Fuel Card Archives - GoFleet Tracking

Part 2: Common Useful Reports – Maintenance & Fuel Reports

Posted on October 24, 2018 | by Jimmy Song | Leave a Comment

One of our biggest client requests is creating reports. Reports are a useful fleet management tool because they provide snapshots for decision making. For instance, fleet managers use maintenance & fuel reports to minimize fleet downtime and fleet fuel expenses.

Maintenance & Fuel Reports

Two of the biggest fleet cost drivers are maintenance and fuel. Maintenance cost includes repair and replacement costs, as well as lost productivity. Fuel costs, on the other hand, are predictable operational costs.

Some of the key maintenance & fuel reports include Engine Light Warnings, Fuel Trends, and Idling.

Engine Light Warning

Engine lights are a vehicle’s first indicator for trouble. For instance, engine lights might indicate that a mechanic needs to inspect a vehicle’s engine or air flow. If left unattended, vehicles can encounter major issues and stop working.

However, the issue with many fleets is that some drivers do not report issues. Fleet vehicles ultimately belong to the business and unfortunately, some drivers ignore engine light warnings because it isn’t their personal vehicle.

A useful report in this case is % Days with Engine Light On. This report measures engine light warnings during a given time period. Therefore, even when drivers are not reporting issues, mechanics will still know which vehicles need further checkup.

Fuel Last 3 Months

Another budget controlling initiative outside of controlling maintenance expenses is reducing fuel expense. Fleet managers are responsible for optimizing fuel costs. As a result, many fleet managers plan and implement strategies such as no-idling rules, driver contests, or fuel replacement.

All of those ideas are great. Nonetheless, the key question for many fleet managers and their performance evaluations is, “are my ideas working?”. This is why fleet managers measure and monitor trend reports. These reports are useful because they paint a long term picture of a fleet.

For instance, here is a fuel report for the last 3 months. Overall, the fleet is experiencing lower fuel costs. However, over the past month, there was a slight increase in fuel expense. This is useful information for the fleet manager. Is there an increase because there is more business? Or, should the policies be re-evaluated?

Idling

Speaking of fuel policies, one of the most common and effective ideas is reducing idling. Unfortunately for many fleets, idling is a major concern. For instance, on my way to work, I noticed at least 3 idling vehicles.

In response, a lot of fleet managers create and monitor a zero idling policy. Idling Reports are a great tool for this objective. To illustrate, view the Idling Report above. Fleet managers can use this report to identify idling patterns and follow up with driver coaching.

Enjoyed our blog on maintenance & fuel reports? Check back with us for our next report set – driver safety!

What are the Best Fleet Fuel Cards?

Posted on February 8, 2018 | by Jimmy Song

While I was studying in business school, I learned a quick lesson about asking for the “best” solution. I often heard students asking the professors, “So what’s the best way to do X or to do Y?”. The answer was the same, every time – “It depends”. Of course, as students, we were frustrated by the answer. However, “it depends” is really the best answer because every problem is different. The same applies to finding the best fleet fuel cards.

What are the best fleet fuel cards?

In honour of my professors, the answer is … it depends. In this guide, we won’t necessarily cover what are the best fleet fuel cards, but rather, how to look for the best fleet fuel cards.

In order to find the best fleet fuel cards, consider the following areas.

Cost vs. Benefit

Fuel cards can have subtle cost differences. Just like a credit card, some cards have monthly fees while other cards only have a one-time fee. Additionally, there are different terms and conditions. For example, some cards have heavier late payment penalties.

On the other side, what are the benefits of having a fuel card? A lot of fleet fuel cards offer volume discounts. Of course, just like the cost, the volume discounts vary from card to card.

In other words, the only real way to compare cost against benefit is to compare quotes. Here is a quick exercise. From the table below, what is the best fleet fuel card?

Card A clearly has the lower monthly fee while Card B clearly has the better volume discount. The only way to decide which is the better card is to consider business use. In this case, the cost is only justified if a vehicle uses more than 200 gallons a month [$2 monthly fee/ $0.01 discount per gallon].

