A fuel card or fleet card is used as a payment card most commonly for gasoline, diesel, and other fuels at gas stations. Fleet cards can also be used to pay for vehicle maintenance and expenses at the discretion of the fleet owner or manager. Most fuel cards are charge cards.
Fleet cards are unique due to the convenient and comprehensive reporting that accompanies their use. Fleet cards enable fleet owners/ managers to receive real time reports and set purchase controls with their cards helping them to stay informed of all business related expenses.
Fleet cards can be provided not only by oil brands like Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, but also by companies that only specialize in providing fuel cards such as Greenarc, Edenred, WEX Inc., Comdata, FleetCards USA, Petrol Plus Region, Fuelman and others. Additionally, some rideshare companies have fleet cards for their drivers, which allow the drivers to have gas money deducted from their earnings.
Origins
United Kingdom
In its infancy, fuel cards were only printed with the company name, vehicle registration and a signature strip on the reverse. No electronic data was stored. Fuelling sites would verify the company, vehicle registration (on the forecourt) against the card and also the signature written on the back. The site would allow access to the fuel once the retailer's receipt had been signed for and cross checked against the signature written on the back of the card.
Initially, fuel card networks were very small and based around truck roads and main haulage routes. For example, in 1983, the Keyfuels site network consisted of only seven stations. Therefore, they were initially targeted at haulage or delivery companies. A few years later, cards became embossed rather than printed. This was due to provide the cards with a greater longevity—frequent use would rub off the printed information.
Due to the lack of electronic data on the fuel cards at this stage, transactions would be recorded by the card being 'stamped' onto a manual transaction sheet. Further details detailing date, time, volume, grade of fuel and registration would be hand-written.
During the mid- to late 1980s, fuel cards began to use magnetic strip technology. This meant fuel cards could be processed by a retailer electronically and reduced the risk of human error when recording transaction details.
Magnetic strips also enabled fuel card providers to increase fuel card security by ensuring PINs were encoded into the card. Although when the magnetic strip is swiped though a fuel card reader, the transaction is still only verified by checking signatories to this day.
Misconceptions
Although fuel cards look like credit cards and use very similar technology, their use and implementation is significantly different. The main differences from credit cards are:
- Payment terms often get shorter (but can be negotiated direct with card issuer much more easily than credit card terms)
- No rolling-balance is cleared (or partially cleared) each month
- Can be cheaper due to a system designed to bypass credit card interchanges and their mark ups.
- Transactions can be customized allowing only certain grades of fuel e.g. petrol, petrol & diesel, petrol and gas oil, etc.
- Fuelling transaction limits can be applied using Smartchip technology
- Liability for fraudulent transactions usually remains with user (depending upon agreement with card provider)
- Fraud prevention systems exist to block service areas by nation, state, or postage codes to stop theft.
- Card "hotlists" (a.k.a. "authorisation" or "onstop" lists) received via different providers
- Interim period after stop/hotlist request and card denied at fuelling station can be longer (although online authorisation networks are increasing)
- Payment terminals separate to those used for credit/debit cards (bunkered cards only)
Security
Depending upon the individual fuel card and the supplier, security benefits of fuel cards can include:[6]
- available local businesses that can work with one on the program and keeping one's business safe
- cashless transactions
- chip-and-PIN protection
- current odometer reports with every fuel purchase
- detailed invoicing – fully itemising transactions for individual cards
- on-line account administration to stop cards 24/7
- transactions restricted to fuel-related products
- reporting of unusual transactions
- restrictions available by postal code to limit the cards function in a specific area of service.
- daily transaction limits.
- daily gallon limits to limit a would be thief.
- decrease in occurrences of credit card 'skimming'
Commercial use in business
Commercial fuel cards are designed with fleets in mind and seek to avoid both the percentage up-charges of credit card companies as well as the theft risk retail credit cards expose a business to due to their focus on convenience over financial security.[7]
Typically, the majority of businesses using fuel cards are those which heavily rely on motor vehicles on a day-to-day basis e.g. transport, haulage, courier services. One of the primary reasons a business will use a fuel card is to obtain (potentially) significant savings both on the current price of fuel and on administrative costs. It would be normal for the business to receive a single weekly invoice, payable by direct debit; this replaces the manual reconciliation of individual paper receipts which could, for larger organizations, number in the hundreds each week. A number of additional benefits are available for users of fuel cards from a supplier offering an e-business capability.
In most cases, fuel cards can provide fuel at a wholesale price as opposed to standard retail. This way, discount fuel can be purchased without needing to buy in bulk.
Furthermore, the management and security concerning fuel purchases is greatly improved via the use of fuel cards. These features often prove themselves attractive to businesses, especially with those operating large fleets which can sometimes be in the thousands of vehicles.
International fuel cards
While most fuel cards are for use in a particular country, there are some companies who offer international fuel cards themselves and some via a third party. International site networks often use fully automatic fuel pumps to avoid possible language difficulties and are specially designed to account for different taxation regimes e.g. producing separate invoices for each country which fuel was purchased in a particular month to account for different rates of VAT charged. These site networks sometimes offer the ability to reclaim VAT paid in each country, for a small percentage of the amount reclaimed. Some international fuel card providers solely offer fuel cards for business fleets, others also for individuals. However, the system of fuel cards has meanwhile spread throughout Europe, where they are called cartões de combustivel, cartecarburanti, zakelijk tankpas, tankkaart, fleetpass, cartes de carburants, and Tankkarten.
Bunkered fuel cards
Fuel card providers which operate on a bunkering basis aim to achieve a fuel reserve on a particular network in order to achieve a discounted price, therefore taking advantage of economies of scale.
For example, a company may purchase one million litres of diesel at 72.50 and aim to sell this on to the customer with a mark up of 2.5 pence per litre — 75.00 PPL.
Bunkered fuel card companies sometimes also offer customers their own fuel bunker to under the premise of further benefiting from a discounted price. Furthermore, a customer can also hope to achieve a saving by way of avoiding any market increases in the standard market price for that particular fuel. In short, customer fuel bunkering has many pros & cons:
Pros:
See also
- Gift card
- Pay at the pump
- Telephone card
References
- AllStar AllStar. AllStar One Electric Card retrieved 18 February 2023^
- Paua Paua. Paua Electric Vehicle Fuel Card Paua electric vehicle fuel card, 18 February 2023^
- Paua www.paua.com, retrieved 2025-01-11^