For fuel station operators, EPDK board decision 10338 has been one of the most consequential regulations of recent years for automation and reporting. What it means in practice, what has to be done on site, and which technical steps must not be skipped.
For fuel station operators, EPDK board decision 10338 has been one of the most critical regulations of recent years in terms of automation and reporting obligations. This article summarises what the decision means for an operator, what has to be done on site to comply, and which technical steps must not be missed.
What is EPDK board decision 10338?
Decision 10338 is one of the core regulations clarifying the standards for automation systems at fuel stations, the integrity of the data, and the format of the information to be shared with the regulator. It requires that pump, tank, ATG (automatic tank gauging) and POS data be collected consistently with one another, recorded, and reported in the form the regulator expects.
From the operator’s side this is not simply “a software update”. It requires the hardware, the cabling, the network backbone and the reporting process to be brought into line together. Where they are not, shortcomings found during an inspection can lead to serious administrative penalties, and even to a licence being suspended.
The effect on the operator: three critical headings
1. Data integrity
Hourly and daily consistency is expected between pump sales, tank levels and POS transactions. A single mis-recorded item makes the whole report arguable. So the collection at source — the pump card, the ATG probe — has to be standard, and manual corrections kept to a minimum.
2. Continuity of reporting
The decision requires reporting to be produced and submitted on the defined schedule without interruption. That in turn requires the station to be built with redundancy against internet outages, server faults and software errors. Even a single day falling through the gap can be recorded as a finding.
3. Hardware compliance
The hardware installed by the authorised automation company must meet the relevant technical specification. An infrastructure that has accumulated over the years from different brands, outside any standard, has to be reconsidered under this decision.
The technical steps to take on site
- Tank level measurement: calibration of magnetostrictive probes and automatic data flow through the ATG console are mandatory.
- Pump integration: pumps of different brands must be consolidated under a single automation platform, with a stable data flow over RS-485 or TCP/IP.
- POS synchronisation: transactions at the point of sale must be recorded in step with pump data, and consistency checked by payment type.
- Redundant connectivity: alongside the primary internet line there should be a mobile or second xDSL backup, and the reporting service should buffer locally during an outage.
- Variance alarms: when the defined threshold between tank movement and pump sales is exceeded, the responsible people should be alerted automatically.
- Regular calibration: tank measurements must be calibrated at the intervals set by the manufacturer and the regulations.
The mistakes we see most often
The faults we meet most often in the field are non-standard cabling built up by a single technician over the years, pump cards from different manufacturers connected over incompatible protocols, and the reporting server running at a single point with no redundancy. These three produce more findings at inspection than anything else.
Another critical point is manual intervention. Every hand-entered “correction” made by the operations team puts the reliability of the data in question during an audit. Corrections should be logged with the user, the reason and a timestamp.
How we approach it
We run EPDK compliance projects in three stages: site analysis — the existing hardware, cabling, connectivity and reporting position; a compliance architecture — designing the missing components to standard; and handover to operations — round-the-clock monitoring, a calibration calendar and reporting automation. That way the operator runs ready for inspection, while we follow the infrastructure from our own alarm monitoring centre.
In closing
Decision 10338 is the concrete step by which data and process discipline became standard in the fuel sector. Compliance is not a one-off installation; it is a continuous process in which hardware, network, reporting and operations are managed together. Businesses that structure that process properly protect themselves from legal risk and, at the same time, see visible improvement in stock loss and operational efficiency.
For detail on EPDK compliance and fuel station automation, get in touch with the Arbek team.