The Ultimate Guide To Choose A Fuel Card For Your Business- Even If You Are New To Transport Business
Whether you are new to fleet management or a veteran, you know that fuel expenses take up more than 30% of the operating cost. However, fuel for vehicles is like oxygen is for people. So, a fleet cannot completely cut out the outgoing expense but needs to manage fuel expenses efficiently to improve profitability and productivity. Moreover, it is also one of the most unpredictable expenses, susceptible to variations that can suddenly transform profits into losses. Fuel costs also depend on economic, regulatory, and political variables outside your control. There are a few ways a fleet can save up on fuel expenditure – one of the most popular being Fuel cards.
What are fuel cards?
Fuel cards are just as same as any credit card but are exclusively used only for fuel purchases. They are a smart approach to running your fleet business, streamline your fuel expenses, and curb the chances of unauthorized or inefficient use of fuel. Like a credit card, the fuel card links to an account. While refilling, you can swipe this card to pay.
Before fuel cards, fleet owners and managers had to rely on the receipts submitted by the drivers, tally them, and file for IFTA. Fuel cards like the Amex card from Matrack can integrate with the fleet management solution and automate the entire process. All the records are authentic, and there is no room for any discrepancies. There is no need to track and tally up fuel receipts because everything is recorded and classified on a single tax statement.
Many fuel cards, such as the Matrack Card, offer discounts and savings, making them cost-effective and handy.
What are the benefits of a fuel card?
Time saver
A fuel card simplifies your business’s fuel management. No more paper receipts, misplaced dockets, scanning, or month-end reconciliation — it’s all taken care of for you.
All of your fuel purchases are categorized on a single tax invoice and statement, so you’re ready for tax season.
If you have a fleet of vehicles and drivers, giving them all fuel cards might save you time and frustration when filing expense claims.
Control over fuel expense
You can maintain your fuel cards, set up monitoring systems, download statements, and check transactions at any time if you choose a fuel card with a companion app.
You also have complete control over what your drivers can buy using their cards, allowing you to track the costs connected with each vehicle in your fleet. You can create notifications to alert you if a driver goes over one of your pre-defined limits.
Value
The most important advantage of a fuel card is that it assures you don’t miss out on any tax deductions owing to misplaced receipts. However, you should select a card to create a business solution to your specific requirements.
Some fuel cards provide easy repayment choices, such as the opportunity to settle your account with a credit card, allowing you to manage your financial flow easily. Some may even give a reduction on the per-liter price of fuel, based on the size of your company.
Fraud protection
Some of the best fuel cards, such as Matrack, offer you anti-fraud technology with individual PINs to track them easily. They offer an add-on service, where you can get the vehicle number or the driver’s name engraved on the fuel card to avoid misuse and confusion.
Easy-to-find locations
Many fuel cards are committed to a specific brand and are well-connected with many service stations across the country. However, if you are driving a truck or handling a fleet of trucks, you must know which service stations are the best on the route and plan accordingly. Fuel card vendors often provide you with an easy system to find your nearest service station whenever you need fuel, no matter where you are.
What to look for in a fuel card?
The first step is to evaluate your fleet’s vehicles and the fuels they consume. Take your time to track consumption and determine which vehicles provide the best fuel efficiency for the job at hand — fuel management software can help with this.
Consider the following questions:
• Is it more cost-effective to run my fleet on petrol or diesel?
• Are alternative fuels a realistic option in terms of capacity, cost, and my company’s environmental goals?
A fuel card can help you save money, whether you’re a startup or an established company.
Here are some of the most important factors to consider while selecting a fuel card:
Type of vehicle
When evaluating cards, the first thing to consider is the sort of vehicles in your fleet.
Whether you operate a hauling company, a national sales team, or a small mixed fleet, the vehicles you use can influence your buying decisions.
Hauling has its own set of challenges, so opting for a card that concentrates on HGV-friendly sites will save you time and money.
If most of your fleet consists of saloon vehicles, flexibility is crucial. The drivers in sales-oriented jobs require the assurance that their card will be accepted anywhere, as their travel itinerary can be unpredictable.
Type of fuel
Most fuel cards are for diesel or mixed-use fuel. However, unleaded-only fuels are becoming more frequent, so this can help you filter your options.
You might want to think about whether you want a pump-price or a fixed-price card.
With a pump-price fuel card, you pay the price displayed at the time at that station.
With a fixed-price card, you pay the fixed price despite the price at the gas station. For a more reasonable perspective on why fixed-price cards are better than pump-price cards, consider this – Fixed-price fuel is cheaper by 2-3 cents/liter than the national average pump price.
Branded or unbranded
Picking a branded or a non-branded fuel card comes down to the kind of driving your fleet will be doing. If the trips are local, a supermarket card will be better than a fuel brand card because of fuel station access.
Location and coverage
Another thing that can influence your decision is your industry niche. If your business, for example, requires drivers to travel throughout the country, a card with significant motorway coverage might be ideal.
Shell and Esso are likely to be the most prominent if you work in the neighborhood. You might come upon a Texaco station if you work in a rural area. As a result, a branded fuel card is a superior choice.
There are a variety of possibilities here, and you should consider how you travel a lot for work. There are benefits to using a local, regional, or national fuel card.
Why choose the Matrack Fuel card?
Matrack has teamed up with Amex to give you the Matrack Amex Fuel Card that has numerous benefits.
The majority of factoring firms pay in two installments, the first covering most of the receivables (meeting your demand for immediate cash flow) and the second when your client pays their bill, minus any factoring fee.
The factoring company will then purchase the outstanding invoices for a percentage of their worth and handle the debt recovery procedure once they establish the eligibility. Once the factoring company recovers the total amount of the invoices from your clients, they will refund the remaining amount owed to your business for the invoices.
How do Matrack Fuel Cards work?
Matrack offers you a 2-in-1 solution to provide more flexibility and benefits apart from additional advantages. Matrack’s Amex Fuel Card is a simple and powerful tool for drivers and fleet owners.
With the Matrack GPS tracker and American Express Fuel Card, you can access the fuel data anytime, anywhere in the US to keep the fleet running strong. You can save more and get more benefits with Matrack Fuel Cards at your choice of truck stop locations. There are no hidden charges or fees, and you can access everything such as transactions, reports, invoices online. It helps in proper systematic management.
Benefits of Matrack Fuel Card
Here are some of the benefits of Matrack Amex Fuel Cards.
• Online Transactions – All transactions are recorded online without any upfront payments or stress about receipts.
• Control – You can classify authority and specify which driver can buy fuel.
• Hassle-free – Fuel cards have multi-fold utility. You can use the card to pay for lodging and boarding, repairs, and other truck-related purchases.
You and your team will spend minimal time understanding who paid for what by tracking expense forms.
You can also track your fleet’s routes, mileage, and where and how frequently they stop using a fuel card in conjunction with your GPS management software. This feature is critical when evaluating data to determine the shortest path for your fleet, saving you money in the process.
With Matrack’s Amex Fuel card, you get a 1.5% early-pay discount and a 60-day no-interest payback period. You also get real-time fraud notifications and assistance in identifying credits, refunds and exemptions for your fleet, and a whole lot more.
Contact us to know more about our Fuel cards and related services.