With every year that passes, fuel costs keep rising, affecting the budgets and project plans for businesses with a fleet. This has made it even more necessary for business owners to get accurate fuel monitoring.
Many businesses use fuel cards to help manage this growing cost. While these cards help track expenses, they work best when integrated with a fleet management system.
Let’s learn how fleet management fuel cards boost fuel monitoring and how Cartrack integrates them with real-time tracking, fraud prevention, and fuel cost optimisation.
Keeping track of fuel expenses comes with some challenges, especially when there is a large fleet of vehicles travelling long distances. This expense can get even more confusing when cross-border deliveries are made, factoring in international fuel prices and currency exchange rates.
This is where fleet management fuel cards become necessary, as they assist in tracking fuel purchases and managing expenses. The common challenges of fuel fraud, inaccurate reporting, and inefficient fuel use, are all partially addressed with a fuel card.
With this card, business owners get to control:
These features found in a fuel card set the foundation for standard fuel monitoring, however, these alone aren’t enough without a supporting fleet management system. Fuel monitoring can be enhanced in many ways, especially when integrated with a reliable system, offering a more holistic look at the fleet's fuel consumption and efficiency.
As mentioned above, fuel cards are not enough to reduce fuel waste and overall consumption. Integrating fuel cards with a fleet software comes with other benefits and features that business owners can make use of.
The pros to having this integration are:
A fleet management system monitors actual fuel consumption, providing real-time insights beyond just purchase data. This is done through fuel sensors and probes that have been installed into the vehicle, providing accurate data on fuel levels, consumption and efficiency.
Having real-time fuel tracking prevents overfilling, fuel theft, and discrepancies in reporting. When coupled with fuel cards, these measures can lead to greater accuracy in fuel monitoring as the two can be compared to each other to check for inconsistencies.
Over time, patterns will emerge that will indicate where fuel waste and theft are happening, allowing for direct resolutions to be put in place. These can include adapting reporting periods, amending routes, vetting drivers more strictly or amending overall fleet operation strategies.
The routes that fleet vehicles take play a role in how much fuel is used, with longer, more complicated routes consuming more fuel. Getting a system that comes with route planning will help reduce fuel waste with more efficient routes.
By optimising routes, a fleet manager can find out in which areas drivers idle, speed, and engage in fuel-wasting driving behaviours. This will inform what strategies to put in place and how future routes are planned. When these factors are considered and applied, fuel costs will reduce and over time become stable.
With a traditional fuel card, all that can be reported on is the amount spent, and the volume of fuel purchased. When integrated with a fleet management system, detailed reports can be produced, helping fleet managers track trends, identify inefficiencies, and optimise fuel spending.
Another benefit of using this system for fuel monitoring is the custom dashboards it offers. These make it easier to understand reports and to view fuel metrics for better decision-making.
Preventing fuel fraud can sometimes be a difficult task when all a business has is fuel cards. When these cards are integrated with a fleet management system, they allow managers to cross-check fuel transactions with GPS locations.
This makes it easier to detect fraudulent activity as it allows business owners to flag purchases that don’t match vehicle locations. It will be noted when drivers refuel non-company vehicles using a fleet fuel card, this can then be corroborated with the movements of the vehicle that the card is linked to. This will also make it clear that the driver has engaged in fuel fraud and serve as proof in a disciplinary hearing.
Managing fuel consumption in a fleet often requires certain security measures to be put in place. These are there to curb fuel theft, detect fraud, reduce fuel waste and protect as much fuel in the vehicle as possible.
Having a fleet management system integrated with your business’s fuel card enhances these security measures. Additional features and other value-added services for fuel management can be incorporated into the system, providing more detailed and comprehensive reporting.
Here is how a you can enhance fuel security:
Having the receipts of fuel purchases will not adequately show theft. With a fleet management system, fuel probes can be installed that record sudden fuel level drops, this can be used as an indicator of potential theft.
