What to Look for When Choosing a Fuel Card?

Having a fuel card for your fleet can be practical if you want a better way to monitor the fuel consumption of your vehicles and keep track of all your fuel expenses. It eliminates the need to give your drivers cash or conventional credit cards for refueling, thereby making cost and usage management and monitoring much easier. With a fuel card, your business could potentially save up to 15 percent on fuel as unwanted spending is reduced if not eliminated altogether. Do the math and the savings will astound you.

There is no doubt that fuel cards make it easier to manage your fleet and your logistics operations as a whole. But you need to choose the right cards if you want your business to truly enjoy all the benefits of having a fuel card. Here are the things you should look for when choosing a fuel card for your fleet, no matter what size it is:

1. Choose a card that is especially designed for your fleet's needs – Reputable fuel card providers offer a wide range of products designed to reward different types of fleet, from small to mixed fuel fleets, diesel fleets, and volume buyers. Select the card that suits your requirements.

2. Maintenance services should be included – The road can be unpredictable, and you can never tell when something might go wrong with one of your vehicles. Hence, go for a fleet fuel card that lets your business purchase fuel and pay for maintenance services, too. That way, your drivers should have no trouble paying for maintenance in case something happens while they are on the road.

3. Controls should be customizable – Look for a fuel card that allows you to pick when, what, and where to purchase fuel, and how much fuel can be purchased. Make sure there is a detailed reporting feature to let you manage all fuel and maintenance expenses of your company.

4. Choose a fuel card that lets you buy fuel from many different authorized merchants nationwide - Some of the best fuel card products are accepted at many maintenance and fueling stations locally, nationally, and regionally.

5. Look for a fuel card that lets you track, control, and authorize fuel purchases to reduce fraudulent fuel charges - This way, you get to save money by minimizing dishonest transactions, too. High-end fuel cards come with driver ID number input before they can be used.
6. About the Author:

7. This article is written by Oskar Ehehalt, Sales Director of FleetCor Technologieën B.V. FleetCor deals with major oil companies and helps them to develop and implement commercial fuel card programs. In order, to do enforce these effective measures successfully they provide a wide range of services to traders to increase their customer base and attract regular visits from fleet businesses.

This article is written by Tom Nutt, a public relations consultant of PR Point. PR Point is a leading global public relations and communications firm dealing with major oil companies and providing counsel and program development.