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einarp
- Original Poster
- #1
Anyone have experience with fuel cards? I'm looking for cards to serve 50-60 cars and need both good prices and good customer service to be able to control fuel costs.
Most fuel suppliers have their own but obviously these tie you in to one brand e.g. Bp, Esso etc.
The largest independant supplier I think is Arval PHH
http://www.arval.co.uk/
The largest independant supplier I think is Arval PHH
http://www.arval.co.uk/
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I have a client who has such an amount of vehicles, luckily for them, opposite is a Jet garage....needless to say, they have the Jet fuel card...works out well for them!
I'm not sure about multi station cards etc, but to track things with more ease, wouldn't you need a card tied in with one garage.
Then really, you should think about whats the nearest/cheapest petrol station near your business, or wherever the cars leave from and come to!
I'm not sure about multi station cards etc, but to track things with more ease, wouldn't you need a card tied in with one garage.
Then really, you should think about whats the nearest/cheapest petrol station near your business, or wherever the cars leave from and come to!
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Rhyl Lightworks
- Original Poster
- #4
I use Arval, although for nothing like the 50 or 60 cars you mention. I have had no problems with them, and find their monthly VAT invoices very useful, (a) because it negates the necessity to keep and file each individual receipt and (b) you can see at a glance where and how much has been spent on fuel. They tie me down to one petrol station (Morrisons) which is just up the road from us anyway. I don't know whether they allow you to use more than one station.
Barrie
Barrie
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Watch out where you are based. if you're lucky enough to live in one of those areas where fuel is cheaper than the national average you will actually end up spending more on fuel via a fuel card. Bear in mind that the prices that the fuel cards used are discounts based on the national average, which includes all of those ridiculously priced stations on the motorways, in the centre of London, Wick etc.
We were on a fuelcard for years, mainly because of the invoicing benefits, however, when we sat down, and went through 3 months tickets and invoice prices, we were on average losing out.
Don't take it for granted you'll save money.
We were on a fuelcard for years, mainly because of the invoicing benefits, however, when we sat down, and went through 3 months tickets and invoice prices, we were on average losing out.
Don't take it for granted you'll save money.
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Biggest thing with a fleet a fuel, is traceability, with cash you need 100s of reciepts, with credit cards, you risk a employee buy their credit cards. It's okay if there is only 2 directors or similar buying fuel, but when you get to a fleet of vehicles, fuel cards have a lot going for them.
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Totally agree, fuel receipts were the bane of my life, and i was very sorry to see the fortnightly single invoice disappear. However, we are saving money on fuel again since we switch back to paying pump price. All i'm saying is that cards that offer an UK wide average price do not necessarily save you money.
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With fuelcards, the only way to really assess them is to list/prioritise your criteria and weight out accordingly.
If it's to save admin, there's some fantastic systems out there - for instance ebilling, online analysis, and all sorts of groovy stuff that make it easy to manage/review your refueling operation.
If it's to save fuel costs, ideally you should look for some of the less fancier, more basic suppliers that offering 'bunkering' as theoretically these COULD offer the best discounts twofold; they control their costs by the bunkering and they are less susceptible to price rises. However, sometimes the garages they use are not mainstream, and you may have to travel a distance to refuel - thus potentially negating savings. Kinda like these folk that find out where the cheap fuel is, travel 20 miles there and then only put a tenner in....
Also, as previous posters have said, the best fuel cards for convenience are the multi-garage ones, such as Allstars, as your drivers can fill up anywhere, however unless they're well drilled this doesn't really control the costs of refueling.
Tesco are very good, although they aren't as cheap as you'd presume.
My recommendation is use http://www.petrolprices.com/ to ascertain the cheaper garages, especially local if you can get your drivers to refuel there. Identify where they are likely to refuel geographically (if poss) and if you can get a card that covers them, you're onto a winner.
We've used Shell, Total and Tesco cards, and between them they offer good coverage of stations - that are usually cheapest - as well as good admin backup.
I've not used Arval, but from my arbritrary trundle around the roads of this fair isle, Asda seems to be amongst the cheaper of the stations, and they offer a discount of 2p I think for Asda credit card holders. So, if you can trust your drivers, maybe trial a handful of these? I know fuel cards are preferable to credit cards, but if you can save 2p by using the cards, on fuel that's on average 1.5 - 2p per litre cheaper, that's a good saving, no?
