By RoadFlex
August 13, 2024
Fuel Management solutions have an experience problem
Managing fuel for your fleet can be challenging. From complicated processes to administrative burdens and lack of comprehensive security measures, fuel management is often equivalent to another full-time job for fleet operators.
Poor fuel risk and expense management experiences have massive implications for the rest of your business. It affects not just how your employees operate and spend, but also negatively impacts your bottom line. And it continuously gets more complex to manage as your fleet needs continue to evolve over time.
The experience of using fuel cards in the last few decades hasn’t been great for many reasons:
- Fuel management is complex. It requires lots of data from your vehicles, fleets and drivers, as well as from your fleet management solutions.
- The infrastructure on which traditional fuel card solutions are built is obsolete. They were built in the 1980s with outdated infrastructure that does not work well in the modern world.
- They lack the data you are looking for. Many fuel card solutions don’t offer Level 3 Fueling Data that will give you real-time visibility into the type of fuel purchased, number of gallons purchased and the price per gallon. Very often, these solutions will even misclassify fuel expenses as “merchandise.”
- Traditional fuel cards were only built for the admins. Admins, usually finance professionals, believed that they could maintain control and enforce fuel spend policies effectively throughout a fleet, without interfacing with their own fleet operators. This takes away from the driver and fleet manager experience, while the admins usually have to chase drivers for receipts and manually organize them afterwards.
- They lack cutting-edge technology. The fuel management industry is slow to evolve and has not kept up with the pace of innovation we have seen in other industries. This has to change.
All these reasons contribute to the disappointment that users have towards fuel cards as a whole.
The good news is that the fleet and fuel management industry is undergoing a significant transformation, and more innovative fleet operators are starting to adopt more modern technology solutions. Seamless integrations with telematics and fleet management systems enable modern fuel management solutions to offer a comprehensive solution to fuel risk management. At the same time, AI-powered technology automates a lot of the manual work associated with fleet expense reporting while helping operators with analytics insights to improve fleet operations.
Challenges of using traditional fuel cards for your fleet
Fuel cards, initially designed to simplify the management of fuel expenses, face several challenges that can impede the efficiency of fleet operations.
1.Security Vulnerabilities
One of the primary challenges associated with traditional fuel cards is security. These cards are often prone to fraud and misuse. Since they function similarly to credit cards but without the same level of consumer protection, unauthorized transactions can be a frequent and costly problem for businesses. The methods of fraud can vary from cloned cards to collusion between drivers and fuel station employees. Although traditional fuel card providers offer certain preventative measures such as PIN numbers, the reactive nature of these measures often means that fraud is only detected after financial damage has occurred.
2. Lack of Integrated Expense Management
While traditional fuel cards track fuel purchases, they often fail to integrate these expenses with other vehicle-related costs such as maintenance, tolls, and repairs. This lack of integration can prevent fleet managers from having a comprehensive view of total vehicle expenses, making it challenging to perform accurate budgeting and financial forecasting. Additionally, the lack of integration with fleet management and accounting tools makes this challenge worse.
3. Lack of Real-Time Data Reporting
Another significant limitation of traditional fuel cards is the delay in transaction reporting. Real-time data is crucial for effective fleet management as it allows managers to make immediate decisions and adjustments. Traditional fuel card systems often provide data that is hours or even days old, which can delay response times to unauthorized or fraudulent use and hinder the ability to monitor and manage ongoing expenses actively.
4. Administrative Burden
Managing traditional fuel cards can be administratively burdensome. The process often involves dealing with multiple interfaces for different types of expenses and manually entering data into fleet management systems. This can lead to errors and inefficiencies, consuming valuable time and resources. Additionally, the inability to set nuanced control parameters for each card or user means that administrators must either set broad, inflexible controls that do not account for the varying needs of different drivers or vehicles or spend excessive time customizing controls in a way that is not scalable.
5. Poor Customer Experience
Businesses often face challenges with customer service, which can be slow to resolve issues related to card usage or account management, leading to operational delays. These delays often result in lost revenue or in big card misuse events.
