With temperatures in the teens this week, heat is a cherished commodity, but these days, it’s not coming cheap. Oil prices are approaching record highs in New Jersey at more than $4 per gallon, and the state is trying to make sure consumers get every drop they pay for..

On a strip of road in Port Newark, cops are flagging down trucks carrying heating oil for an unannounced state inspection.

One truck is having its meter tested. A long red hose is pumping out all the fuel into another tank to be measured… and it comes up just over a gallon short.  Inspector James Wilton says the truck can’t go back on the road until the meter is fixed.

"If it was a 200 gallon delivery, you would have received 198.9. That’s not acceptable, that’s not within tolerance.”

The state Division of Consumer Affairs does these checks a few times a year during the winter months and says most of the trucks pass inspection. But Acting Director Eric Kanefsky says that’s no reason for the state not to stay proactive.

“It takes away some of the incentive if they know they’re not being checked.”