BTW - top tip - ensure if you get a fuel card that it's one with the embossed registration of the vehicle on, not written in ink. They will just use nail varnish (to delete reg details) , swap vehicles and cards amongst themselves when they're on stop and you'll have a nightmare trying to reconcile the accounts
If it's to save admin, there's some fantastic systems out there - for instance ebilling, online analysis, and all sorts of groovy stuff that make it easy to manage/review your refueling operation.
If it's to save fuel costs, ideally you should look for some of the less fancier, more basic suppliers that offering 'bunkering' as theoretically these COULD offer the best discounts twofold; they control their costs by the bunkering and they are less susceptible to price rises. However, sometimes the garages they use are not mainstream, and you may have to travel a distance to refuel - thus potentially negating savings. Kinda like these folk that find out where the cheap fuel is, travel 20 miles there and then only put a tenner in....
Also, as previous posters have said, the best fuel cards for convenience are the multi-garage ones, such as Allstars, as your drivers can fill up anywhere, however unless they're well drilled this doesn't really control the costs of refueling.
Tesco are very good, although they aren't as cheap as you'd presume.
My recommendation is use http://www.petrolprices.com/ to ascertain the cheaper garages, especially local if you can get your drivers to refuel there. Identify where they are likely to refuel geographically (if poss) and if you can get a card that covers them, you're onto a winner.
We've used Shell, Total and Tesco cards, and between them they offer good coverage of stations - that are usually cheapest - as well as good admin backup.
I've not used Arval, but from my arbritrary trundle around the roads of this fair isle, Asda seems to be amongst the cheaper of the stations, and they offer a discount of 2p I think for Asda credit card holders. So, if you can trust your drivers, maybe trial a handful of these? I know fuel cards are preferable to credit cards, but if you can save 2p by using the cards, on fuel that's on average 1.5 - 2p per litre cheaper, that's a good saving, no?
BTW - top tip - ensure if you get a fuel card that it's one with the embossed registration of the vehicle on, not written in ink. They will just use nail varnish (to delete reg details) , swap vehicles and cards amongst themselves when they're on stop and you'll have a nightmare trying to reconcile the accounts
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I'm speaking from an employee perspective and we use Allstar so we can get fuel from anywhere. All our company vans have fuel cards which is no problem but the hire vehicles don't and that causes a lot of discontentment in the work force as we have to then use our own money to pay for fuel! Especially when it costs £100 to fill a tank and you could be doing this nearly every day.
Is it possible to issue fuel cards to a particular person rather than a vehicle?
The reg numbers are written in ink on the back of the card and I have never had a problem using another van's card to get fuel into a different (hire) vehicle. The cashiers just don't care.
Dario
Is it possible to issue fuel cards to a particular person rather than a vehicle?
The reg numbers are written in ink on the back of the card and I have never had a problem using another van's card to get fuel into a different (hire) vehicle. The cashiers just don't care.
Dario
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LPG is a good option, but you have to consider the following....
Availability at the stations you're likely to cover; if the vehicles go all over the place, you can't guarantee it will be available at any station. However, if the vehicles return to base & you've a local garage, that's cool.
How standard your vehicle is, and easy to modify.
How good the LPG firm is
Time off road to modify
Cost of modification, compared to likely savings - how soon is the money recouped?
One of vehicles we run is an American guzzler, but as it's effectively got a sunken chassis - all the seats can fold flat into the floor, so there are voids within the chassis - it needed a specialist converter. I found a massive disparity in the perceived professionalism of the modification companies, some were literally just 'tinkerers' rather than specialist converters.
Generally, most cars are converted to LPG by either surrendering your spare tire well or some of the fuel tank. Given the high mileage we do, it wasn't feasible to only have 'puncture repair' option instead of a spare as some suppliers proposed.
What I would recommend is getting in touch with one of the nationwide certified suppliers scheme, at least that way you're getting a proper company to do it. Again, some of the folks I spoke with I wouldn't have trusted to change my wheel - they just seemed to have a "one size fits all' solution and one even said 'don't you worry, we'll make it work lad".
