1,400 of fuel pumps tested found to be faulty

UP TO 1,400 fuel pumps tested by the National Standards Authority of Ireland last year were found to have been damaged, defective or wrongly calibrated.

More than 17,000 measuring instruments, such as supermarket weighing scales, taxi meters and petrol and diesel pumps were tested for accuracy by the authority’s legal metrology service in 2010. Almost half of the instruments tested were fuel pumps.

Of the 8,000 petrol and diesel pumps tested at 1,300 service stations some 1,400 were found to need adjustment or recalibration and were the subject of warnings from the authority.

A further 600 warnings were issued to other industries where scales or meters were found to be inaccurate, defective or had been subject to unauthorised or fraudulent adjustment.

Of the 2,000 warnings given to all industries just 13 were not complied with and necessitated prosecution by the authority. All of these related to taxi meters.

Some 4,500 taxi meters were tested last year and while most were found to be working properly, the industry had a higher level of non-compliance than any other where the charge or cost to consumers is dependent on accurate measurement, authority chief executive Maurice Buckley said.

“Levels of compliance in general are very good but the taxi industry is one area where we do have issues. Generally the problem is that the seal on the meter is broken and the driver is unable to explain why or just doesn’t respond.”

Supermarkets and service stations were more likely to comply with warnings, Mr Buckley said, because having a petrol pump or scales on a premises which had clearly been taken out of use by the authority would have a devastating effect on a business.

“If a customer sees petrol pump with NSAI tape around it and the message that it’s been taken out of service by the legal metrology service, they’ll know why.

“There’s very little sympathy for the rogue trader either among customers or the majority of businesses who are honest traders, so there’s a huge incentive to ensure that never happens.”

In the majority of cases where a service station pump did not meet the authority’s standards, it was not because it was dispensing less fuel than indicated on the meter, Mr Buckley said.

“In some cases it will be that a car has backed into a pump and damaged the meter, rather than that it has been tampered with.”