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A fuel card or fleet card is used as a payment card most commonly for gasoline, diesel, and other fuels at gas stations. Fleet cards can also be used to pay for vehicle maintenance and expenses at the discretion of the fleet owner or manager. Most fuel cards are charge cards.
Fleet cards are unique due to the convenient and comprehensive reporting that accompanies their use. Fleet cards enable fleet owners/ managers to receive real time reports and set purchase controls with their cards helping them to stay informed of all business related expenses.
Fleet cards can be provided not only by oil brands like Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, but also by companies that only specialize in providing fuel cards such as Greenarc, Edenred, WEX Inc., Comdata, FleetCards USA, Petrol Plus Region, Fuelman and others. Additionally, some rideshare companies have fleet cards for their drivers, which allow the drivers to have gas money deducted from their earnings.
In its infancy, fuel cards were only printed with the company name, vehicle registration and a signature strip on the reverse. No electronic data was stored. Fuelling sites would verify the company, vehicle registration (on the forecourt) against the card and also the signature written on the back. The site would allow access to the fuel once the retailer's receipt had been signed for and cross checked against the signature written on the back of the card.
Initially, fuel card networks were very small and based around truck roads and main haulage routes. For example, in 1983, the Keyfuels site network consisted of only seven stations. Therefore, they were initially targeted at haulage or delivery companies. A few years later, cards became embossed rather than printed. This was due to provide the cards with a greater longevity—frequent use would rub off the printed information.
Due to the lack of electronic data on the fuel cards at this stage, transactions would be recorded by the card being 'stamped' onto a manual transaction sheet. Further details detailing date, time, volume, grade of fuel and registration would be hand-written.
During the mid- to late 1980s, fuel cards began to use magnetic strip technology. This meant fuel cards could be processed by a retailer electronically and reduced the risk of human error when recording transaction details.
Magnetic strips also enabled fuel card providers to increase fuel card security by ensuring PINs were encoded into the card. Although when the magnetic strip is swiped though a fuel card reader, the transaction is still only verified by checking signatories to this day.
In the advent of outdoor terminals, these PINs became compulsory in order to re-fuel.
The reasoning behind moving from the magnetic strip to smartchip technology was down to the fact that the magnetic strip could be cloned and the data written onto a dummy card. Also, the use of fuel cards was far heavier than that of debit or credit cards, and therefore it became apparent that the magnetic strip began to wear out far quicker.
Smartchip technology (similar to Chip and PIN) is the largest development in the fuel card industry in recent years. (See Smartchip benefits)
Increasingly, supermarkets are exploring opportunities in fuel cards. While Tesco & Sainsbury's have the ability to collect loyalty points (Clubcard & Nectar points) and pay with credit, Morrisons has a dedicated fuel card offering. Asda has none at all, in spite of being the cheapest seller of fuel on average in 2012.
During 2008, market maturity has led to users increasingly expecting more from fuel cards than discount pricing, with the demand for service, savings and security leading to the appearance of dedicated account management. While most fuel card suppliers handle customer queries via random-operator call centres, customer preference is increasingly for a named individual to handle their business. Respected publication Fleet News reported in July 2008 that more than a quarter of fleet managers are unhappy with the level of service offered by their fuel card supplier.
A new category of fuel card is emerging in the form of "electric fuel cards" as typified by operations from AllStar [1] and Paua. [2]
The longest running provider of fuel cards in Ireland is Fuelwise, with the company being founded in 1989 and growing to hold the largest site network and provide a range of services alongside fuel cards such as Telematics and Vehicle Walkaround Checks.
