What Is a Fueling Network?
By MMP on Sep 23, 2010 in Repair & Service
Today’s communications allow fueling networks to offer business owners layers of efficiency in all matters related to fueling and maintaining their vehicles.
Prior to the advent of the information super highway, it was the paved highways that did most of the hard work transporting products to and from in this county. In those days, a fueling network was actually a physical chain of branded gas and diesel stations that provided credit accounts to its member users. Those credit accounts allowed drivers to purchase the fuel they required to complete their missions. The member companies were sent reports, usually on a monthly basis and performed their accounting reconciliations at that time.
Today’s fueling network is similar in many extents, but modern and different as well. Instead of requiring the driver to stop at a specific brand of filling station, fleet services providers issue a fuel credit card that enables refueling at the vast majority of stations. With a few minor occurrences, if a gas station takes credit cards the fleet card is going to work just fine.
Now when the company’s driver needs to buy fuel, oil, or other approved items for their vehicle, they are able to do so and have that purchase info sent electronically back to the fueling network’s database and routed into the appropriate company’s records.
These fleet services allow for efficiencies to be passed on to your company in both time and monetary savings. Instead of waiting until the end of the month to know what your drivers spent, you can be updated continuously. Gone are the days when you’d wait 30 to 45 days to get the surprise that a rogue driver spent hundreds of unauthorized dollars on items not required to perform their work duties.
Today, if you’re using a quality fueling network, you can set up alerts which notify the appropriate folks at your company when spending limits are met or surpassed. Even attempts to make purchases for item types a driver should not buy can be brought to your attention. All of this can happen in near real time and you now have the opportunity to address the situation while it’s happening not weeks later.
The amount of time and effort a fueling network will save your company are astounding. Most networks will provide you with a single report of all your fleet card activities saving your office personnel from chasing paper and receipts from your drivers and other authorized employees. Since all activity is neatly listed out by date/time, driver and/or vehicle, it becomes quick and easy to immediately assess your expenditure situation at any time.
The time you’ll save both on a monthly basis as well as end-of-year accounting should easily see your labor costs reduced by 10 to 15% or more. Anything that is making it easier to have a clearer financial picture would be worth its weight in gold. Or in this case, fuel!
Another aspect of quality fueling networks includes the ability to manage billing and payment of your fueling costs. Some of the finer networks provide your business with the ability to set up payment options which might coincide with better options to make payment for fuel and other maintenance costs. If you’re on net 30, 60 or 90 day terms, cash flow can often be a challenge. If the money is not coming in for services you’ve already rendered, it can be a real challenge to flow money out to pay for your bills.
Today’s modern fueling network takes advantage of technology to provide your business with the tools, safeguards and payment options you need to best enhance your bottom line.