A fuel card are basically a specific type of payment card(like credit cards) which are used by businesses to manage their expenses for the fleet of vehicles they own and operate.
Fleet cards are designed for the specific purpose of vehicle management related expenses and transactions.
Companies usually provide fleet cards to their employees who will be in charge of operating the vehicles and the employees can use it for paying for fuel and vehicle repairing as well as servicing.
Businesses use fleet cards instead of issuing personal or corporate cards to employees in order to minimize the administrative cost that goes into maintaining a system that will keep a track of the expenses their employees are spending on fuel and maintenance.
Apart from that, using fleet cards also allows companies to record and handle categorized expenses for their assets.
Businesses can identify trends related to cost in a much better way by using fleet cards as well.
When a business can successfully harness the benefits of a fuel fleet card with other management solutions like fleet management tracking system, analyzing driver behavior, idle time and better routes, it significantly brings down the amount of fuel used across a whole fleet of vehicles.
While choosing a fuel card for your business, it is necessary to take three major aspects into consideration:
Location: Before investing into a fuel card it is necessary to have a clear idea of the location where your vehicles will be operating since most fuel cards work at the specific areas only.
Not every fueling station everywhere accepts fuel cards and if there is any uncertainty about whether your concerned location accepts fuel cards or not, it is best to go for universally accepted cards like MasterCard etc.
Price: Fuel cards come at a different price range for different features and accesses. It is important to tally the utility of the card with its price and your budget to make the best choice.
Connectivity: A fuel card should do a lot more than just provide expenses receipts at the end of the month. You should look up and invest in a card that comes with additional features that provides you with a complete vehicle data.
Below are the top 10 fuel card options that can help a business effectively maximize their profit and fulfill their business criteria:
1.AmeriFuel: AmeriFuel is powered by R.E Powell &Seaport, one of the biggest distributors of energy and petroleum products in the United States.
Some of the key features that it provides includes: competitive price, comprehensive reports, tools to track and monitor fuel usage, real-time reporting through online portal and setting up the transaction limits and fuel caps.
2.FLEETCOR: FLEETCOR operates through an international customer base including countries like America, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Slovakia.
It’s fuel cards allows companies to access a summary of the past transactions, analytics data of fuel efficiency and reports of possible misuse of the card.
FLEETCOR also enables companies to track vehicles that may not be running as efficiently with lower target MPGs.
3.WEX: WEX is one of the most used and accepted fuel cards throughout the USA. The cards come with a greater protection, calls for the driver ID to be provided for each transaction.
The fuel cards are flexible enough to allow fleet managers alter their fuel management strategies and focus heavily on reporting.
4.Shell Global: Shell fuel cards comes up with the efficient features of easy access, security and transaction monitoring. The fuel cards provide data that can be further used in reports that helps projecting the trends in different performance parameters including fuel efficiency.
5.Rahal Card: The fuel card provided ADNOC(the biggest fuel distributor in United Arab Emirates), the Rahal card, comes in different ranges and types.
Apart from fuel usage tracking, their common features including card customization, access to shopping and car care services throughout their chains.
6.EMARAT Smart Card: EMARAT Smart card is another widely accepted fuel card in the UAE, which comes in different types of cards with different benefits. The cards come with safety measures like a driver PIN, spending limits as well as limited products and services that the card can be used for.
7.NoL cards: Powered by the joint efforts of Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) and Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority, NoL cards are now accepted throughout the whole retail network of ENOC in Dubai for transactions for fuel along with vehicle and retail services like purchases at ZOOM, Pronto and Paavo’s Pizza.
8.Bento for Business: Bento for Business allows a business to control the purchase that the employees are making and keep a tab on the budget. Every time a transaction is made through the card a notification is sent to the user, and the Bento app comes with a dashboard that makes usage tracking easier.
9.Fuelman Fleet Cards: Fuelman Fleet Cards come in ten different types. Each of the card comes with very flexible terms of payment, real-time report of transaction, and features to control the transactions.
For the cards at the higher end of the cost spectrum, they also provide IFTA and reporting of fuel tax along with summaries of employee behavior as well.
10.UK Fuel’s Fleetone: Operating throughout the United Kingdom, this fuel card is accepted across 2900 filling stations of different brands. It comes equipped with a system to report and file invoices that makes it easier to claim VAT returns as well as manage the total output of fuel. It also tracks any suspicious activity and notifies the user duly.
Not only are fuel cards an integral part of a GPS fleet management system but it also comes with added perks of saving fuel cost, reduced fuel consumption with effective route planning, avoiding idling of non-productive engines and an overall decrease in the total cost of ownership.
There are plenty day to day utility of fuel fleet cards that makes them a smart investment for any business. Most of the cards reward their users with rebates or in some cases,cashback.
Usually the cards come with a mobile app to monitor the fuel expense. The cards are usable at different fueling locations and they make the job of accounting and filing expenses much easier, eliminating the need for drivers. So, which of the above fuel cards would you like to avail?
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