The average trucker drives anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 miles throughout the course of a single week. That works out to be more than 100,000 miles during any given year.
As you might imagine, this results in the average trucker burning through a lot of fuel. It’s not uncommon for truckers to go through more than 20,000 gallons of diesel fuel each year, which can cost upwards of $70,000, if not more.
If you own and/or operate a trucking company, you should consider passing out trucking fuel cards to your truckers. This has proven to be a much better option than outfitting truckers with regular credit cards for fuel.
Would you like to learn more about how your trucking company might be able to benefit from using fuel cards for trucking? Check out some of the reasons why these cards are so imperative for those in the trucking industry below.
Lets Your Drivers Fill Up at Almost Any Gas Station
There are some trucking companies that choose to go with credit cards that are connected to specific gas stations for their drivers. These credit cards offer special discounted rates on fuel to drivers.
But there is one big problem with these types of credit cards: They can make it difficult for drivers to find somewhere to fill up. If they aren’t able to get to their desired gas station, it can throw a monkey wrench into their plans.
This won’t be an issue with the right trucking fuel cards. When your trucking company works with one of the best fuel card companies like Watchcard, your truckers will be able to fill up their tanks at any gas station they want.
This will help your drivers spend more time driving and less time worrying about where they’re going to get their gas the next time they need it.
Allows You to Add and Remove Truckers to Your Account as Needed
As the owner and/or operator of a trucking company, you’re constantly hiring new truckers to drive for you. The trucking industry has become very competitive in recent years due to a lack of truck drivers, and it has led to a lot of movement within the industry among truckers.
When you hire a new trucker, there are some credit card companies that will make you jump through hoops to add them to your company’s account. They’ll also sometimes give you a hard time about removing a trucker from your account when they leave your company.
This is yet another thing that won’t be a problem at all when your trucking company uses trucking fuel cards. You can add or remove truck drivers from your account as you see fit. It often takes just a few minutes to do it from start to finish.
Limits Your Drivers From Buying Anything Other Than Fuel
Have you noticed that some of your truck drivers are racking up expenses on things other than gas with your current credit cards? This is a big no-no since it could cause your company’s expenses to soar in the process.
You can, of course, ask your truckers to stop spending so much money on things other than gas when they’re out on the road. But if that doesn’t work, you also have the option of limiting what they’re able to buy with trucking fuel cards.
A fuel card for truckers can only be used for—you guessed it—fuel. You can use these cards to slow down all the spending that your truckers are doing at the moment and to bring your company’s expenses back down to earth.
Helps You Prevent Fraud
When you have a team of truck drivers driving here, there, and everywhere, it’s only going to be a matter of time before one of them loses their trucking fuel card. It’s bound to happen when your drivers are always on the move.
If you have certain credit cards that your truckers use for gas, this could lead to some issues for your company. These credit cards can go undetected if they’re ever used by someone other than one of your truckers after getting lost or stolen.
But with trucking fuel cards, you won’t have to be concerned about this happening. If one of your company’s fuel cards is ever lost or stolen and used by someone else, you’ll receive fraud prevention alerts right away.
You can shut down a card that is lost or stolen so that you don’t get stuck with a bunch of bills that don’t belong to you. You’ll come to appreciate the safety and security that you get with trucking fuel cards.
Makes It Easy for You to Manage How Much Fuel Drivers Use
Do you find it difficult to keep a close eye on the amount of fuel that your truck drivers are using day in and day out? This can be a huge problem for you since there is a chance that your truckers could be burning through more fuel than you would like them to.
For this reason, it’s important to monitor the amount of fuel being used by your drivers on a regular basis. With trucking fuel cards, this will be simpler to do than ever before.
You can set up most trucking fuel cards to produce reports on daily, weekly, monthly, and even yearly fuel spending. These reports will make it easy for you to see ways in which you could start saving money on fuel moving forward.
Most fuel cards will allow you to customize these reports in whatever way you want, too. You’ll be able to get a much better handle on how much money your trucking company is spending on fuel from now on.
Provides You With Cashback and Other Rewards
In this day and age, just about every credit card in the country offers some kind of cashback or reward options for those who use them. Trucking fuel cards are no different.
The best fleet fuel card will give your trucking company an opportunity to earn cash back and other rewards just for filling up at the pump. It’s smart to look around at your different fuel card choices to see which of them will extend the best rewards to you.
Helps You Steer Clear of Unnecessary Fees
As we mentioned earlier, it’s not all that out of the ordinary for a single truck driver to spend about $70,000 on fuel in a year. Fuel is, hands down, the biggest expense associated with truck driving.
With this in mind, you don’t want to be forced to pay any more for fuel than you have to. The last thing you want to happen is for you to get bombarded with a bunch of ridiculous fees on top of all the money you’re spending on fuel.
That’s what’s going to happen, though, when you use many of the credit cards that are out there on the market today. They’ll promise you great interest rates and rewards before hitting you over the head with hidden fees you weren’t anticipating.
You won’t find any of these kinds of fees attached to the best trucking fuel cards. These cards will minimize the amount of money you spend on fuel and lower your expenses as a whole.
Provides You With Peace of Mind
Ask any trucking company owner and/or operator and they’ll tell you that they have one of the most stressful jobs in the world. They’re always worrying about things like when their shipments will arrive and whether or not their drivers are staying safe out on the road.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have one less thing to worry about every day? You can make this a reality with trucking fuel cards.
From the second you stick these cards into your truck drivers’ pockets, you’ll know that you don’t have to devote a ton of time and energy to worrying about their fuel situation anymore. You’ll be able to monitor where they’re getting fuel, how much they’re spending on it, and what they might be able to do to scale back on their fuel spending.
All of this will provide you with unprecedented peace of mind. You’ll sleep so much better at night knowing you don’t have to be overly concerned about the fuel your truck drivers are using.
More Trucking Companies Should Start Using Trucking Fuel Cards
As you can see, it makes all the sense in the world for trucking companies to put trucking fuel cards to the test. So more of them should start doing it.
If you own and/or operate a trucking company, look into the possibility of using fuel cards for trucking. You’ll find them to be the most convenient option for truck drivers looking to keep their trucks gassed up.
Would you like to see some of the other things you could be doing to make your trucking company more successful? Browse through the articles on our blog to get more advice on running your company.