When we are referring to the small trucking businesses, we are picturing owner-operators and fleets under 25 trucks, but the truth is that In USA every fleet under 100 trucks can be called a small business.
Servicing your customer, with more value than your competitors do, requires efficient operating. It means that, unlike the big carriers, you simply can’t afford to have unnecessary costs. By wasting your miles and fuel, you are doing exactly that. That’s why monitoring the fuel costs is among top priorities of any fleet management.
According to WEX small fleets are facing these top issues in managing:
Since the fuel cards are helping in facing those issues, it’s very important to choose the best match for your company.
But, before purchasing your fleet fuel cards, there are things to be considered.
What You Should Know When Choosing a Fuel Card?
Regional limitations
Start with asking yourself where you will be using fuel cards. It’s very possible that not all companies are operating in your region. Also, some are limited only to specific stations. Both can cause fuel and time waste, when finding an appropriate station.
Control
Unlike a traditional credit card, a fuel card can provide several options to control your employees. Restricting a card usage, for e.g. to a pump and truck service, is a typical way to do it.
Integrations
A growing number of fleet management products are integrating with fuel cards to collect useful data for it’s clients. This way you get powerful data analysis that leads you to the right business decisions.
Fuel Cards vs Corporate/Commercial Cards
Instead of boring you with the list of pros and cons of this and that, I want to highlight the fact that unlike the most of corporate cards, the fuel cards are offering Level III processing.
Wow, great … and what the heck is that?
It’s a sophisticated way of using credit cards that answers you to who, what, how and when. Except all the important info, you should know that Level 3 processing lowers interchange transaction costs up to 40%.
It’s a breakthrough in payment process. Take a look at the Revolution Payments comparison of Levels 1, 2 and 3 to get the idea.
Comparing to fleet fuel cards, commercial credit cards have been around for a longer time. Based on that, these cards are more convenient options, at least from some points of view.
Advantages of corporate cards:
- you can use commercial credit cards for all travel needs
- there are almost none regional or location limits
- since the spend is wider, you’ll get more rebates
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Still, the corporate cards are too general to match the fleet management specific needs. On the other hand using fleet fuel cards can provide you:
- better control over spending
- more useful filtered data
- fraud protection
- Level 3 processing
OK, now show me some fuel cards already!
Fleet Fuel Cards in USA
Just a little reminder – big fleet card companies are not necessarily focused on big truck companies.
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Fleetcards USA
Though they are covering all businesses, it’s not incorrect to say that Fleetcards USA are bit more focused to the small fleets.
WEX Fleet Cards
With a various fuel cards, Wright Express are covering the most of the fuel and vehicle maintenance locations. They claim that their clients fuel management budgets are reduced up to 15%.
Controlling and analyzing your spendings, delivering detailed reports, and much more is provided through flexibility in this fleet solutions offered by Comdata and theirs array of products.
Valero Fleet Credit Card
One thing that smaller companies usually provide, is flexibility and adjustment to your business. Valero is offering customization for each vehicle and PIN assigning to a driver.
360 Small Business Fleet Card
Their statement is quite clear: No matter the size of your business, 360 has a Fuel Card for you. You really won’t be bothered by any regional limitations since this cards is covering 98% of all fuel stations.
Non-USA Fuel Fleet Cards
Allstar Fuel Cards – UK
With more than 8k locations across the country, they are truly a top notch in UK. This card can be used only for vehicle related purchases.
Petro-Canada Superpass – Canada
Setting desired restrictions and other changes is possible through online access to the account. Petro-Canada Superpass is the largest fuel station network in Canada.
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Wex Motorpass Fuel Card – Australia
Among lots of benefits, their discounts and reports are probably the first in the line. Motorpass is accepted all over Australia with more than 90% of coverage. After all they are Wex.
Comparing The Fleet Fuel Cards
With so many choices out there, picking the right card is one of the activities to help you in your business improvements. Just like in most business decisions, the rule is that there is no best option for everyone, there is only the best one for you.
Comparing different fuel cards will, if not bring you to your fleet fuel card, than at least narrow your choice. One way to do it is using service such as Expert Market:
You simply answer the questions are about payments, fuel products, fleet travel, fleet size and fuel stations. After that, you’ll be asked to give basic info about your company before you get your reference number and options based on your answers.
If you operate i UK or internationally, chooseafuelcard.com is a very similar B2B service.
Look at the reviews and researches
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It won’t hurt to check some relevant reviews and researches regarding this matter. One of that researches is NerdWallet’s. It’s interesting that they are suggesting avoiding big brands like Shell and Chevron, claiming there are better deals for you.
They compared more than 45 gas cards, and came up with the list of the best recommendations. Here are the top 3 in that list:
