By Fleet Management Weekly Staff
August 15, 2023
The Future of Fleet Payments is Already Here
What kind of company is Car IQ? Is it a tech company or payment systems company? The truth is this innovative start-up is the best of both. Car IQ has created a new kind of payment system for fleet vehicles that not only virtually eliminates fraud, it also reduces management costs, billing costs, and supercharges the amount of data fleet managers can access about the performance of their vehicles, while also making that data easy to analyze.
Right now, Car IQ works with fleet companies to allow their cars to pay for things like car washes and gas—without a credit card and without the driver doing anything other than driving the car and pumping the gas. With a new collaboration with Visa just announced, and more high-profile partnerships in the works, Car IQ is on the threshold of completely changing how fleet managers view payments.
The Car IQ Payment Experience
As you drive into a gas station, Car IQ Pay breaks the geofence. The driver simply puts in the pump number, fuels the vehicle, and drives away. That’s it. The fleet driver never has to enter a PIN, swipe a credit card, log an odometer reading, or interact witha station attendant. Car IQ Pay automatically sends the receipt to the fleet owner.
You can also have much the same experience with car washes. Car IQ has partnered with Ever Wash to allow for drivers to take cars through the car wash, having the car automatically pay for the car wash.
Car IQ has created a payment ecosystem where the car is the central figure. But this system is more than just a technological novelty. This payment network for cars is transforming the way fleet managers control costs and monitor their vehicles.
How Car IQ Works
Car IQ enables a vehicle to connect directly with a merchant for a transaction. Car IQ uses a unique combination of several different technologies to create a frictionless payment experience.
When a car pulls into a gas station, it passes through a geofence. This triggers a series of actions. While the fleet system tells the driver what pump to pull into, the Car IQ system also scans the vehicle, including the gas tank. The system knows when the car last fueled up, how much fuel it currently needs, and how much that fuel will cost.
Car IQ uses contextual payments to triangulate the communication between the car, the bank, and the merchant. In the example of a gas station, the system authorizes a specific amount for the exact amount of gas the vehicle will need.
These scans produce an incredible amount of valuable data that fleet managers can use to control costs. They can see how efficient any given vehicle is, what the true operating costs are, and they can do all of that in seconds. The longer Car IQ is enabled on a given fleet car, the more accurate its scans become and the more data it collects about the car.
One of the most revolutionary parts of the Car IQ system is that no credit cards are used. Each car has its own bank account with funds controlled by the entity that owns or operates the vehicle. A fleet manager is able to deal with a single ledger, instead of dozens of different credit cards. The Car IQ system is one of the most powerful central billing systems fleet managers have access to.
Beyond Fuel & Car Washes
While the primary use cases for Car IQ are currently fuel and car washes, the system is capable of much more. Already, fleets are using Car IQ to pay for parking, tolls, and in some cases, repairs.
When a fleet car is in the shop, the car interfaces with the merchant’s invoicing system and arranges payment from its account. Much like in the fuel example, Car IQ is triangulating communication between the car the bank and the mechanic.
There are no limits to what a payment system for cars can do. When the vehicle is allowed to pay for things like repairs, parking, and tolls, it frees up the time of drivers and fleet managers, while also reducing fraud and creating a deeper understanding of the status and condition of the vehicle. It streamlines the entire work request workflow.
Currently, Car IQ is innovating ways for their vehicle payment system to even pay parking tickets. Some delivery fleets average one ticket per vehicle per week. For even a small fleet that can mean hundreds of parking tickets each month. Now, instead of a team collecting the tickets and arranging payments, the vehicles themselves can automatically pay the tickets once they are logged. This innovation has the potential to reduce the amount of time fleets spend managing ticket payments by as much as 75%.
Whether you run a fleet of sedans or trucks, Car IQ provides up-to-the-minute intelligence about every aspect of your fleet assets while making life easier for everyone.
Making Drivers, Fleet Managers, and Merchants Happy
In many ways, Car IQ has three different customers. The fleet owner will always be the primary customer, but drivers and merchants are also critical stakeholders. Car IQ is a rare business that makes everyone happy.
Drivers become more efficient and have less paperwork to track. The entire driving experience is made easier when you don’t have to deal with paying for routine vehicle costs. Tolls, parking, fuel, and car washes no longer pain points for the driver. Car IQ is currently working on a system that will reward drivers with points they can exchange for products or services.
Fleet managers benefit from having a central billing system that lets them see in granular detail everything from how much the average cost of a gallon of gas is, to how much a given car pays in parking. Managers can also see the total fleet costs for any given category. They can use this data to lower costs and make the fleet more efficient.
Another critical benefit for fleet managers is that the credit card-less system reduces friendly fraud. An example of friendly fraud is when a driver uses the company credit card to fill up someone else’s gas tank. Because of the data collection and communication capabilities of Car IQ, that kind of fraud is impossible for the driver to pull off.
The data Car IQ generates also gives fleets greater insight into their relationships with the merchants. Fleets can steer drivers to gas stations closer to their routes and make other cost-saving changes.
Merchants benefit by having frictionless customer experiences with drivers and fleet companies and are rewarded by fleets for having competitive prices and excellent service.
Car IQ’s recent collaboration with Visa to accelerate their vehicle payments system is just the beginning of its growth trajectory. Additional partnerships in both the payments and fleet management spaces are currently in the works. Car IQ is continuing to innovate ways to streamline billing and data collection for fleets, while also improving the experience for drivers and merchants.
Car IQ has invented the future of fleet payments.
