Keeping watch at the pump
Fleet cards help carriers control fuel purchases with electronic oversight, but it takes more than simple preauthorization to prevent fraud and contain costs.
By Aaron Huff
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Integrated Decision Support Corp.’s Expert Fuel scans through a database of retail fuel prices and optimizes a fuel-buying route by using a vehicle’s fuel level and GPS location, and routing information from a carrier’s dispatch software. |
Although no one has cheap gasoline or diesel these days, ensuring that drivers buy where you want and in the quantities you want helps you get the best possible deal. With electronic payment systems or “fleet cards” from vendors such as Comdata, FleetOne and T-Chek, carriers can specify fuel purchases by cost, gallons, time of day and/or product type. The cards can reset automatically each day or on a specific day of the week, depending on fleet preference.
As an additional level of security and cost control, fleets can integrate multiple card systems into their dispatch and enterprise software systems, allowing them to have central control and reporting of fuel transactions. Innovative Computing Corporation has a module in its IES operations management software called FlexFuel that can turn fuel cards on and off automatically, according to driver status. If a driver is not assigned a load in the dispatch system, the card can be shut off automatically, says Ernie Betancourt, ICC’s chief executive officer.
But preauthorization is not a foolproof theft-prevention technology. If a driver knows his card will reset every 24 hours, he could capture a little fuel for himself each day or sell a few gallons to an owner-operator each day without being detected. A manager may later investigate an unexplained drop in mpg by comparing fuel receipts to vehicle mileage, but this type of audit normally happens too late to take preventive action.
One way to detect fuel fraud in near-real time is by using a fuel sensor to measure the actual amount of fuel in the tank at each fueling and when the vehicle is parked. This technology allows fleets to calculate the variance between the gallons in the tank and the number of gallons purchased minus the gallons consumed by the engine.
O&S Trucking uses such a fuel-level sensor from SSI Technologies. The sensors use ultrasonic waves to calculate actual fuel quantity, in gallons, to within a 1 percent margin of error, according to SSI. The number of gallons in each tank is sent back to the fleet’s host software system automatically through mobile communications. “It has not enabled us to find any cases of theft,” says Elisha Sawyer, fuel services manager for O&S Trucking. “We just have not had that problem. Yet.”
Besides setting tight controls on fuel purchases and detecting fuel theft, carriers rely on information technology to find fuel at the lowest possible price for each vehicle on a daily basis.
Anyone can use the Internet to pull up current fuel prices along a route at no cost. Comdata’s www.GoComchek.com is a website where visitors can search for up-to-date fuel prices along a specific route that factor in the impact of IFTA taxes as well as driver conveniences at truck stops. The website, which is free for anyone to use, lists prices at all locations in the Comdata network, says Debbie Samuels, director of marketing for Comdata. The prices reflect the most recent Comdata transaction at the site.
Comdata customers can login to their online account at Iconnectdata.com to access free analysis software tools that can help improve their fuel buying. By using transaction management reporting (TMR) software, customers can perform “what if” scenarios to consolidate their fuel purchase locations, allowing them to build volume and negotiate discounts with vendors, Samuels says.
By using the collective buying power of its customers, some fleet card vendors already have negotiated discounted fuel purchase programs for their members. FleetOne has no transaction fees for customers that fuel within its over-the-road network. The vendor also has a Plus network that allows fleets to receive a minimum 2 cents per gallon rebate on fuel purchases, says David Rewers, FleetOne’s vice president of sales.
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