Chad Bryan, Gleaner Writer

Continuing initiatives to set themselves apart from their competitors in the fuel industry locally, last Tuesday, Total Jamaica Limited launched its fuelling card in Jamaica. Held at the Legacy Suite of The Jamaica Pegasus hotel, Knutsford Boulevard, New Kingston, the launch attracted a number of persons from the automotive industry,

The

Total Card, which enables motorists to purchase fuel and other items

from Total service stations across the island, uses smart chip

technology. At the launch, the card was presented as being convenient to

use, putting individuals and business owners in total control of their

personal vehicle or entire fleet's fuel

consumption.

It is also being billed as the perfect

tool for safer and convenient refuelling.

Electronic

chip

The card uses an intelligent electronic chip

that is operated on real-time point of sales terminals installed at

Total service stations in Jamaica and networked to the head office on

Hope Road in Kingston. It comes in prepaid and postpaid formats and is

equipped with a number of tamper-proof security

protocols.

Network manager of Total Jamaica Limited,

Howard Henry, emphasised the integrity of the card. "One of the

important features of the card is the generation of anomaly reports. The

moment something is not consistent with the parameters you set for this

card, then there will be an anomaly report," he

said.

The cardholder is able to keep close tabs on

usage themselves. "Each time you go online, the system will tell you if a

person tried to enter the pin more than once and failed, or if persons

enter a mileage that is inconsistent with the mileage that the vehicle

should be doing based on its last fill-up," Henry

said.

Security measure

Another

security measure is blocking of the card if the incorrect pin is entered

three times consecutively. Radio frequency identification (RFID) is

also employed to ensure that the correct card is being used for the

vehicle being supplied with fuel.

A level of

customisation is available to tailor the card to the holder's

requirements. "You can create a parameter if you want the card to access

fuel only, store supplies, lubricants or just fuel or all of the

above," Henry continued, explaining that once the card is used to

purchase anything outside of the established parameters, it is then

blocked.

The Total Card has been launched in other

countries, among them Zambia, Cameroon and

Ghana.

