Take Control & Save Money Using Fuel Cards

Vehicle manufacturers are claiming that the next generation in company vehicles will have twin turbo boost and fuel injection technology in order to help fuel economy, but what do companies that are struggling now do to reduce their overheads? The answer is; your employees are your best weapon to reduce spiralling fuel costs and ultimately improve your cash flow.

Trying to control expenditure on fuel is vitally important to many companies in today’s economic climate. The most logical conclusion is to make fewer journeys so that less fuel is consumed. In some cases this can be practical, some companies are encouraging their employees to communicate more by email and phone from their office or home addresses, rather than going to face to face meetings with customers. Skype is also a solution that our customers have begun to use. However, the face to face interaction that your employees make on a day to day basis could be the difference between winning (or retaining) a contract or not. Relationships are always better built when you can build a rapport with someone who is in the same room as you. This is why many companies have to think of other ways to help their fuel economy.

A 1000 vehicle fleet managed by Pertemps, a large recruitment company, have found that the management process that they have developed has saved them £50,000 on an annual basis. Their management process, which they have named Midas, was so successful that Shell have incorporated it as part of their fuel card system. Adrian Harris, the man in charge of this large fleet, believes that people do not attempt to manage their fuel consumption because they mistakenly believe that there is nothing they can do about it. Companies do not, as a matter of course, provide their employees with the means for open expenditure on their other expenses because the claims may not be correct. The same attitude needs to be adopted with fuel.

Better Fuel Management

Fuel cards are the best way to keep a track of your employee’s fuel expenditure. If your employees have a fuel card then you control where your employees buy their fuel and have access to how much they are paying for it. It is very important, however, to choose a fuel card with a good coverage as it would be counterproductive for an employee to drive further in order to go to the allocated forecourt, in the name of saving money. If employees are forced to use a more expensive forecourt then they should be encouraged to only get enough fuel to take them to the next cheapest forecourt on their route.

Rebates are also available on the fuel actually bought using a fuel card and they can sometimes be up to 5p per litre. If these savings are made over a fleet on an annual basis then a massive reduction in fuel expenditure can be made. Fuel cards help to ensure that the VAT paid on fuel is charged back correctly, and quicker, so instead of your office staff going through a pile of receipts each month, they will have one VAT invoice from the fuel card supplier. The reduction in administration costs are also another saving that can be made, for little effort.

Employees Drive More Efficiently

When employees are aware that their fuel is being monitored then they are more likely to adopt more fuel economic routes, and driver behaviours, but this needs to be backed up with effective and comprehensive training. It may help employees to engage with their training if you allow them to pay for their personal fuel using the fuel card and then charge them it back on their monthly expenses on a pence per mile basis that is consistent with the price of the fuel being bought with the fuel card. This way, both the company and the employee makes savings.

Using fuel cards you can identify where there is room for improvement, and set training procedures in motion to facilitate this. For example, if your fuel card data shows that one of your employees is spending a substantial amount more on fuel compared to an employee that has a similar sized area to cover then perhaps they would benefit from training in journey planning. Vehicle tracking can help with this. In fact, the best savings can be made by using fuel cards and vehicle tracking in conjunction with each other. Not only are you controlling your employee’s expenditure on the forecourt but you will be able to make sure that employee’s expenses claims are correct, and that they are taking the shortest journey possible to their location. It is easy to see which journeys are work or non work related by using a tracking system which can be also used to improve the accuracy of your employee expense claim payments.