Network

Here’s another consideration – how big is the fleet card’s coverage? Let’s say a fleet card makes sense from a cost vs. benefit standpoint. However, that fleet card would be useless if it doesn’t serve the fleet’s operating range.

Therefore, one of the first questions to qualify a fuel card is to figure out their service location. Some fuel cards might cover 90% of fuel stations across the country. Another might only cover a very narrow region.

A good framework for matching a fuel card is to:

1 – Figure out where drivers go. Create a coverage map based on driver locations.

2 – From the coverage map, jot down local gas stations.

3 – Ask a fuel card rep how many of those stations are covered.

Data

Some fuel cards are quite basic and their data is limited to monthly invoices. That might be fine for small businesses who only employ a few drivers.

However, for businesses that employ more than a handful of drivers, they might want other data. For instance, some fuel cards provide the following 2 reports.

Fuel data. Some fuel cards can create reports on fuel purchases and fuel use. As a result, managers can use these reports to save money on fuel purchases and on fuel efficiency.

Fraud reports. Some fuel cards are able to stop fuel fraud. For instance, a business discovered that some of their employees were stealing fuel because they received suspicious purchase alerts.

Conclusion

There are many fleet fuel cards. The only way to pick the “best” card is to figure out business needs such as the amount fuel purchased per month, the service coverage, and the amount of data needed. From there, businesses can compare their requirements against each fuel card.

FitSmall Services: When is a Fleet Card Right for Your Small Business?

Fuel Strategy Framework | Fuel Monitoring Systems for Trucks

Posted on January 23, 2018 | by Jimmy Song

The new year is always a good time for businesses to review their strategies! For fleets, one of these strategies might be the fuel strategy. Even in a new year, fleet managers are challenged to get more bang for fuel bucks. Here is a sample fuel strategy framework that is powered by data from fuel monitoring systems for trucks.

ABC Company’s Fuel Strategy Framework

ABC Company is a trucking company. It’s no surprise that fuel is one of their biggest costs. For that reason, ABC’s fleet manager uses fuel monitoring systems for trucks to guide their fuel strategy.

ABC’s fuel strategy is organized into a step by step process. In this process, the fleet manager plans fuel savings, monitors fuel data, creates policies, and reports results.

Let’s closely examine each step.

Step 1: Planning savings with Fleet Savings Summary

As with any good strategy, the first step is to set goals. This is no different for ABC’s fuel strategy. At the beginning of each year, the fleet manager sets fuel savings targets with a Fleet Savings Summary report.

The Fleet Savings Summary creates a dashboard of potential savings from using fuel monitoring systems for trucks. Throughout the year, the fleet manager uses the savings dashboard to compare results against targets.

Step 2: Monitoring fuel purchase with Fuel Tracker

In the second step, ABC’s fleet manager collects fuel purchase data. Vital data is collected and reported on the Fuel Tracker Report.

For instance, the fleet manager can see where fuel was purchased, how much fuel costed, and what was the fuel economy. Afterwards, the fleet manager creates effective purchase policies by analyzing fuel purchase reports.

Step 3: Monitoring fuel usage with Fuel Consumption Analysis

The third step is to monitor trucks as they go on the road. Here, the fleet manager’s biggest challenge is to make sense of all of the data.

Since fuel use depends on different factors, the fleet manager relies on Fuel Consumption Analysis to narrow down what’s driving fuel cost and how to meet savings targets.

For instance, fuel variation reports shows how much fuel was consumed each day. From these reports, ABC can filter out days that had dips in fuel efficiency.

From here, the fleet manager looks at each dips and makes sense of it. Was it caused by poor driving? Long routes? Faulty vehicles? By going through the checklist, the fleet manager can then make an informed decision on how to meet savings targets.

Step 4: Creating policies

The fourth step is where fleet managers earn their living. In order to reach the year’s savings targets, ABC’s fleet manager creates policies from data collected in the last 2 steps.

