The Tanker With the Wrong Pass
You are the gate guard at the main entrance of a tea factory in Dibrugarh district, working the 22:00–06:00 shift alone. At 01:40 a diesel tanker arrives to refuel the standby generator. The driver hands over a gate pass issued by the stores department. The pass is dated the previous day and carries vehicle number AS-04-TC-7719, but the tanker in front of you is AS-01-LK-2280. The driver says his regular vehicle broke down, the consignor sent a replacement, and 'the pass does not matter at night.' Your register shows 8,000 litres expected; his challan shows 12,000 litres. The stores officer who signs passes does not answer his phone. Behind the tanker, three night-shift workers on motorcycles are waiting to leave through the same gate. The written gate procedure says no tanker may enter without a valid pass and a stores officer's signature, but also that the generator must not run dry during production hours.
1. What do you do in the first ten minutes, in what order, and what do you deliberately not do?
Read the worked answer
Order the priorities: people and traffic first, security decision second, paperwork third.
- Clear the lane. Direct the tanker to the holding area outside the barrier, then check the three motorcycles and let them leave through the second lane. The queue is a separate task and must not be used as pressure to admit the tanker.
- Do not admit. A pass issued for another vehicle number is not a valid pass for this vehicle. Accepting the driver's explanation transfers the entire risk of a 4,000-litre discrepancy onto you.
- Verify by other means. Check the driver's licence, the vehicle RC, the consignor's challan and the tank seal number. Call the plant shift engineer, who is on site at night, and your security supervisor. If the stores officer is unreachable, entry needs an authorised alternative in writing.
- Record the exception. If entry is authorised, log the actual vehicle number, the pass number and its mismatch, the challan quantity against the expected 8,000 litres, the driver's name and licence number, the name of the person who authorised entry and the exact time. Take a dip/ullage reading before and after, and confirm the seal is intact. A verbal 'let it in' with no name and time attached is worthless.
2. What do you record and to whom do you escalate before your shift ends?
Read the worked answer
Record in the daily activity register at the time of the event, not at 06:00 from memory.
- The mismatch itself is the finding. 12,000 litres delivered against 8,000 expected, on a pass for a different registration, is the classic signature of pilferage in a fuel delivery. Write it as fact with the figures, not as an accusation.
- The chain of calls. 'At 01:47 phoned shift engineer (name); at 01:52 phoned security supervisor (name), no answer; at 01:55 shift engineer instructed entry, note taken.' This protects both you and the plant.
- The motorcycles. Note that three workers were checked and released, proving the gate was never left unmanned while the tanker was held.
- Escalate in writing the same night to the shift engineer and the security supervisor, and at handover to your reliever, who signs the same page. In the morning the report goes to the agency's area manager and the stores head.
- If the driver turns aggressive, close the barrier, stay behind it, call for a second guard and note the time. Do not argue at the driver's window.