Tips for Monitoring Irregular Fuel Purchases

Fuel Purchase Monitoring | FuelZ

Fleet managers have a lot details to keep track of including staying on top of purchases that their employees make. Monitoring fuel card purchases regularly is key to spotting irregular purchases and prevent financial losses. If money slips through the cracks, it cuts into company profits. Taking steps to monitor fuel charges and let drivers know that you are keeping an eye on usage improves accountability. Fuel card companies have monitoring controls to you keep you abreast of anomalies in purchases. Here are some tips for monitoring fuel purchases.

Set Limits of Your Fleet Fuel Card Purchases

A feature of some fuel cards is to set limits on driver purchases. This ranges from basic limits to more comprehensive ones. Controls like limiting the number of gallons purchases in one transaction, fuel type, and type of spend can be set in advance by the fleet manager. Even more comprehensive features are controls like per day, per week, and time of day limits.

A good fuel card also gives fleet managers the flexibility to remove limits when needed. For example, you may need to override preset limits if a truck breaks down in the field, and your driver needs to pay for repair.

Get Access to Dynamic Reporting

Access to information regarding transactions in real time is important. This enables fleet managers to respond to irregularities as they happen and before they end up costing too much.

Reports from a fuel card company should be not only accessible but easy to read and understand as well. Within this reporting layout it is helpful to have the ability to set limits and alerts.  When a certain limit or trigger is set off, your card company should send you an alert via text message so that you know a card is being used above a limit or in an abnormal way.

Find Good Customer Service

All the features in the world are no good if there isn’t great customer service to back it up. Pick a fuel card company that goes the extra mile when you need them to.

A good fuel card company will work with you towards your budget goals, monitoring your driver’s fleet spend alongside you. This means going the extra mile to give you a call to alert you when charges to the card start looking way different than normal.

Include Your Drivers

It’s important to be on the same page as your drivers and letting them know you are monitoring card charges. Build a sense of teamwork, emphasizing the fact that as the team saves money as a whole there will be more profits to share around. This will give them reason to purchase fuel from stations that are less expensive and avoid unnecessary purchases.

Give them incentives for driving more efficiently and spending less. This could be a gift card or preferential time off.

If you are looking for a fuel card that gives you flexible options to monitor fuel purchases and manage your fleet efficiently, look no further than the FuelZ Fleet Card. Contact us to get your fleet started with the FuelZ card today.