After reviewing data, ABC created the following policies:

Fuel purchases. The fleet manager published a list of preferred fuelling stations. By using fuel purchase data, the fleet manager identified the highest value fuelling stations.
Driver training. The fleet manager sent several drivers to a training center. After analysing variation reports, the fleet manager noticed that the same drivers struggled with certain driving habits. Then, by re-training the drivers, fuel savings increased.
Truck order. The fleet manager ordered a new truck. The fleet manager noticed that a particular truck struggled with fuel savings. After crossing off all other factors, the fleet manager was finally able to prove that it was time to replace the aging truck.

Step 5: Reporting results with Quarterly Fuel Trends

The final step is to report fuel results. In order to report results, the fleet manager used a tool called Quarterly Fuel Trends.

Quarterly Fuel Trends summarizes fuel changes in each quarter. With this report, ABC’s fleet manager was able to prove that the fleet reduced fuel costs each quarter. Here comes the bonus cheques!

Interested in looking at fuel management systems for trucks? Click here for more info.

Geotab: Fleet Savings Summary

Geotab: Last 3 Months Fuel Trend Report

Fuel Tracker

Geotab: Fuel Consumption Analysis

Best Practices When Using Fleet Fuel Cards

Posted on July 7, 2017 | by Jimmy Song

One of my hobbies include teaching math to kids. Besides “when the heck are we going to use this in real life”, one of the most common questions I get is “where does money come from?”

Well, great question! A long, long time ago, our ancestors used a bartering system to trade items. Then, of course, someone realized that they were getting ripped off because not all items are of the same value.

As a result, society started using gold coins as currency. People then adapted currency into different forms, ranging from paper bills to debit & credit cards to virtual currency.

Different Ways to Purchase Fuel

Just like different forms of currency, there are different ways to purchase fuel. Some of the most common ways include:

Reimbursement

Employees pay for fuel out of their own pockets. An administrator would then collect the receipt and reimburse the employee.

Buying Fuel in Bulk

Some businesses are able to partner with fuel companies and provide fuelling stations on-site. This is a great way to getting bulk discounts if there is a secure site to store fuel.

Company Credit Cards

Employees would use credit cards to buy fuel at gas stations. An administrator usually checks the purchases.

And lastly…

Fleet Fuel Cards!

Fuel cards relieve administration work by preventing non-fuel related purchases.

Let’s dive into some of the best practices when using fleet fuel cards.

1) Taking Advantage of Rebates

Are you a deal hunter? Fuel cards provide rebates for purchasing fuel. Businesses can redeem free fuel for using the card and collecting points. As well, fuel cards reduce transaction costs such as credit card usage fees and interest charged. How much money does this save?

Jay Tabor, fleet manager of G&J Trucking, explains that his job is to “squeeze every ounce of profit” and is “easily saving 6-7% on fuel” by reducing transaction costs and by using rebates.

2) Smart Deal Hunting

Who’s a deal hunter? The Deal Guy shares his top 5 websites for hunting discounts.

Smart fleet managers also hunt for deals by thinking, “where are the best places to fuel up?” Fuel cards collect an incredible amount of data. Valuable information such as locations fuelled and average cost per gallon allows fleet managers to discover the stations with the best fuel deals.

Fleet managers can then take advantage of this by instructing drivers to fuel at these money-saving locations. In order to ensure instructions are followed, fuel card systems can set rules to restrict usage to only the cheapest fuel stations.

3) Reducing Administration Work

Headache-inducing administration work can be caused by using credit cards and reimbursement. It is quite common for employees to steal by spending money on unauthorized items such as cigarettes or snacks.

Accountants must review item-by-item to ensure all purchases follows company policy and to fill in reports. Instead of burdening the accounting staff, fuel cards can be used to eliminate non-fuel purchases and to set up reports.

4) Preventing Fuel Fraud

Although fleet fuel cards reduce theft, employees can still commit fraud with fuel cards. Over the years, creative thieves abused fuel cards. Some of their plots ranged from putting fuel into their personal car to even filling empty jerry cans to take home.

A way to prevent fraud is to set up fuel card controls. Many fuel card systems allow users to set up rules such as limiting fuel purchases per transaction and fuel purchases per day. Businesses can receive reports if these rules are broken.

