B737-700
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 416
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural MEL / CDL; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Human Factors; Procedure
The aircraft had [an] MEL for left Main Fuel Tank Gauge Inop; which required the fuel tank quantity to be determined via the drip sticks. I went out on the ramp to 'stick' the tanks and the Fueler told me it was all done and I was good to go. I told him that I needed to see the readings. He asked me if I had a chart. I said I did but I wasn't sure how he had fueled the aircraft without knowing the stick readings. When he dropped a few of the sticks he asked me to get Maintenance because the readings must be wrong. I asked him what the readings were and he didn't know how to read it. At this point I got up on the ladder to read the sticks. They read the exact amount of fuel that I had landed with. The wings should have been full; however they only contained approximately 4500 pounds. They had not fueled the wing tank even though they told me they had. I then watched them pump another 4000 pounds into the left main to fill it.I verified the readings on the sticks. I also asked the Ops Agent for the gallons added to make sure the total amount of fuel required added up which it did. I called Dispatch to inform them of the issues we had and was told that the fuelers had been giving them problems. We departed late due to the issue but the flight was uneventful. Had I not followed the procedures in the MEL and trusted the fuelers; we would have taken off with a minimum of a 4000-pound imbalance and obviously not enough fuel to safely conduct the flight. The other issue is that I only get gallons added on the first flight of the day now. This was our third flight of the day. It is a good double check on whether or not the required amount of fuel was loaded onboard. The next time I have this MEL I will get the number of gallons added to back up my stick readings. Something also needs to be done about the fuelers. This situation could have been very ugly.
B737-700 Captain reported that a Fueler made significant errors and demonstrated a lack of fuel system knowledge.