When these incidents happen, instant alerts are sent to notify managers of unauthorised fuel siphoning. Allowing them to contact the driver immediately and investigate the event. This is one of the prevention methods that a business can take that would otherwise not have been possible with just a fleet fuel card.
Geofencing allows business owners to put boundaries over specific areas in which they would like to be notified should one of their vehicles enter or exit. This can be done around fuel stations where fleets do their refuelling so that managers are aware of refuelling attempts in real-time.
Alerts can also be sent out to fleet managers when vehicles refuel outside designated areas. When this technology is used alongside fuel cards, business owners can get a clearer view of what happens at a station.
If you are looking for a reliable partner, then look no further than Cartrack. We are well-positioned to help your business reduce fuel expenses with our advanced fuel monitoring systems.
Here are some reasons why integrating your fleet’s fuel cards with Cartrack’s system will lead to better fuel monitoring:
Our systems are advanced and have been equipped with technology that allows them integration capabilities with all fleet fuel card types. This means a business can change its fuel card provider and not have to worry about any future compatibility issues. A business could even have fuel cards from different providers and our system will still be able to manage them all on one platform.
The system we use at Cartrack is called MiFleet. This system provides an overview of all the vehicles in a business’s fleet, showing how much fuel each vehicle has consumed. This will give a clearer view of which vehicles are wasting fuel based on GPS tracking, driver behaviour, wear and tear, engine health, and fuel levels. These reports can be scheduled and sent to your mailbox directly.
MiFleet can also be used as a cost-tracking and management tool. Fuel expenses can be captured and managed on the platform and be pulled directly from a spreadsheet or official business bank account. This ease of use reduces the amount of bureaucracy that normally comes with managing finances, reducing the chances of human error and external manipulation.
When it comes to fuel theft, security is paramount. The solution we provide for this problem is fleet cameras that come with AI capabilities. These can be installed by the fuel tank to record whenever fuel is topped up. These cameras will provide evidence of siphoning or fraud with clear footage of the incident.
Our cameras can also be installed in-cabin to record the driver, detecting driver behaviour such as cellphone use and obstruction of camera view. These events can be indicators of fuel fraud or theft, and coupled with our other solutions, can identify the crime.
Cartrack has a long history in the industry, with over 20 years in the market. In that time, we have created many advanced technologies that are now the standard and are used widely. We have a footprint that reaches 23 countries in 4 continents and a customer base with over 115,000 businesses.
Fuel cards are a very necessary tool for businesses that want to keep an eye on their fuel spending. If the goal is to reduce fuel expenses and keep costs low, then getting our system to integrate with your fuel cards is the way to go.
If you are looking to take control of your fleet’s fuel costs today, then look no further than Cartrack. Contact us to learn more about our fuel management solutions.
Can you use a fuel card at any petrol station?
This will depend on the fuel card that the business is using. Some can work at any licensed fuelling station, while others only work at specific stations. This will all depend on whether or not they are partnered with a singular fuel company or not.
Can you withdraw money from a fleet card?
No, it is not possible to withdraw from a fuel card. The money being used is only transferable at petrol stations, and can only purchase fuel.
What is the credit limit on a fleet card?
The limit on fuel spending is decided by the business owner and determined by the needs of the vehicle and delivery.
What is the difference between a fuel card and a fleet card?
Most fuel cards are charge cards that function similarly to a credit card. Fleet cards are unique due to the convenient and comprehensive reporting when used in fleet management.
Fleet cards enable business owners and managers to receive real-time reports and set purchase controls with their cards, helping them to stay informed of all business-related expenses.
Do fleet fuel cards have an app?
Some fuel cards have an accompanying app, however, we suggest integrating your fuel card into our system. This will allow you to see all your fuel card metrics from our app, which works both on desktop and mobile phones.
Get real-time insights, automated reports, and fraud alerts by integrating your fuel card with a fleet management system.
