) Optimizing a load transport delivery schedule from said customer load cargo database;
- (3) Loading a vehicle for delivery and dispatch with said customer cargo;
- (4) Transporting said customer cargo to a delivery way-point with said vehicle and recording said cargo as delivered;
- (5) Transmitting fuel level sensor information from the fuel tank of said vehicle via a fuel level transponder to a fuel level recording system and a fuel accounting system;
- (6) Recording said vehicle fuel tank level, GPS coordinates, and real-time clock value at said delivery way-point;
- (7) Determining if there is cargo to load at said delivery way-point, and if so, proceeding to said step (1);
- (8) Determining if there are more deliveries to complete, and if so, proceeding to said step (4);
- (9) Transferring said recorded vehicle fuel tank level, GPS coordinates, and real-time clock value way point information to an accounting computer system;
- (10) Calculating the actual costs and fuel surcharge for individual cargo deliveries based on said transferred recorded way-point information;
- and
- (11) Generating a customer cargo load delivery billing report from said calculated actual costs and fuel surcharges;
- wherein:
- said transmitting fuel level sensor information from said fuel tank of said vehicle via a fuel level transponder to a fuel level recording system and a fuel accounting system comprise determining a current fuel level of said fuel tank and producing measurement output responsive to said current fuel level with a fuel level sensor;
- said fuel level sensor is a fuel tank cap utilizing an ultrasonic transducer which transmits ultrasonic enemy into a fuel filler tube said fuel tank and measures the return echo time of said ultrasonic energy after said ultrasonic energy impinges on a surface of fuel contained within the fuel tank;
- said fuel level sensor comprises a fuel level sensor transponder which accepts said fuel level sensor measurement output responsive to said current fuel level and transmits said fuel level sensor measurement output;
- said fuel accounting system is configured to receive said transmitted fuel level sensor measurement output, store said transmitted fuel level sensor measurement output into a database associated with a fuel consuming system of said fuel tank, and calculate a difference between a predetermined fuel tank level and said current fuel level;
- and
- said fuel level sensor measurement output is compensated based on characteristics of said fuel tank and said fuel level sensor by interpolating values contained in a fuel tank calibration table, said fuel tank calibration table being previously generated by a process of evacuating the contents of said fuel tank followed by incremental additions of fuel to said fuel tank coupled with recording said fuel level sensor measurement output associated with the fuel level corresponding to said incremental fuel additions.