There are many fuel card benefits that have an impact on your business in many different ways, from reducing fuel costs, reducing the risk of fuel fraud and giving your drivers greater flexibility over where they refuel.
As more and more businesses reconsider how they purchase their fuel, there has never been a greater time to explore the potential of fuel cards.
Operating a fleet has never been more challenging due to increased demands from governments and the introduction of new legislation.
Having great organisation and efficiency is paramount to running a successful fleet in 2022, and this is provided by employing the use of fuel cards.
This blog post will cover what we consider to be the top six fuel card benefits and can be used as a helpful tool to begin your process of switching to fuel cards.
Here are some fuel cards benefits;
- Greater Choice
- Increased Security
- Better Organisation
- Reduced Admin
- Fleet Management Integrations
- Cost Savings
Greater Choice
Fuel Cards provide much greater choice when it comes to selecting where you will fill up at. Without having a fuel card, you will normally shop around for the cheapest fuel station which may be five, ten or maybe even 20 miles from your headquarters or job site.
This route deviation can seriously impact your overheads as it could be a 10, 20 or 40 mile round trip just to fill at the cheapest site, wasting fuel you have just purchased. With a fuel card you can say goodbye to route deviation as every site is the same price.
The Fuelwise Fuel Card Network consists of over 5,000 sites spread right across NI, ROI and UK, consisting of all major brands. This means you never have to worry about finding a fuel station.
Increased Security
Our second fuel card benefit relates to security and reducing the risk of fuel fraud. Businesses who use cash or credit cards as a payment method are most at risk of being victims of fuel fraud.
With a fuel card, all transactions are stored online in Velocity Fleet, an online management account system. By having access to transaction reports, you can quickly check how much each driver is spending on fuel and spot any irregularities.
Fuel cards are protected by having a PIN code which must be known for a transaction to be authorised and if a card is lost or stolen, it can immediately be switched off using Velocity.
Better Organisation
As we touched on above, you have access to Velocity Fleet, which is a free online account management system.
One way of describing Velocity is as a CRM system for your fleet. It contains all of your fuel card information, such as embossment details, PINs, products available and card expiry dates. By having this information in one secure system provides greater organisation as you can easily find anything you need at the touch of a button.
This reduces the need of keeping paper documents and is also a lot safer.
Reduced Admin
Managing a fleet of vehicles can take up a lot of your time and prevent you from focusing on other areas of the business.
One of the fuel card benefits that we will cover is reduced administration. Using cash or credit card as a payment method will mean that your drivers will have to collect receipts which are then used for your VAT reclaims.
The benefit of a fuel card is that you will receive weekly VAT approved invoices that include all of your transactions from the past seven days. If you were to lose a receipt you would unfortunately miss out on your VAT reclaim but if you were to lose your fuel card invoice, you would be able to download a copy from Velocity.
Alongside this, you also have the ability to create reports which can be scheduled to be automatically sent to you every week or month. This can help save you and your staff valuable time that you can apply to other areas of the business.
Fleet Management Integrations
Fuel cards offer the ability to link and combine with your other fleet management tools, for example, Telematics, Dash Cameras and Vehicle Walkaround Checks. One valuable fleet metric is MPG, which tells you how far your vehicle is able to travel for every gallon (or 4.55 litres) of fuel it uses.
When you combine your fuel cards and telematics you gain access to this report and will instantly know which vehicles have the highest or lowest MPG, and know which are costing you more to operate.
You can then take the necessary actions and arrange additional training or guidance to improve this which in turn reduces your operating costs.
Cost Savings
Our final fuel card benefit relates to your annual fuel costs. By having a fuel card you are in greater control and can always ensure that you are paying the right price which can help make a big difference to your business.
As discussed above, you can link your fuel cards with your other fleet management tools.
Our research has found that when fuel cards are linked with Telematics or GPS Vehicle Tracking, there is the potential to reduce your fleet operating costs by up to 20% per vehicle per year. This is achieved by increased driver performance which is a direct result of becoming aware of each drivers MPG score.
Apply For A Fuel Card
Applying for Fuelwise Fuel Cards couldn’t be easier, simply complete the form below and a member of the team will be in contact with you soon.
Dominic Dysart
Dominic has been covering the fuel and fleet management industry for over six years, writing about topics such as Fuel Cards, Telematics and Vehicle Cameras.
