Hi, I'm an investigator with a federal agency. We have a case pending concerning the layoff of several truckers. Once of the reasons the Employer advances for its decision to lay off the drivers is alleged sabotage. According to the the Employer, for several months they had issues with water in the fuel line. While the initially believed that their fuel supplier was to blame, the supplier denied that it had any other problems.

The Employer states that because there was not water in the fuel line in every truck in its fleet that re-fueled at this particular fuel supplier's location and because the the problem was sporadic, they eliminated the fuel supplier as the cause of the problem and concluded that employee drivers were sabotaging their equipment. They also state that it would take approximately 20 gallons of water in each tank to cause the filter to clog and shut down the truck.

Drivers tell me that it would take subtantially less water to clog the filter. They also state that there was substantiall evidence that the supplier was to blame--but can't provide me with the names of other truckers who may have had similar water in the filter issues. Further, the drivers state that a fuel supplier will routinely deny its responsibility in order to avoid liability. Last, the drivers maintain that if they received the water in the fuel from their supplier, it could be sporadic and only affect some trucks.

Can any of you offer me your professional opinion on the two stories I'm getting?

In my opinion it would take far less than 20 gallons of water to produce problems, and plug a fuel filter.

20 gallons of water going thru a system designed to only burn diesel would produce a lot of performance issues!

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We have a fuel station here in town that supplies diesel and gas to local farms and contractors....I've personally pulled no telling how many quart jars of water from lawn mowers,tractors,my welding truck and welder,my wifes car and during the time we had been fueling ONLY at that location with the exception being my big truck which never had a problem .... The supplier sold fuel every day and continues to (without my patronage btw) and not everyone was affected...It depends on how low his supply tanks were at the time of fueling and other things can screw a filter up in a NYC second...Did this company use good diesel and then run biodiesel at other times?The bio cleans algae and all kinds of crap out and runs it right into the filters where it shuts you down.As far as the amount of water it takes to shut one down , VERY little....and it also depends on what the powerplant was,its water filtration system etc....I'd say you have a crappy fuel supplier on your hands without knowing anymore about the case.

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"I have trouble remembering names,may I just call you Scrote ?"

NO HABLA JIBBER JABBER

"Haven't I told you a million times not to exaggerate"

Every so often, I like to stick my head out the window, look up, and smile for a satellite picture

CBA # 454

Thanks guys. Any other feedback is appreciated. The employer laid off 36 drivers and attributes its decision to "sabotage". If the agency determines that the company determined to do this for an illegal reason, any suggestions on who/where I would go to find an "expert" on this issue?

Is this case related to the Cisco case?

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-onlin...53977052.shtml

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For an expert you could call fuel suppliers and ask them. Tell them you are a potential buyer. Good chance they'll never talk to you if they know you are an investigator.

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I know that I put in 190 gallons in tifton Ga. and made it to raleigh N.c. and plugged my fuel filter with water and all kinds of crap. It was no 20 gallons of water to plug the filter just a slight film in top of the fuel in the filter. If it took 20 gallons of water to pug I will be one pi**ed off mofo that I bought 20 gallons of water at 4 bucks a gallon.

Yeah ..those filters at the end of the pump hose are a sick joke.It wont filter water at all and they still push crap through because the fuel stop operator NEVER changes them until they are ragged out or quit all together.Look at one the next time you fuel and I'll bet it looks like its 10 years old.

__________________
"I have trouble remembering names,may I just call you Scrote ?"

NO HABLA JIBBER JABBER

"Haven't I told you a million times not to exaggerate"

Every so often, I like to stick my head out the window, look up, and smile for a satellite picture

CBA # 454

Oh yah those filters look worse than a lot lizard. With the new low sulfer fuels I am clogging filters twice as fast.

Why don´t you take watersamples of those trucks...that way you can trace where the water is from...
You can detect tap water quite easy...