Another great way to prevent fraud is to integrate fuel card systems with telematics. Some telematics providers are able to match fuel purchases with in-vehicle data. This lets businesses confirm that every bit of fuel purchased with the card is entered into the correct company vehicle.

For more information about fleet fuel cards, connect with our fleet consultants!

Sources:
Wex Inc: 8 FAQ’s About Fuel Cards
All Star Business Solutions: Fuel Card vs. Credit Card
Automotive Fleet: Pros and Cons of Suing a Fuel Card vs. a Corporate Card for Fleet Fuel

Fuel Card Integration Saves You $$$

Posted on June 18, 2015 | by Victoria Gole

Fuel Card Integration from Fuel BI

Fuel BI is an integration from our partner Fleet Hoster that uses the information Geotab GPS devices pull from the vehicle to cross reference with information collected from a Fuel Card.

When you’re operating a fleet, fuel cards and GPS devices can empower you to take control of your fleet fuel expenditures. With the Fuel BI integration, we will automatically capture your fleet card transactions, geocode them, process them against GPS data, and provide you the results in order to better analyze your fleet fuel expenditures. Fuel card integration will help you gain valuable insights with the following tools:

Built in Geotab security settings so your managers or users can only view the data they’re permitted to
Fuel expenditure charts and metrics over user selected periods of time
Location analysis with mapping of transaction and vehicle location at the time of purchase
Gain insight with transaction mapping on where your drivers are filling up
Capture gallons purchased vs gallons actually used with fuel consumption tracking
Customized user dashboard, alerts, and charts
Works with all 4 major fuel card providers

In order to provide our customers with the best information possible we pull data from both the fuel transaction and the vehicle’s GPS data. From each fuel transaction we can determine the transaction time, merchant location, product information, and driver identification. From the vehicle’s GPS data we can determine the log time, vehicle location, and vehicle status data.

*The most important piece is the link between the fuel card provider and Geotab to identify a vehicle. A good match means that a link is successful.

*We look for vehicle logs around the time of the transaction to get GPS data.

We look for an overall increasing fuel level trend around the time of the fuel transaction.

Our fuel card integration software helps you to gain an excellent overview of fuel expenditures and provide you with the tools necessary to pinpoint any suspected vehicles or transactions to prevent fuel theft.

With an easy setup process and easy to read key performance indicators you can start tracking your fuel purchases, referencing them with Geotab data, and saving money in no time.

Explore Fuel Card Benefits

Posted on May 7, 2015 | by Vishal Singh

Fuel your company profits with Fuel Cards

Fuel cards help view and confirm driver fuel card expenditures. Information can be generated daily, helping managers eliminate fuel theft and realize return on investments through GoFleet’s management solution.

Benefits of Fuel Cards

Fuel cards work in a very similar way to ordinary credit cards with the exception of the card restrictions to purchases of fuel, oil and lubricants only. Available to businesses of all sizes, the card when combined with GoFleet’s fleet solutions will help achieve substantial savings through:

Improved cash flow
The ability to monitor and control fuel expenses more closely
Single invoices, eliminating piles of receipts
Improved security as cards can be matched to a vehicle, driver or both.

1) Fuel Card Invoicing

The first noticeable benefit from using fuel cards is the elimination of receipts. Business owners and fleet managers no longer have to sort through piles of receipts and expense claims to submit an appropriate level for the reimbursement of mileage as fuel costs are immediately apparent on the invoices.

2) Fuel Card Reports

At the end of each month a fleet managers can receive a scheduled management report containing information regarding fuel purchases. These reports can be customized as well as designed to show details of each and every transaction such as the specific card used, the date/location/time of the transaction as well as the quantity and type of fuel purchased.

3) Fuel Cards remove the need for cash

The classic benefit is arguably health as it reduces company administration costs and expenses claims can be tracked and calculated easily.

4) Fuel Card Network Coverage

The card can be set to be used within a specific network of service stations. This will allow for easy control and monitoring of the purchases made and the locations driven too.

