Using a fleet card for your local business is a great idea. It allows you many advantages over a traditional credit card that empowers your business to grow easier. If your business is like most modern businesses you use your corporate card to charge a wide range of business expenses, from office supplies, to team building, to client meetings, computers, software, gas, and millions of other things I’m sure I’m forgetting. Keeping track of all of these expenses is quite a job in itself, one that virtually no business owner alive enjoys.
Which leads to the first benefit of a fleet card for your local business, it allows your business to manage expenses on fuel and gasoline much easier. By consolidating all of these expenses into a single point there will be no more misclassifications, it will clear up your regular corporate card statements and ensure that fuel expenses are always tracked correctly. Nothing is more painful than expenses not being categorized correctly, you’ve worked so hard to make money, losing it to simple mistakes is all too common.
Speaking of saving money, most fleet cards offer a discount at the pumps. You read that right, you can save up to 15 cents a gallon on some cards, that’s a huge savings, which can add up in a hurry if you’re pumping hundreds of gallons a week (or a day). The trick to maximizing these savings with a fleet card are to find what local gas stations you use most often, if possible stick to one brand and get their branded fleet card, this will provide you the greatest savings. Of course, this is not always possible, if there isn’t adequate coverage in your area, if you travel out side of a territory where there is a single brand station solution, or if you just don’t like being tied down there are other options which allow savings at the pump as well as the accounting benefits. You’ll find there are many flavors of fleet cards, but the main thing is to find one that works for your business, don’t get sucked into a big savings at the pump that doesn’t work for how your business operates, look at the long term outlook to find the best fit.
The next big perk of a fleet card can also save you a fortune. Fleet cards either entirely block purchases other than fuel or gas, or allow the fleet manager to configure the cards to allow additional purchasing options that make sense for your business and employees on a 1:1 basis. Yes, you can limit some employees to just fuel, and other’s to a wider range of purchases if you’d like. This will prevent theft from many employees even just the little soda or coffee here and there at the convenience store. If they are locked out it doesn’t happen period, and that saves you a lot of money.
Due to how fleet cards limit what can be purchased it also protects you dramatically from identity theft and fraud. If a card is lost or stolen and it goes unnoticed the thief will probably test the card for a small purchase, find out it doesn’t work and discard it. Most banks do a good job of protecting you with situations like this, it doesn’t change that it is a hassle that costs you a lot of lost resources disputing and resolving fraud when it happens. Most criminals have no clue what a fleet card is and will give up before they figure it out.
A fleet card is a great solution for a growing business, it helps save you money at the pump, speed up your monthly accounting, allows you to regulate the purchasing power of your employees as you see fit, and it greatly reduces your exposure to fraud. Find a fleet card for your local business