In my guzzler's case, they wanted to take the vehicle away for a week, and it worked out over £2500. In economical reasons, it may have proved worthwhile set against fuel costs, but due to me being a fussy sort, once I found out there were some complaints LPG wise with my model I couldn't have peace of mind sadly so left it. I couldn't get any positive vibes from the manufacturer with regard to warranty implications, although like a lot of society today they were probably just edging their bets and being non-committal.
As an aside, I always enjoy watching someone fill up a LPG gas vehicle as the 'pop' on opening the cap nearly always makes them jump!
Availability at the stations you're likely to cover; if the vehicles go all over the place, you can't guarantee it will be available at any station. However, if the vehicles return to base & you've a local garage, that's cool.
How standard your vehicle is, and easy to modify.
How good the LPG firm is
Time off road to modify
Cost of modification, compared to likely savings - how soon is the money recouped?
One of vehicles we run is an American guzzler, but as it's effectively got a sunken chassis - all the seats can fold flat into the floor, so there are voids within the chassis - it needed a specialist converter. I found a massive disparity in the perceived professionalism of the modification companies, some were literally just 'tinkerers' rather than specialist converters.
Generally, most cars are converted to LPG by either surrendering your spare tire well or some of the fuel tank. Given the high mileage we do, it wasn't feasible to only have 'puncture repair' option instead of a spare as some suppliers proposed.
What I would recommend is getting in touch with one of the nationwide certified suppliers scheme, at least that way you're getting a proper company to do it. Again, some of the folks I spoke with I wouldn't have trusted to change my wheel - they just seemed to have a "one size fits all' solution and one even said 'don't you worry, we'll make it work lad".
In my guzzler's case, they wanted to take the vehicle away for a week, and it worked out over £2500. In economical reasons, it may have proved worthwhile set against fuel costs, but due to me being a fussy sort, once I found out there were some complaints LPG wise with my model I couldn't have peace of mind sadly so left it. I couldn't get any positive vibes from the manufacturer with regard to warranty implications, although like a lot of society today they were probably just edging their bets and being non-committal.
As an aside, I always enjoy watching someone fill up a LPG gas vehicle as the 'pop' on opening the cap nearly always makes them jump!
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Tony_H
- Original Poster
- #16
There are loads of fuel cards out there and not all of them are suitable for every company, you need to consider things like where you're based, where you travel, whether you need good motorway coverage, whether you need 24 hour access to sites etc... we run a website - fuelcards .co.uk which can help you compare fuel cards and will recommend the right card for you based on certain criteria, we offer 10 different cards altogether so we're not biased to a certain card. If you need a more in depth analysis of which card would be best we can delve deaper into your current situation and needs and recommend the right card for you.
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Tony_H
- Original Poster
- #17
There are other websites out there that offer multiple cards and aren't tied down to one supplier, try businessfuelcards .co.uk, fuelcards .co.uk, thefuelcardcompany .co.uk.
i did find a site the other day which i've never seen before. it has a forum and a guide to buying fuel cards on the internet at fuelcardsfordummies .co.uk aswell - completely unbiased - it doesn't even take applications for fuel cards it is purely informational.
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I've just had a look at the multi-seller cards but they still seem to be restricted in which petrol stations users can go to. I want cards for people so they can just stop at whatever station is nearest when they need fuel and fill up without having to find one on a specific list or of a specific brand. Does such a thing exist - it didn't seem to be shown on the comparison sites?
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Tony_H
- Original Poster
- #19
There is one card on the market which is the Arval Allstar card, however this is very expensive in terms of the card charges and the charges for reports/invoices etc... Also they have just had all BP sites removed from there network so even they can't offer you access to all sites. Most fuel card networks have more than adequate network coverage, obviously the networks sound small but if you think that even major haluage companies only use around 50 different stations wehn they are on the road the networks are very large. People are creatures of habit so they will easily get used to using the same stations - the ones on the fuel card network.
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Tony_H
- Original Poster
- #20
Completely agree with you, i heard that BP had been romoved from allstar's acceptance as well. Do you think that and other brands will follow suit??? There are other pump priced cards available with large networks i.e. the Shell Multi fleet card (all Shell, esso and total sites) and the BP plus card (BP and Total sites). Shell Fuel is also better quality and gives you 3% better fuel economy!!!!