5) Fuel Card Pricing

Many fuel cards offer discounted prices which mean in the long run, the amounts will total to a large amount of saving.s

Lastly, the most important feature of the fuel card it it’s the ability provide convenience to all drivers and administrators and maximize cost savings on administration allowing business owners and fleet managers to massively reduce fuel fraud, which cause a major drain on company finances.

To learn more about fuel card options, contact us at 1-888-998-1122.

Fleet Budget: Finding Your Lost Dollars

Posted on December 8, 2014 | by Devin Johnson

Finding Your Lost Dollars In Your Fleet Budget

As a fleet manager or company owner, you probably spend a lot of time reviewing your fleet budget and expense categories to look for ways to save money. According to Automotive Fleet’s Finding Lost Dollars In Your Fleet Budget, fleet managers usually focus on fuel costs and depreciation. They often overlook the importance of spending a couple days a month looking in other areas to find additional saving opportunities. A great way to uncover lost dollars is to implement GoFleet’s GPS fleet management software.

Reduce Fuel Costs In Your Fleet Budget

There is more to reducing fuel costs in your fleet budget than just searching for the cheapest place to purchase fuel, such as calculating price per gallon and determining the best grade fuel for your vehicles. GoFleet’s fleet management solution helps you reduce fuel consumption by improving your drivers’ fuel wasting behaviors; this can include poor driving habits such as excessive idling, speeding and aggressive driving. Instant alerts can be set up to notify the fleet manager immediately when a driver is driving in a manner that is wasting fuel. This provides the opportunity to have the driver correct the behavior right away.

GoFleet’s fuel card integration allows you to monitor and control fuel purchases. You will be able to lock out any non-fuel purchases such as adding food, cigarettes or other items for personal consumption. GoFleet’s software can also indicate the location of the fleet vehicle when the fuel is purchased. This will prevent fraudulent gas purchases for personal vehicles. You can also control where your drivers fill-up so that they only purchase fuel at gas stations with the best prices or fuel card discounts.

Reduce Vehicle Maintenance Costs In Your Fleet Budget

Fleet managers have the ability to negotiate vehicle maintenance discounts and pricing based on volume. Once the maintenance price is negotiated, make sure the vehicles receive the necessary preventative maintenance. This will ensure the vehicles stay in good working condition and it reduces high costs associated with unnecessary vehicle breakdowns. GoFleet’s Maintenance Assistant easily organizes and reminds fleet managers of all upcoming preventative maintenance. Multiple triggers can be created for each vehicle for any type of preventive maintenance activity based on engine hours, time or mileage. Using GoFleet’s fleet maintenance management software will help you save money on your fleet budget, improve performance and help you follow the best fleet maintenance practices.

For more information about how GoFleet can help you find the lost dollars in your fleet budget, Contact Us.

Fuel Management Systems: Make Smarter Fuel Purchases

Posted on October 31, 2014 | by Devin Johnson

Make Smarter Fuel Purchases Using Fuel Management Systems

Fuel management systems are a great way to track your fuel purchases and make the smartest decisions regarding fuel purchases. Using a fuel card integration helps business owners and fleet managers understand their fleet expenses better. Using GoFleet’s technology and fuel management systems, you can increase your return on investment significantly.

With GoFleet’s fuel management systems, there is no additional software needed. The fuel management system is an add-on to your GoFleet GPS fleet management software. In addition to managing your fleet, driver behavior, idle time, safety violations and maintenance requirements, fleet managers can also confirm, track and view fuel card purchases each day. The fuel data is processed daily so you always have information that is up to date.

GoFleet’s fuel management systems have a fully customizable dashboard. The dashboard can be set up with customized charts, fuel metrics or notification. Your fleet managers can configure alerts for fuel purchased, fuel usage and inefficient driving practices to keep track of all fuel information. Alerts can be sent by email or be displayed on the dashboard daily, weekly or monthly.

Fleet managers will be able to eliminate driver fuel theft with GoFleet’s fuel management systems. Most business do not realize how much fuel theft is actually occurring before they implement a fuel management system. When employees steal fuel, they are taking money right from your bottom line. If fuel theft is occurring at your business, you will be able to save money immediately upon implementing the fuel management systems by eliminating the theft.