6. Limited Acceptance and Flexibility
Traditional fuel cards are generally tied to specific networks of fuel stations. This severely limits the flexibility for drivers, forcing them to plan routes around where their card will be accepted, which may not always align with the most efficient or economical route. Moreover, in remote or rural areas, the availability of compatible fuel stations can be a significant issue, potentially leading to higher fuel costs and route inefficiencies.
Why is this a problem now?
In today’s rapidly evolving economic landscape, fleet operators face unprecedented challenges more than ever. Among these, the management of fuel expenses—traditionally handled through fuel cards—stands out due to its complexity and susceptibility to various risks. Increasing instances of fraud, rising fuel prices, and the shift towards electric vehicles (EVs) underscore the urgent need for a better fuel risk management solution. Therefore, it is critical to adopt a modern approach to support the evolving needs of fleets.
Fuel theft, fuel fraud, and fuel card misuse are common in the transportation industry and on the rise. According to Shell Fraud Matters report, over 86% of fleet managers believe there is fraud in their fleets. This often accounts for between 10 – 15% of a fleet’s fuel costs, which can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.
The financial losses associated with fraud and theft are further worsened by rising gas prices. As of recent years, rising oil prices have directly impacted fuel costs, squeezing the already thin margins that fleet operators work with.
Additionally, the transportation and logistics industry are also at an inflection point where there is a global push for electric vehicles. Managing a mixed fleet of EVs and traditional vehicles, or transitioning entirely to EVs, requires a completely different infrastructure. Fleets that are transitioning to more sustainable energy sources are looking for a consolidated solution for all their gasoline and electric vehicle charging needs (i.e., a fuel card that can support both gas purchases and EV charging).
The traditional “fuel card” does not offer a comprehensive solution to these fleet challenges. If this was simple, then fleet operators would have had it years ago. Instead, fleet operators need a Fuel Risk Management Platform.
RoadFlex is more than just a fuel card. It is a platform.
RoadFlex is the leading fuel risk management platform for modern fleets. The RoadFlex platform enables an intelligent connected-vehicle ecosystem for fleet operators, granting them real-time 360 degree-view of their fuel spend per vehicle and driver.
The solution allows fleet operators to modernize their fleets and allow them to be data-connected through seamless integrations with fleet management software, accounting tools, TMS solutions and telematics data. This unlocks efficiencies in financial operations through comprehensive fuel risk management, savings automation, and real-time fleet analytics.
RoadFlex’s AI-powered Proactive Fuel Risk Management Platform delivers comprehensive fuel risk management and fuel tracking capabilities, saving fleet operators an average of 11% in fuel spend annually.
RoadFlex platform offers multi-level premier security features to help fleet operators eliminate card misuse, fuel fraud and fuel theft:
- Spending Controls: set spending rules and policies to prevent card use outside of what’s allowed. Assign new cards in seconds, set spending limits, and assign working hours for the cards.
- Location Validation: automatically verify that the driver’s authorized vehicle is within 100 meters of the purchase location for every transaction. If the vehicle is not close by, the transaction is automatically blocked.
- Fuel Level Validation: automatically track fuel tank capacity to ensure purchases do not exceed a vehicle’s fuel tank capacity, and that the fuel you purchased was received by the correct vehicle. This prevents drivers from filling portable gas containers for personal use or from fueling non-employee vehicles while stopped at a gas station.
- Fuel Type Purchase Verification: automatically flag and decline fuel purchases if the fuel type doesn’t match the fuel type of the specific vehicle.
- Card Validation: ensure your cards can only be used by authorized drivers using SMS or in-app unlock.
- Retroactive Fuel Analysis: for each vehicle, RoadFlex ties back gallons consumed to the number of miles driven. This identifies any potential fuel fraud or vehicle performance issues.
Additionally, with RoadFlex, fleet operators enjoy the following benefits:
- Universal fuel coverage: a fleet fuel card accepted at all gas stations and truck stops nationwide.
- Attractive Rewards: enjoy competitive fuel discounts for every purchase.
- Purchase more than just fuel: unlock your RoadFlex card to buy more than just fuel, including maintenance, repairs, tires, hardware stores, food and more!
- Exceptional Customer Experience: you will work with a dedicated customer success team to guarantee your success throughout your RoadFlex journey, on top of our 24/7 support line.
Are you a fleet operator interested in modernizing your fuel risk management approach?
Contact our team for a Demo today!
