Fuel cards for businesses are an effective method for managing the refueling of your vehicles. However, if they become the subject of fraud from unethical employees and staff it can end up costing your business a significant amount of money.
By becoming aware of the types of fuel card fraud that exist and how to prevent them will help to protect your business from losing valuable money.
In this blog post we will explain what fuel card fraud is and provide specific actions that you can take to help prevent it.
What is fuel card fraud?
Fuel card fraud refers to situations in which fuel cards are utilised by unauthorised individuals or for purchases that have no connection to the business that possesses them. There are two primary categories of fuel card fraud: internal and external. Internal fraud occurs when employees of a company misuse fuel cards by making unauthorised or excessive purchases, while external fraud involves the misuse of fuel cards by third parties who are not designated or authorized to use them.
External fuel card fraud can occur when cards are lost or stolen and the PIN is written on the back. By having the PIN on the back of the card the person who has it will have the details required to use it. Other cases of external fuel card fraud is cards being cloned and then used to purchase fuel fraudulently. These cases are often identified and dealt with very quick.
Internal fraud can be harder to spot but misuse can take place in many different forms. The most common examples includes staff sharing fuel cards internally or with friends and family, fueling their personal vehicles, or buying non-fuel items.
An additional form of fraud that exists is fuel station cashiers inflating the amount spent on fuel for the employees to claim the excess in cash.
Steps to prevent fuel card fraud
There are a number of policies and procedures that you can introduce to help prevent fuel card fraud. These include:
- Providing each member of staff with their own individual fuel card to easily track usage. Doing this you can easily spot misuse and stop the card without affecting other members of staff.
- Setting limits on each card to stop staff members being able to purchase over a certain amount of fuel.
- Regularly check your transactions via your weekly invoice or online account management system. Data to check includes the site, date, time, amount of fuel, driver and registration.
- Training staff to make them aware of precautions they can take to prevent losing their fuel card or making their PIN known to others.
Choosing a secure fuel card supplier
Along with using the different procedures mentioned above, choosing a secure fuel card supplier will put your business in the best position to prevent fraud. Fuelwise have been in business for over 30 years and as Ireland’s oldest fuel card supplier have developed a reputation of providing a convenient and safe method of payment.
We provide fuel cards that require a 4 digit PIN to be used and offer you the opportunity to put in place different limits. These include individual, daily and weekly transaction limits along with daily and weekly velocity (the number of times a fuel card can be used) limits.
All customers receive free and unlimited access to Velocity Fleet, our award-winning fleet management system. Using this system you can monitor transactions including the date, location, amount and registration that was entered.
Applying for Fuelwise Fuel Cards couldn’t be easier, simply complete the form below.
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.
