How a Fleet Card Can Help You Reduce Your Fuel Costs

Does your company own a fleet of vehicles? Many companies today have trucks and other vehicles for the purpose of delivery and general transport. Along the route, your drivers undoubtedly must stop and refuel. How do you currently handle those fuel costs? If you distribute credit cards or cash to your drivers, how can you guarantee that no extraneous purchases will be made with company money? Non-fuel purchases could be made or extra gas for non-work-related driving could be bought with company cards. If this is an issue with your business, you can effectively reduce your fuel costs by implementing fleet cards.

A fleet card is used for fuel purchases, giving you greater control over your company's gas expenses. You also have the opportunity to easily see how much fuel each of your vehicles is consuming by tracking fleet card purchases. The process of employing fleet cards is simple. Each driver is assigned an ID that is entered in at the point of sale prior to the dispensing of fuel. Other information can be attached as well, such as the odometer reading. This again adds to the level of control you have over your fleet.

By using a combination of the fuel required to fill the tank and the odometer reading, you can ensure that no non-work-related driving is occurring with your vehicles. If a fuel purchase does not seem to match up, you are given the opportunity to inquire with the driver as to why. Possibly the driver is not guilty of attempting to take advantage of you or the vehicle but he simply employs less fuel-economic methods of driving. Retraining can then take place, saving you even more on the cost of fuel.

Fleet cards can be equipped with the strict ability to be used only for the purchase of fuel or other appropriate purchases. This is imperative if you want to keep track of where your company's money is going. The greater number of vehicles you employ, the more important the concept of a fleet card becomes. A larger fleet can lead to misuse of your vehicles or company funds that go unnoticed. Fleet fuel cards give you more control over the purchases being made and greater insight into how your company's funds are being used.

The Comdata fleet credit card can help businesses that employ fleets control expenses and lower costs. Comdata has a proven history of helping transportation companies with their fleet fuel management, manage compliance, and increase profitability.