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J
johnadkins33
- Original Poster
- #21
Tony you are well aware that all the sites that you have quoted are linked to one supplier, the fuelcard company owned by fleetcor who own and run the keyfuels network so they are NOT able to given independent advice.
Please dont pretend to be giving impatrial advice when you are promoting the company you work for,
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I think this has already been answered within this forum, but the Arval allstar card, although offering a huge site network, still only gives the user "pump price" fuel.
With the prices as high as they are many companies are looking at alternatives, and the cards that we run offer discounted fuel. Many also beleive that the site network is poor, in truth it is actually very good.
If anybody does want to see how much money they could save by using my fuel cards then do not hesitate to contact me and I will try to offer you the best savings and the best site network that i can
With the prices as high as they are many companies are looking at alternatives, and the cards that we run offer discounted fuel. Many also beleive that the site network is poor, in truth it is actually very good.
If anybody does want to see how much money they could save by using my fuel cards then do not hesitate to contact me and I will try to offer you the best savings and the best site network that i can
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When dealing with a large fleet (or a small one for that matter) you need to ensure that you can get fuel easily and your drivers dont have to go looking for it. I recommend a Fuel card from Cambrian Fuelcard Services. I think you get up to 4500 filling stations and you also have a monthly billing run which includes all transactions carried out by your drivers which is invaluable. The fixed price you pay is related to the spot price of fuel each week not an average of fuel pump prices so over a period you pay less for your diesel. I cannot speak highly enough of them they advise and carry out exactly what they promise.. Excellent
Jeeez, and you wouldnt happen to work for them by any chance would you.....Or is the site in your profile just a coincidence
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It wasnt your email address that I looked at it was your website address...... just wondered why you would happen to have a Cambrian Fuel Card Services Ltd website in your profile and also happen to be singing their praises from a 3rd party perspective?
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barrysummers
- Original Poster
- #29
we get fuel cards from cambrian fuelcard services and find them fantastic they have given us advice all the way through and been so helpful. they had a wide choice of cards and took time to find one that suited us down to the ground. cant speak highly enough of them.
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tiggrrr
- Original Poster
- #30
I was a transport manager for over 4 years and our company used Esso cards. What I can say is that when they work they work well, but their customer service is very poor and their administration is not much better. Their invoicing format is not easy to understand and we found that in our area Esso were closing sfuel stations in the key zones that we needed them. If you miss a direct debit payment they freeze the cards (it could take 72 hours to get this sorted) and you could get a lot of stranded drivers. All in all there are more reliable companies out there than Esso.
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fuelcard
- Original Poster
- #31
Business fuel cards are simple to use and if you spend anything over £200+ are def worth considering. The fuel card looks and works in a similar way to a credit card but with a few fundamental differences. Firstly, it is usually restricted to only allow the purchase of diesel/fuel (though some cards can be set up to allow purchases of non fuel related items if required); secondly, when it is used to make a purchase, both the vehicle registration (compulsory) and mileage (optional) are recorded against the respective transactions.
For admin purposes a fuel card invoice also doubles up as a fuel management report, showing date/time/place of each sale, registration number (and mileage if required) of the vehicle collecting the fuel and of course how much was drawn. It will also then go on to separate the VAT element of all transactions for you.
I must note it is very important to pick a fuel card supplier you get on well with and can trust.
Make sure you talk on the phone to ensure they really understand what you require from the card and the services they proviode. This should help you really get the most from your fuel card.
Charlotte
Forecourt Fuels
For admin purposes a fuel card invoice also doubles up as a fuel management report, showing date/time/place of each sale, registration number (and mileage if required) of the vehicle collecting the fuel and of course how much was drawn. It will also then go on to separate the VAT element of all transactions for you.
I must note it is very important to pick a fuel card supplier you get on well with and can trust.
Make sure you talk on the phone to ensure they really understand what you require from the card and the services they proviode. This should help you really get the most from your fuel card.
Charlotte
Forecourt Fuels
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Hi sir, please send me a private message of details of witch i will reply to asap to inform of appropriate products.
Thanks
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Reply: by all means reply to me and i will cert have something to advise on this matter. Thanks
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