The advent of fleet cards can be traced back to the 1960s and 1970s when key stops/key locks [3] and standalone card locks [4] were used by independent marketers and filling station owners. A Key Stop or Key Lock fuel control system was a system where a group of commercial fleets could access a fuel pump with a unique key that tracked solely their gallons through that pump. This technology is obsolete and no longer available commercially. A card lock control system uses a punch card or magnetic stripe card to uniquely identify a fuel buyer on a private server. This was done to avoid a credit card interchange fee which raised the cost of fuel considerably. The first commercial fuel cards resembled a credit card with a name and a company logo on them. When a customer entered a filling station, the cashier would take down the customer's name and company information to authenticate ownership of the card. This process was time-consuming and was vulnerable to fraudulent transactions. With the advent of computers and computer software in the 1980s, the development of the fleet card industry quickly expanded. The invention of the magnetic stripe and magnetic card reader allowed petroleum marketers to control fuel pump transactions, leading to today's wide range of fleet card security features and state of the art reporting systems to track all fleet expenses. These "intelligent" systems make fleet management convenient and secure, as fleet card owners are able to track fleet fuel use with increased accuracy, receiving reports in real time on the fueling habits. Business owners are able to limit employee fueling by time-of-day and day-of-week.
Indian consumers saw their first fuel card during 2001 from Bharat Petroleum. The card was mainly aimed at retail customers for personal vehicles. Subsequently, various products aimed at various customer segments were launched by all oil companies – Smart fleet by Bharat Petroleum, XTRAPOWER by Indian Oil, Drive Track by Hindustan Petroleum, and Transconnect by Reliance Industries. While Transconnect found favours during its launch, the same withered away once Reliance shut its outlets due to huge price difference. Indian Oil's XTRAPOWER Fleet Card Program has grown to be the largest fuel card in India, followed by Smart.
Although fuel cards look like credit cards and use very similar technology, their use and implementation is significantly different. The main differences from credit cards are:
Depending upon the individual fuel card and the supplier, security benefits of fuel cards can include: [5]
Fuel card providers realised there were many benefits from moving over to the smartcard from the magnetic strip:
As of 2007, only 50% or so of fuel cards on offer utilise the smartchip technology.
Fuelling limits can also be programmed into a fuel card using smartchip technology to specify the following:
Commercial fuel cards are designed with fleets in mind and seek to avoid both the percentage up-charges of credit card companies as well as the theft risk retail credit cards expose a business to due to their focus on convenience over financial security. [6]
Typically, the majority of businesses using fuel cards are those which heavily rely on motor vehicles on a day-to-day basis e.g. transport, haulage, courier services. One of the primary reasons a business will use a fuel card is to obtain (potentially) significant savings both on the current price of fuel and on administrative costs. It would be normal for the business to receive a single weekly invoice, payable by direct debit; this replaces the manual reconciliation of individual paper receipts which could, for larger organizations, number in the hundreds each week. A number of additional benefits are available for users of fuel cards from a supplier offering an e-business capability.
In most cases, fuel cards can provide fuel at a wholesale price as opposed to standard retail. This way, discount fuel can be purchased without needing to buy in bulk.
Furthermore, the management and security concerning fuel purchases is greatly improved via the use of fuel cards. These features often prove themselves attractive to businesses, especially with those operating large fleets which can sometimes be in the thousands of vehicles.
While most fuel cards are for use in a particular country, there are some companies who offer international fuel cards themselves and some via a third party. International site networks often use fully automatic fuel pumps to avoid possible language difficulties and are specially designed to account for different taxation regimes e.g. producing separate invoices for each country which fuel was purchased in a particular month to account for different rates of VAT charged. These site networks sometimes offer the ability to reclaim VAT paid in each country, for a small percentage of the amount reclaimed. Some international fuel card providers solely offer fuel cards for business fleets, others also for individuals. However, the system of fuel cards has meanwhile spread throughout Europe, where they are called cartões de combustivel, cartecarburanti, zakelijk tankpas, tankkaart, fleetpass, cartes de carburants, and Tankkarten.
Fuel card providers which operate on a bunkering basis aim to achieve a fuel reserve on a particular network in order to achieve a discounted price, therefore taking advantage of economies of scale.
For example, a company may purchase one million litres of diesel at 72.50 and aim to sell this on to the customer with a mark up of 2.5 pence per litre — 75.00 PPL.
Bunkered fuel card companies sometimes also offer customers their own fuel bunker to under the premise of further benefiting from a discounted price. Furthermore, a customer can also hope to achieve a saving by way of avoiding any market increases in the standard market price for that particular fuel. In short, customer fuel bunkering has many pros & cons:
Pros:
Cons:
In contrast to bunkered, retail fuel cards operate by way of allowing the customer to draw fuel at almost any fuelling station (in same method as credit card). Often providers will levy a surcharge in addition to the retail price as advertised at the fuelling station. The retail price given is often considerably higher than that of the bunkered. The majority of fuel cards provide weekly (advance) notification of fuel price generally applicable nationwide.