With GoFleet’s fuel management systems, your fleet managers will be able to view the exact location of the merchant and the vehicle at the time of fueling up to ensure your drivers are getting gas at an authorized location. It will also ensure that the drivers are fueling up your fleet vehicle and not their own personal vehicles.

How To Reduce Fuel Consumption In Your Fleet

Posted on October 31, 2014 | by Devin Johnson

Tips on How to Reduce Your Fleet’s Fuel Consumption

Companies with fleet operations would love to reduce fuel costs; however, many do not know where they should start. Check out these tips you can do to reduce your fuel consumption:

Tires

Use a tire monitoring system.
Fleets using automatic tire monitoring systems reduce fuel consumption by approximately 1.4%.

Make sure your wheels and tires are balanced.
When wheels and tires are not properly balanced, it causes vibrations and irregular wear. This wastes energy and increases fuel usage. If you make sure your wheels and tires are balanced, you increase fuel efficiency.

Fuel Purchasing And Usage

Consider a fuel card program.
You should use a fuel card program is your drivers are responsible for fueling up when they are on the road. These programs not only help you control and track fuel purchases, they also offer additional discounts on fuel.

Make sure you review your fuel invoices.
Reviewing fuel invoices is a great way to catch billing errors and identify any unusual purchases. Make sure your employees are held accountable for the fuel they purchase (This can be done easily through a fuel card program as mentioned above).

Implement a GPS fleet management solution

GPS fleet management solutions gather various information about your fleet, driver behaviors, fuel consumption and diagnostics to help you make the best possible decisions about your fleet’s fuel consumption. This information can also be used to reduce fuel consumption by identifying and correcting inefficient activities that increase fuel usage.

Keep track of fuel data.
Make sure you keep track of important fuel data including miles per gallon, fuel consumption, idle times, road speed, and hard breaking. All of which can be monitored easily all in one place using a GPS fleet management solution.

Optimized routing.
When your routes are optimized and efficient, you will use less fuel.

Monitoring idling times.
If you use a GPS fleet management system, you can monitor your drivers idling times. Excessive idling wastes fuel, costing your company money. Alerts can be set up to notify you if a driver is idling for an extended period of time.

Fuel Management System: Prevent Fuel Theft

Posted on September 19, 2014 | by Devin Johnson

Prevent Employee Fuel Theft With A Fuel Management System

When you run a business with fleet operations and you use a corporate credit card for fuel purchases, you run the risk of your employees abusing your card for their personal gain. It is unfortunate but fuel theft can occur at any business. Using a fuel management system with fuel cards can prevent fuel theft.

When you add-on a fuel management system to a GoFleet GPS fleet tracking system, you can track fuel purchases and make the smartest fuel purchase decisions. In addition to the many benefits of a GPS fleet tracking system, fuel cards allow fleet managers to be able to view and confirm daily fuel card expenditures. A fuel management system helps business owners and fleet managers to better understand their fuel costs.

Fleet managers are able to use the GoFleet fleet management system to spot inconsistencies in fuel purchases. The GPS fleet tracking system can be used to provide the vehicles’ specific location and it can be compared to the fuel purchase location and the amount of fuel purchased. If the vehicle is not in the location of the fuel purchase, this would indicate that your driver is participating in unsavory activities that should be investigated.

A fuel management system gives fleet managers and business owners a deeper insight into their fleet operating costs. Fuel card transactions are processed every day so they always have fuel information that is up-to-date. The fuel management system is fully integrated with GoFleet’s My.Geotab so no additional software is needed. There are many customized reports and configurable alerts that can be set up to monitor fuel metrics. Being able to spot fuel trends early will help prevent employee fuel theft.

Integrating fuel cards with a GPS fleet tracking system provides you with the true cost per gallon of fuel and miles per gallon. In addition, you will find out the true cost of idling when your drivers idle for climate control. Knowledge of your fleet’s true fuel usage is important to save costs and reduce the risk of theft.