Whether you are a fleet manager overseeing dozens of trucks or an owner-operator with one truck, fuel cards offer several benefits to improve your spending control. For example, they can help reduce theft by implementing limits on cards for drivers and by monitoring their transaction history.
With fuel costs being the single largest unavoidable cost for most carriers, controlling these expenses is essential.
Payment Flexibility
In the trucking industry, much time is spent dealing with administrative tasks like tracking fuel expenses and waiting for reimbursements. With the right fleet card, you can skip this hassle and let drivers focus their time and energy on moving freight safely and efficiently.
Most fuel cards for trucking businesses can also help reduce costs by eliminating the need for drivers to carry wades of cash, which are vulnerable to theft. They offer increased security with features like PIN entry and driver ID verification. Plus, they can track spending details and provide alerts when a transaction is suspicious or exceeds a set limit. This helps companies combat internal fraud and improve overall operations.
Many fuel cards allow fleets to choose between retail-minus and cost-plus pricing, which offers significant savings at in-network stations. Some come with helpful tools and apps that make it easier for fleet managers to monitor, score, and compare drivers and routes. This way, they can identify areas where drivers can improve and optimize their operations.
Getting the most bang for your buck is critical for trucking businesses of all sizes. While there are various ways to lower operating costs, such as optimizing vehicle specs, reducing fleet size, and increasing MPG, investing in technology, reporting, and management systems will streamline processes and reduce overhead. Fuel cards can offer many benefits to help trucking companies increase profitability and keep their bottom line strong even when diesel prices rise.
In-Network Station Discounts
In addition to saving fleet fuel, some fuel card programs offer in-network station discounts on food, hotels, and truck accessories. These discounts can add up to hundreds of dollars in savings on a 100-gallon fill-up.
Choosing a fuel card affiliated with your preferred trucking companies and stations will help ensure the most savings for your company. Another way in which fuel cards can save your business money is by reducing paperwork and processing expenses.
Rather than keeping track of paper receipts and manual data entry, many better fuel card providers provide granular real-time reporting on transactions to their account holders through online dashboards and reports. This enables the fleet manager to easily audit spending and IFTA tax filings from one central source.
Real-Time Reporting
A trucking business’s expenses can add up quickly, especially if they’re unnecessarily high. Fuel, fleet maintenance, and insurance premiums are all significant costs that must be monitored carefully. Trucking companies can also save money by streamlining operations with data tools and software programs that optimize processes.
Data analytics features can help reduce fuel consumption, improve routing, and identify inefficiencies. For example, AI-powered vehicle telematics systems can detect when drivers press the brakes too hard or shift gears improperly to reduce wasteful behavior and meet government regulations. In addition, these systems can help minimize vehicle idle time to decrease fuel expenses and extend engine lifespans.
Another way that AI is helping trucking companies reduce costs is by automating routine maintenance tasks. Instead of relying on manual oversight, AI-powered systems can scan a truck’s engine for signs of wear and tear and automatically schedule regular maintenance. This helps avoid costly breakdowns on the road and keeps drivers safe.
In addition, data analytics can be used to streamline the shipping process and ensure delivery accuracy. Logistics firms can provide customers with accurate estimated arrival times (ETA) by tracking a driver’s location. This eliminates wait time and customer frustration while reducing the cost of overtime pay. In addition, this information can be used to calculate the best routes for the most efficient deliveries.
Fraud Protection
Fuel cards help trucking companies reduce costs in several ways. They can offer significant savings on fuel at in-network locations, provide control over driver spending with adjustable purchase limits, and alert the company to potential fraud or theft through online reporting. They can also help fleet companies streamline operations with fewer paperwork hassles and expenses like printing needs and postage charges.
Unlike cash or credit card transactions that may not be recorded, most fleet fuel card purchases are logged and reported to the company through the card provider’s virtual account management tools. Fleet managers can access these reports anytime to monitor driver purchases by vehicle, location, or individual driver. These reports can spot trends and identify areas where the company could save money on operating costs.
Conclusion
Many fuel card providers allow fleet owners to set specific controls that can be triggered when a driver exceeds preset parameters. These controls can include specific times of day, days of the week, daily transaction limits, and a maximum number of gallons or dollars per transaction.
These controls ensure that fleets only pay for the fuel they need and help reduce waste. They can also help ensure that driver-owned equipment (POE) is used for business purposes rather than personal reasons.