Although retail is generally more expensive, there are a number of exceptions depending on the region, particular brand/site and timing of fuel purchased. Retail fuel can be cheaper in certain regions, particularly those near to a major port. Further reasons for the difference in price may be due to local economy (e.g. north / south of England) and whether the site is close to any main transport links i.e. the fuel costs more to deliver into the site. As for timing, the supermarkets or large providers often have a great deal of fuel in their stock reserves, so if the market increases rapidly, they would generally take longer than smaller providers to reflect this change.
Fuel cards are not all the same and 'shopping around' is advised. Typically, a supplier will offer just one or two cards. The user should seek an independent supplier offering a range of cards from major brands, so that the most appropriate fuel card for their individual needs can be chosen. A fuel card with little or no motorway coverage but extensive coverage of metropolitan areas, for example, could be of limited use to a national haulier but ideal for a taxi company. A supplier offering only diesel cards will be of minimal appeal to a fleet manager responsible for a petrol-only or mixed-fuel company car fleet.
Furthermore, retail fuel prices have decreased over the past 15 or so years largely due to supermarkets providing fuel at their superstores at hugely discounted prices in order to entice users to the store. Supermarket prices are an irrelevance to many diesel users, as very few supermarket forecourts are accessible by heavy goods vehicles or coaches.
A debit card, also known as a check card or bank card, is a payment card that can be used in place of cash to make purchases. The card usually consists of the bank's name, a card number, the cardholder's name, and an expiration date, on either the front or the back. Many new cards now have a chip on them, which allows people to use their card by touch (contactless), or by inserting the card and keying in a PIN as with swiping the magnetic stripe. Debit cards are similar to a credit card, but the money for the purchase must be in the cardholder's bank account at the time of the purchase and is immediately transferred directly from that account to the merchant's account to pay for the purchase.
Electronic Funds Transfer at Point Of Sale, abbreviated as EFTPOS; is the technical term referring to a type of payment transaction where electronic funds transfers (EFT) are processed at a point of sale (POS) system or payment terminal usually via payment methods such as payment cards. EFTPOS technology was developed during the 1980s.
Electronic cash was, until 2007, the debit card system of the German Banking Industry Committee, the association that represents the top German financial interest groups. Usually paired with a transaction account or current account, cards with an Electronic Cash logo were only handed out by proper credit institutions. An electronic card payment was generally made by the card owner entering their PIN at a so-called EFT-POS-terminal (Electronic-Funds-Transfer-Terminal). The name "EC" originally comes from the unified European checking system Eurocheque. Comparable debit card systems are Maestro and Visa Electron. Banks and credit institutions who issued these cards often paired EC debit cards with Maestro functionality. These combined cards, recognizable by an additional Maestro logo, were referred to as "EC/Maestro cards".
EMV is a payment method based on a technical standard for smart payment cards and for payment terminals and automated teller machines which can accept them. EMV stands for "Europay, Mastercard, and Visa", the three companies that created the standard.
An e-commerce payment system facilitates the acceptance of electronic payment for offline transfer, also known as a subcomponent of electronic data interchange (EDI), e-commerce payment systems have become increasingly popular due to the widespread use of the internet-based shopping and banking.
Business-to-business is a situation where one business makes a commercial transaction with another. This typically occurs when:
Dynamic currency conversion (DCC) or cardholder preferred currency (CPC) is a process whereby the amount of a credit card transaction is converted at the point of sale, ATM or internet to the currency of the card's country of issue. DCC is generally provided by third party operators in association with the merchant, and not by a card issuer. Card issuers permit DCC operators to offer DCC in accordance with the card issuers' processing rules. However, using DCC, the customer is usually charged an amount in excess of the transaction amount converted at the normal exchange rate, though this may not be obviously disclosed to the customer at the time. The merchant, the merchant's bank or ATM operator usually impose a markup on the transaction, in addition to the exchange rate that would normally apply, sometimes by as much as 18%.
