The Quickstart Guide to Eliminating Fleet Cards

If you’re reading this guide, your company probably has employees that drive as part of their jobs, whether that’s meeting with clients, visiting job sites, or performing other duties. 

Managing a fleet of vehicles is no easy task, and requires efficient handling of all of the costs associated with fuel, maintenance, and other expenses. This is where fleet card management often comes into play. Presented as a solution to management’s headaches and hassles, fleet card management has actually been shown to create a process that is overwhelming and stressful.

In this post, we outline common fleet card complaints and share an efficient way to eliminate traditional speed bumps associated with these programs, streamlining your processes and reducing unnecessary expenses.

Fleet Card Management 101

A fleet card, also called a fuel card, is a restricted payment card that allows employee drivers to make purchases related to fuel, maintenance, and other vehicle expenses. Fleet card management refers to the overall system through which companies oversee these costs, enforce rules, prevent fraud, and analyze usage data. 

Common Fleet Card Complaints

Although some companies are able to find a few benefits from fleet card management, there are common complaints stemming from the need for manual tasks:

• Messy Operations: With multiple vehicles, drivers, plastic cards, and PINs to track, fleet card management can create more problems than it solves. From physically distributing and collecting them to replacing lost or stolen ones, managing physical cards is quite taxing. Admin teams often complain about the sheer volume of transactions that need to be recorded, tracked, and reconciled, creating significant administrative overhead.
• Human Error: Human errors come in a variety of forms, with the potential to significantly impact efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and even legal compliance. It’s not uncommon for drivers to accidentally use their fleet cards for non-approved purchases, or for them to lose track of receipts. The biggest source of human error is around driver data. Unfortunately, as drivers are responsible for inputting odometer data and PINs, odometer data is rarely correct and vehicle numbers typically correspond to the wrong vehicle. 
• Fraud: Despite existing security measures, fleet cards are susceptible to fraudulent activities. In order to detect and quickly respond to any nefarious activities, constant monitoring is needed, which can turn into an operational burden.

Eliminating Fleet Cards with Car IQ

Fortunately, there’s a proven alternative for fleet managers to take control of fuel costs. Instead of relying on physical cards and manual tracking, Car IQ is an intuitive payment solution that makes it easy for drivers to pay for authorized expenses and fleet managers to track expenses and generate reports. Here’s how it works:

1. Say goodbye to the card

2. Onboard with ease

No matter how many vehicles you have, it’s easy to get started with Car IQ. By connecting directly to industry-leading Telematics providers, Car IQ is able to smoothly and accurately onboard your entire fleet within days.

3. Control your controls

Car IQ allows you to set smart controls so you can rest easy knowing you’re fueling your fleet vehicles and not someone else’s. Set rules based on merchants, spending caps, or day / time controls to mitigate risk and prevent fraud.

4. Effortlessly consolidate vehicle expenses

Our technology goes beyond the basics of tracking fleet data at the fleet or vehicle level. Car IQ automatically gathers and consolidates all expenses related to a single vehicle so fleet managers gain a holistic view of a vehicle’s expenses. No more reconciling across all transactions to try and pull together a single view of a vehicle's expense. 

Fuel Your Fleet with Car IQ

Managing your fleet doesn’t have to be a headache. Car IQ is a better way for fleets to pay, all without the need to use a credit card. Vehicles connect to the fuel pump and pay. Drivers simply need to pull into the station, select the pump number, and let the vehicle take it from there.

Interested? Let’s start a conversion today.