With diesel passing £2 a litre in October for the first time, every litre in your tank is worth more to you than ever, which also makes it worth more to anyone who wants to take it. Rural fuel theft was already rising, crime intelligence firm DeterTech reported a 120% rise in rural fuel thefts in March and April 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier, as reported by Farmers Weekly, and Police forces including North Yorkshire Police have now stepped up visits to farms and issued security advice.
The difficult part is that most fuel losses don’t look like a break-in. A few hundred litres here and there can disappear for months before anyone notices. So how do you know if fuel is being stolen from your tank?
Why fuel theft is easy to miss
Fuel can go missing in more than one way. Thieves may siphon from a tank, a bowser or parked vehicles overnight. Fuel may also be drawn by someone on site who isn’t authorised, or put into a vehicle it was never meant for.
If you rely on manual dips, a paper log by the pump or a meter reading at the end of the month, none of these show up straight away. By the time the numbers look wrong, the fuel is long gone and it is hard to work out when or how it happened.
Five signs fuel may be going missing
Look out for:
- stock that doesn’t add up: what was delivered, minus what was dispensed, doesn’t match what is in the tank
- sudden drops in level, especially overnight or at weekends when no one should be refuelling
- deliveries that don’t match the paperwork, or no clear record of when a delivery arrived
- vehicles using more fuel than usual with no change in work, route or load
- fills you can’t explain: unusual times, unfamiliar vehicles, or more fuel than a vehicle’s tank should hold
One of these on its own may have an innocent explanation. Several together are worth investigating.
Turn the warning signs into alerts
The aim is to find out within hours, not at the next stock check.
MX-T tank management monitors your tank in real time and sends an SMS or email alert if the level drops suddenly. It also detects deliveries and warns you when stock runs low, so you can see exactly when fuel came in and when it went out.
At the pump, the MX-M fuel management system ensures fuel is only issued to authorised users identified by DataKey, DataTag or vLink. Every transaction is recorded against a user and vehicle, which makes unexplained fills much easier to spot. If you refuel from bowsers on remote or off-grid sites, the MX-E battery-powered fuel management system brings the same control to places without mains power.
FuelWorks fuel management software brings that data into web-based reports, across one site or several. Scheduled reports can land in your inbox each week, so reviewing usage by vehicle and driver becomes a routine check rather than an investigation.
Physical security still matters
Monitoring tells you when something is wrong. Physical security makes it harder to happen.
Merridale fuel storage tanks feature anti-vandal metal roller shutter doors, so the pump and controls can be locked away when the site is closed. Our pumps and fuel management systems also have screens and lights that illuminate automatically when they are needed and dim when they are not, so your refuelling point doesn’t draw unwanted attention at night.
It is also commonly advised to:
- keep tanks in view, in a locked compound or cage
- fit lockable caps and keep valves secured
- use security lighting and CCTV around fuel storage
- not leave full bowsers unattended over weekends or long breaks
- lock gates and block unused access points
Your next step
If you can’t say with confidence how much fuel left your tank last week, and where it went, that is the place to start. Call Merridale on 01902 350 700 to talk through your site and how tank monitoring and fuel management could help you spot losses sooner.