A merchant account is a type of bank account that allows a seller, know as the merchant, to accept payments by debit or credit cards. A merchant account is established under an agreement between an acceptor and a merchant acquiring bank for the settlement of payment card transactions. In some cases a payment processor, payment service provider, independent sales organization (ISO), or member service provider (MSP) is also a party to the merchant agreement and can act as middle man between the merchant and the bank.
Payment cards are part of a payment system issued by financial institutions, such as a bank, to a customer that enables its owner to access the funds in the customer's designated bank accounts, or through a credit account and make payments by electronic transfer with a payment terminal and access automated teller machines (ATMs). Such cards are known by a variety of names, including bank cards, ATM cards, client cards, key cards or cash cards.
Merchant Account Providers give businesses the ability to accept debit and credit cards in payment for goods and services. This can be face-to-face, on the telephone, or over the internet.
Debit card cashback is a service offered to retail customers whereby an amount is added to the total purchase price of a transaction paid by debit card and the customer receives that amount in cash along with the purchase. For example, a customer purchasing $18.99 worth of goods at a supermarket might ask for twenty dollars cashback. The customer would approve a debit payment of $38.99 to the store, and the cashier would then give the customer $20 in cash.
Authorization hold is a service offered by credit and debit card providers whereby the provider puts a hold of the amount approved by the cardholder, reducing the balance of available funds until the merchant clears the transaction, after the transaction is completed or aborted, or because the hold expires.
Merchant services is a broad category of financial services intended for use by businesses. In its most specific use, it usually refers to merchant processing services that enables a business to accept a transaction payment through a secure (encrypted) channel using the customer's credit card or debit card or NFC/RFID enabled device. More generally, the term may include:
Interchange fee is a term used in the payment card industry to describe a fee paid between banks for the acceptance of card-based transactions. Usually for sales/services transactions it is a fee that a merchant's bank pays a customer's bank.
Credit card fraud is an inclusive term for fraud committed using a payment card, such as a credit card or debit card. The purpose may be to obtain goods or services or to make payment to another account, which is controlled by a criminal. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is the data security standard created to help financial institutions process card payments securely and reduce card fraud.
A credit card is a payment card, usually issued by a bank, allowing its users to purchase goods or services, or withdraw cash, on credit. Using the card thus accrues debt that has to be repaid later. Credit cards are one of the most widely used forms of payment across the world.
Pacific Pride Commercial Fueling is a network of membership-only fueling stations across the United States. It appeals to truckers and police forces. Its stations are franchised and are often combined with mainstream gas stations. Typically, Pacific Pride locations are independently operated commercial fueling providers offering access to a national network of fueling locations. Through its franchise locations and extended network, Pacific Pride franchisees are able to enable access to over 57,000 retail and standalone Pacific Pride locations throughout North America. The company offers fuel and no other services, unlike regular gas stations; Pacific Pride stations also have no staff of their own. Customers make all their transactions with a membership card, and the stations have emergency call boxes.
Pay at the pump is a system used at many filling stations, where customers can pay for their fuel by inserting a credit card, debit card, or fuel card into a slot on the pump, bypassing the requirement to make the transaction with the station attendant or to walk away from one's vehicle. A few areas have gas stations that use electronic tolling transponders as a method of payment, such as Via Verde in Portugal.
A surcharge, also known as checkout fee, is an extra fee charged by a merchant when receiving a payment by cheque, credit card, charge card or debit card which at least covers the cost to the merchant of accepting that means of payment, such as the merchant service fee imposed by a credit card company. Retailers generally incur higher costs when consumers choose to pay by credit card due to higher merchant service fees compared to traditional payment methods such as cash.
Card transaction data is financial data generally collected through the transfer of funds between a card holder's account and a business's account. It consists of the use of either a debit card or a credit card to generate data on the transfer for the purchase of goods or services. Transaction data describes an action composed of events in which master data participates. Transaction focuses on the price, discount and method of payment interaction between the customer and the organization. They are based on volatility as each transaction data changes every time a purchase is made, one time it could be $10, the next $55. Since debit and credit cards are commonly used to pay for goods and services, they represent a strong percentage of the consumption expenditure in the country.