Evaluating Your Fuel Card Options

Transcription

1 Evaluating Your Fuel Card Options

2 Evaluating your Fuel Card Options Trucking Companies Control Business Costs with Fuel Cards. Fuel cards are certainly not new to the trucking industry. Whether you have one or one thousand trucks in your fleet, with two weeks or two decades of logistics management experience, it s likely that your company is currently utilizing or has considered adopting a fuel card program. The cost benefits of a fuel card are clear, often providing fleets with access to credit for a daily operating expense, cost savings at the pump, reimbursement or reward programs for qualified transactions, as well as insightful data to manage down fleet costs. Just as no two fleets are the same, though, the benefits provided by various fuel card companies are not interchangeable among fleets. Depending upon the size of your fleet, the types of drivers you utilize, the routes you travel, and your specific credit needs, there is likely one best program to streamline your corporate operations and save you dollars. This paper will review the questions you need to ask prior to deciding upon a fuel card company. Giving Credit Where Credit is Due, or Needed. Whether your company is just entering into your fuel card research or you are already utilizing one or multiple fuel card programs, make sure you have a good understanding of your own requirements (yes, requirements) before approaching a fuel card company: how often are your trucks fueling, how tight is cash flow for the company on a daily vs. weekly basis, etc., what are your own credit needs. Having a firm concept of your company needs will be imperative as you approach an existing provider for better terms or as you assess prospective providers. With your Existing Fuel Card Company. If you have already implemented fuel cards into your fleet operations, it is likely that your drivers are carrying multiple cards in order to ensure credit line coverage. It is also possible that your company is making multiple payments to a single fuel card company each week, because your credit line isn t high enough to fuel your entire fleet for your full billing cycle. By making payments on such a frequent basis; however, your company is likely incurring high bank fees, which cut into your bottom line. If you have been utilizing a particular fuel card for anywhere from 12 to 24 months, it s time to open a dialogue with your account manager to discuss your growing needs. With your Prospective Fuel Card Company. Find out what types of credit your prospective fuel card companies offer: pre-paid, unsecured, cash deposits, etc. and what their requirements are for each classification. Ask what their average credit line is for fleets of your size. Be sure to find out if they have a cap on the line of credit they will offer to a fleet of your size and what documentation will be required in order for them to issue a line of credit. Some companies will require additional documentation from you once you request a credit line over a particular threshold. Also, find out what their requirements are in order for your company to obtain additional credit in the future. How will your company s usage be monitored to assess future growth of the account? In the end, your goal is to grow your company and theirs should be to help you do just that.

3 Anywhere You Want to Go, or Nowhere you Need to Go? A fuel card program may advertise acceptance at 500 or 50,000 stops across the United States and/or Canada, but whether or not those stops will be useful to your fleet depends upon: whether you are a local or an over-the-road fleet, the type of stops needed (truck stop vs. convenience store), the amenities provided, such as parking, showers, driver lounge, etc. To appropriately assess a fuel card network, ask the fuel card company for access to their Network Directory. This will give you the opportunity to see how easily your drivers will (or won t) be able to locate an appropriate stop when they need one. If a fuel card is not accepted at a stop or chain at which your drivers regularly stop, try asking the fuel card company why that stop or chain is not included and what the procedure is to request that a stop be added to the network. This will give you a good feel for both the future growth of the network and the company s commitment to customer service. Show Me All of the Money. Both the price you pay for fuel and the price you pay for the convenience of your fuel card should play a factor in your decision-making process. First, ensure that you will pay the cash price for fuel whenever you utilize a particular card. Cash price is typically lower than the price of diesel purchased with a credit card. When your fleet is pumping hundreds of gallons of fuel each day, those pennies-per-gallon add up to significant dollars quickly. Beyond the price at the pump, though, you also need to understand all fee requirements upfront. A fee per transaction is common. Other fees, including those listed below, exist as well: monthly usage fees, customer service fees, bank service fees, cash advance fees, additional card and supply fees, etc. When your fleet is pumping hundreds of gallons of fuel each day, pennies-per-gallon add up to significant dollars quickly. Understand how these fees will affect your overall fuel savings and find out if the company offers any type of rebate, refund, or reward program to help you recoup those costs. Making Dollars and Sense of it All. Nearly all fuel card companies provide fleet management tools with the opportunity to download reports on fuel transactions made, but very few provide detailed information on how to utilize the data provided. Ask your prospective fuel card company to walk you through the management reports offered and how other fleets utilize these reports to assist their business efforts.

4 Cut Through the Lip Service. Fuel card offices may not be open 24x7x365, but your trucks keep running anyway and a truck stranded without fuel or a much-needed cash advance is not making money for your company. Get details regarding your prospective fuel card company s support services before you commit to their product. Will a person or an automated system answer the phone when your drivers call with a problem? What is the typical wait time for a customer before they have access to a live customer service representative? What are the company s policies for processing requests for credit lines, additional support materials, etc. both in regard to fulfillment time and fees to your company? Where is the customer service department based; what languages can they easily support? The customer service department may be the most important feature your fuel card has to offer to your company. Take it for a trial run before you commit. The customer service department may be the most important feature your fuel card has to offer to your company. Take it for a trial run before you commit. Request a demo of the company s online account access system to be hosted by a customer service representative and do not hesitate to ask questions throughout. If your accounting department has a question in the future, this is likely to be the group to respond to that call as well. Their demeanor in fielding your questions will give you a taste for how well they will respond to your employees requests. The Bottom Line. When push comes to shove, the best way to optimize your business is to first fully understand your company so that you can properly assess the tools that will make it run more efficiently. And no one understands your business better than you do. Don t assume that the fuel card company knows best before walking through all of your questions and concerns with them. Challenge them. Make sure that they earn your business with the kind of service that is most likely to improve your business.

5 Multi Service. Innovation Where it Matters. Multi Service is a global transaction management company specializing in billing and payment solutions, with particular expertise in the transportation industry. Multi Service was founded in 1978 with the Multi Service Fuel Card as its flagship product. The company collaborates with clients to isolate specific credit and payment needs, identify business growth goals and ensure a fueling network that suits their logistics requirements. Multi Service Fuel Card serves to level the playing field for small- to mid-size fleets, utilizing their collective purchasing power to earn rebates of up to 10 cents per gallon for fleets at truck stops throughout North America. Thank you for your interest in this free white paper. We welcome your comments, feedback, and suggestions. Please consider sending us a note about how this paper has helped you. Check out the Multi Service Fuel Card website at com. If would like to contact a fuel card representative directly, you can call or inquiries@multiservice.com.