What to Look for in Reports from Your Fuel Card Company Partner

With fuel being among a fleet’s top five expenses, fleet managers are always looking for methods to reduce fuel costs. Enlisting the services of a fuel card company is one of the best ways fleets can manage their fuel budgets. Fuel card services offer automated, real-time reporting of transaction data—putting power in the hands of fleet managers and minimizing unnecessary or unauthorized expenditures.

To truly take advantage of this wealth of information, it’s important to regularly review fuel card spending reports. Whether they’re performed daily, weekly, or monthly, audits can help fleet managers identify potential money leaks due to human or technical errors as well as unethical employee activity.

Here are some common issues to look for in a fuel card report.

Unauthorized Purchases Made with Fuel Cards

While most companies don’t want to consider the possibility that their employees might be stealing from them, the reality is that, nationwide, theft constitutes between 1.5% and 3% of commercial fuel budgets. This fact alone is reason enough to prioritize keeping accurate records and reviewing them regularly.

Using fuel cards can reduce incidents of employee theft by allowing fleet managers to see where and how every fuel dollar has been spent—and by whom. By having a sense of current fuel pricing, as well as data that indicates what a fleet’s typical fuel costs look like, fleet managers can begin to identify unusual spending on fuel card reports and investigate unauthorized purchases accordingly.

Duplicate Transactions & Missing Information

Errors on fuel card reports don’t always indicate unethical activity. Human and technical blunders are more common than many people realize. Regularly reviewing fuel card reports gives fleets a chance to discover and correct irregularities, such as duplicate transactions or missing information. And since many fuel cards offer discounts, an audit is an excellent time to make sure these are being applied.

Unusual Volumes or Incorrect Types

Once fleet managers have developed a good feel for their fleets’ monthly fuel volumes and transaction counts, it becomes easier to note discrepancies and unusual peaks in usage. When those spikes do arise, a quick comparison to the mileage of the vehicle(s) in question can clarify whether or not the increase is suspicious or justified.

Examining the type of fuel being purchased can ensure that employee fuel cards are only being used for company purposes. For instance, if a fleet uses only diesel, a purchase of unleaded regular would raise a red flag.

Tracking proper usage is also important for garnering tax benefits, since using on-road fuel for off-road purposes can incur up to 50 cents per gallon in taxes.

The Right Fleet Fuel Card Protects Your Assets

With easy, instant access to the information you need, the Fuelz fleet card eliminates the time-consuming data entry and guesswork of traditional record keeping.

The FuelZ fleet card allows you to generate customized reports with data makes the review process easy. Itemized transaction details offer crystal clear insight into employee fuel card activity while options like purchasing limits and fuel-only safeguards help ensure that fuel cards aren’t misused.

FuelZ puts you in the driver’s seat. Contact us at 855-GO-FUELZ to get started today.