Empresas Gasco Transforms LPG Cylinder Tracking

SNAPSHOT

Customer: Empresas Gasco ColombiaIndustry: LPGRegion: ColombiaCylinders tracked: 1.5 million LPG cylinders (target: 2.5 million)Use cases: Regulatory compliance, asset traceability, maintenance, loss and theft prevention

About Empresas Gasco

Empresas Gasco is a long-standing energy provider with over 160 years of history. From its origins as a gas lighting company in Santiago, Gasco has grown into a major supplier of LPG and natural gas, operating plants and distribution centers across Chile, Colombia, and other Latin American markets.

In Colombia, Empresas Gasco serves a wide network of distributors and end customers, managing a large and constantly moving fleet of LPG cylinders. Ensuring that these assets are compliant, traceable, and productive is critical to both operational performance and regulatory obligations.

The Challenge: Stricter Regulations, Limited Visibility

In 2008, changes to Colombian legislation significantly raised the bar for LPG cylinder traceability and data management. Gasco needed a system that could:

• Track individual cylinders throughout their lifecycle
• Provide accurate, real-time information for regulators and internal stakeholders
• Deliver a clear picture of inventories by region, plant, and distributor

The company initially turned to local software providers to modernize its asset tracking. However, these early solutions fell short. They lacked complete traceability, were unable to reliably capture real-time data, and did not provide the visibility Gasco needed into cylinder movement and inventory.

According to David Ramírez Rodríguez, Director of Engineering and Technical Regulation in Colombia, the existing tools “did not meet expectations” and left the team with gaps in the data required for confident decision-making and regulatory reporting.

Gasco needed a different approach—one that could scale with its cylinder fleet and keep pace with changing regulations.

The Solution: TrackAbout for Cylinder Traceability and Lifecycle Management

After evaluating several alternatives, Empresas Gasco selected TrackAbout, a Datacor product, to support its cylinder tracking and compliance strategy.

Pilot and rollout

Gasco launched an eight-month pilot program in 2020 to test TrackAbout under real operating conditions. During the pilot, the team confirmed that TrackAbout could:

• Identify and track individual cylinders
• Capture each asset’s lifecycle events and movements
• Provide insight into geographic coverage, customer behavior, and distributor performance

With the pilot deemed a success, Gasco expanded TrackAbout across its Colombian operations. Today, the company uses TrackAbout to monitor more than 1.5 million LPG cylinders and is on track to extend coverage to approximately 2.5 million assets.

How Gasco uses TrackAbout

TrackAbout has become the backbone of Gasco’s cylinder visibility and compliance efforts. The platform is used to:

• Monitor asset movement
  Track cylinders as they move between filling plants, depots, distributors, and end-customer locations.
• Manage lifecycle events
  Record repairs, repainting, testing, and retesting to maintain a complete history of each cylinder and ensure it remains fit for service.
• Analyze inventory and performance
  Understand where assets are located, how quickly they are turning, and how profitable different distributors and regions are.
• Reduce theft and losses
  Detect patterns that indicate lost or stolen cylinders and take action before issues escalate. •
• Support field teams with intuitive mobile tools
  Gasco’s teams use TrackAbout on mobile devices to scan cylinders and update records in real time. In higher-risk environments, they rely on explosion-proof devices; in other locations, standard smartphones provide a flexible, cost-effective option.

For Ramírez and his team, one of the biggest shifts has been the depth and reliability of the data now available. Instead of piecing together partial information from multiple systems, they can work from a single, trusted source of truth.

Results: Stronger Compliance, Better Control, More Productive Assets

With TrackAbout in place, Empresas Gasco has significantly improved how it manages its cylinder fleet and meets regulatory requirements.

“TrackAbout has provided the traceability and visibility we needed, automating time-consuming manual processes and supporting regulatory compliance.” 

David Ramírez Rodríguez, Director of Engineering and Technical Regulation

Regulatory confidence

• Gasco now has complete audit trails and traceability for millions of LPG cylinders.
• When authorities request information, the company can quickly produce accurate, verifiable data drawn directly from TrackAbout.
• Leadership has greater confidence that compliance obligations are being met consistently, even as regulations evolve.

Operational efficiency and asset productivity

• Better visibility into cylinder movement and station dwell times has helped Gasco reduce idle assets at filling plants and keep more cylinders in active service.
• Teams can see which assets are overdue for maintenance or retesting and prioritize interventions accordingly.
• The company has gained a clearer picture of how cylinders flow through different regions and distributors, supporting smarter commercial and operational decisions.

Risk reduction and fleet health

• Enhanced traceability has improved Gasco’s ability to detect theft and unexplained losses.
• By tracking the condition and return status of cylinders, the company can better understand which partners and routes are creating unnecessary damage or write-offs.
• Overall, the cylinder fleet is healthier, more visible, and more effectively utilized.

Ramírez notes that TrackAbout has given Gasco “the opportunity to obtain and analyze a great deal of information” that simply was not accessible before. That insight continues to shape how the company invests in and manages its cylinder assets.

Partnership and Continuous Improvement

TrackAbout and Gasco have worked closely to adapt the solution to the realities of LPG distribution in Colombia, including diverse geographies, plant types, and operating environments.

The relationship is seen as an ongoing partnership rather than a one-time implementation. As Gasco’s business grows and regulations evolve, the company continues to expand how it uses TrackAbout—both in terms of the assets covered and the insights derived from the data.

Ramírez describes Gasco as “very satisfied” with TrackAbout’s reliability, the support provided by the TrackAbout team, and the results achieved over the past several years.

See how TrackAbout can help you control your LPG cylinder fleet

TrackAbout, a Datacor product, helps LPG and industrial gas suppliers gain real-time visibility into their cylinder assets, strengthen compliance, and unlock more value from every container.

Ready to see it in action? Talk to our team  to explore how TrackAbout could support your operations.