Fuel card
A fuel card or fleet card is used as a payment card most commonly for gasoline, diesel, and other fuels at gas stations. Fleet cards can also be used to pay for vehicle maintenance and expenses at the discretion of the fleet owner or manager. Most fuel cards are charge cards.
Fleet cards are unique due to the convenient and comprehensive reporting that accompanies their use. Fleet cards enable fleet owners/ managers to receive real time reports and set purchase controls with their cards helping them to stay informed of all business related expenses.
Fleet cards can be provided not only by oil brands like Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, but also by companies that only specialize in providing fuel cards such as Greenarc, Edenred, WEX Inc., Comdata, FleetCards USA, Petrol Plus Region, Fuelman and others. Additionally, some rideshare companies have fleet cards for their drivers, which allow the drivers to have gas money deducted from their earnings.
Origins
United Kingdom
In its infancy, fuel cards were only printed with the company name, vehicle registration and a signature strip on the reverse. No electronic data was stored. Fuelling sites would verify the company, vehicle registration against the card and also the signature written on the back. The site would allow access to the fuel once the retailer's receipt had been signed for and cross checked against the signature written on the back of the card.Initially, fuel card networks were very small and based around truck roads and main haulage routes. For example, in 1983, the Keyfuels site network consisted of only seven stations. Therefore, they were initially targeted at haulage or delivery companies. A few years later, cards became embossed rather than printed. This was due to provide the cards with a greater longevity—frequent use would rub off the printed information.
Due to the lack of electronic data on the fuel cards at this stage, transactions would be recorded by the card being 'stamped' onto a manual transaction sheet. Further details detailing date, time, volume, grade of fuel and registration would be hand-written.
During the mid- to late 1980s, fuel cards began to use magnetic strip technology. This meant fuel cards could be processed by a retailer electronically and reduced the risk of human error when recording transaction details.
Magnetic strips also enabled fuel card providers to increase fuel card security by ensuring PINs were encoded into the card. Although when the magnetic strip is swiped though a fuel card reader, the transaction is still only verified by checking signatories to this day.
In the advent of outdoor terminals, these PINs became compulsory in order to re-fuel.
The reasoning behind moving from the magnetic strip to smartchip technology was down to the fact that the magnetic strip could be cloned and the data written onto a dummy card. Also, the use of fuel cards was far heavier than that of debit or credit cards, and therefore it became apparent that the magnetic strip began to wear out far quicker.
[|Smartchip technology] is the largest development in the fuel card industry in recent years.
Increasingly, supermarkets are exploring opportunities in fuel cards. While Tesco & Sainsbury's have the ability to collect loyalty points and pay with credit, Morrisons has a dedicated fuel card offering. Asda has none at all, in spite of being the cheapest seller of fuel on average in 2012.
During 2008, market maturity has led to users increasingly expecting more from fuel cards than discount pricing, with the demand for service, savings and security leading to the appearance of dedicated account management. While most fuel card suppliers handle customer queries via random-operator call centres, customer preference is increasingly for a named individual to handle their business. Respected publication Fleet News reported in July 2008 that more than a quarter of fleet managers are unhappy with the level of service offered by their fuel card supplier.
A new category of fuel card is emerging in the form of "electric fuel cards" as typified by operations from AllStar and Paua.
Ireland
The longest running provider of fuel cards in Ireland is , with the company being founded in 1989 and growing to hold the largest site network and provide a range of services alongside fuel cards such as Telematics and Vehicle Walkaround Checks.United States
The advent of fleet cards can be traced back to the 1960s and 1970s when key stops/key locks and standalone card locks were used by independent marketers and filling station owners. A Key Stop or Key Lock fuel control system was a system where a group of commercial fleets could access a fuel pump with a unique key that tracked solely their gallons through that pump. This technology is obsolete and no longer available commercially. A card lock control system uses a punch card or magnetic stripe card to uniquely identify a fuel buyer on a private server. This was done to avoid a credit card interchange fee which raised the cost of fuel considerably. The first commercial fuel cards resembled a credit card with a name and a company logo on them. When a customer entered a filling station, the cashier would take down the customer's name and company information to authenticate ownership of the card. This process was time-consuming and was vulnerable to fraudulent transactions. With the advent of computers and computer software in the 1980s, the development of the fleet card industry quickly expanded. The invention of the magnetic stripe and magnetic card reader allowed petroleum marketers to control fuel pump transactions, leading to today's wide range of fleet card security features and state of the art reporting systems to track all fleet expenses. These "intelligent" systems make fleet management convenient and secure, as fleet card owners are able to track fleet fuel use with increased accuracy, receiving reports in real time on the fueling habits. Business owners are able to limit employee fueling by time-of-day and day-of-week.India
Indian consumers saw their first fuel card during 2001 from Bharat Petroleum. The card was mainly aimed at retail customers for personal vehicles. Subsequently, various products aimed at various customer segments were launched by all oil companies – Smart fleet by Bharat Petroleum, XTRAPOWER by Indian Oil, Drive Track by Hindustan Petroleum, and Transconnect by Reliance Industries. While Transconnect found favours during its launch, the same withered away once Reliance shut its outlets due to huge price difference. Indian Oil's XTRAPOWER Fleet Card Program has grown to be the largest fuel card in India, followed by Smart.Misconceptions
Although fuel cards look like credit cards and use very similar technology, their use and implementation is significantly different. The main differences from credit cards are:- Payment terms often get shorter
- No rolling-balance is cleared each month
- Can be cheaper due to a system designed to bypass credit card interchanges and their mark ups.
- Transactions can be customized allowing only certain grades of fuel e.g. petrol, petrol & diesel, petrol and gas oil, etc.
- Fuelling transaction limits can be applied using Smartchip technology
- Liability for fraudulent transactions usually remains with user
- Fraud prevention systems exist to block service areas by nation, state, or postage codes to stop theft.
- Card "hotlists" received via different providers
- Interim period after stop/hotlist request and card denied at fuelling station can be longer
- Payment terminals separate to those used for credit/debit cards
- Fuel not technically paid at point of sale - simply allocated on account for payment at later date
- Some cards allow the purchase of such non-fuel fleet related items, such as lubricants, hotels, and diesel exhaust fluid.
Security
- available local businesses that can work with one on the program and keeping one's business safe
- cashless transactions
- chip-and-PIN protection
- current odometer reports with every fuel purchase
- detailed invoicing – fully itemising transactions for individual cards
- on-line account administration to stop cards 24/7
- transactions restricted to fuel-related products
- reporting of unusual transactions
- restrictions available by postal code to limit the cards function in a specific area of service.
- daily transaction limits.
- daily gallon limits to limit a would be thief.
- decrease in occurrences of credit card 'skimming'
- real time email or text message "e-Receipts" of transactions
- evidence that can be connected with internal Human Resource policies that enable clear responsibility to terminate employees for stealing fuel
Smartchip benefits
- Smartchips are difficult to clone
- Fuelling limits can be enforced
- Far more durable than magnetic strips, therefore cards last longer
- Need for cards to be re-created reduced due to longevity
- Smartchip cannot be damaged by electro-magnetic radiation e.g. mobile phones, magnets, speakers, etc.
Added features of smartchip technology
Fuelling limits can also be programmed into a fuel card using smartchip technology to specify the following:- Volume allowed per transaction
- Volume allowed per day
- Volume allowed per week
- Number of transactions allowed per day
- Number of transactions allowed per week
- Days of the week card can be used
- Times of the day card can be used
- Number of incorrect PIN entries allowed
- Card lock-out period after incorrect PINs