Question:

I am not sure if this is question will be relevant on ceda but l would like to know what companies with fleet vans do with the fuel cards.

Do they change fuel companies a lot so that they get the best price, or do they have a few cards and then tell the engineers which ones to use that week dependant on the price of fuel?

I don’t want to keep changing cards all the time as the engineers will get fed up.

Replies:

1. We use Allstar and have done for many years.
2. We run  30 plus  fuel cards – All Star, this is run alongside Company credit cards also Allstar approx. 6, as such an associated deal,   we have had no cause to change for 4 years,  I believe chasing the ultimate deal for short term gain is a fool’s errand,    Keep it simple and it will work without issue, Settle on an acceptable rate, and keep your account well managed, reserve your energies for your trade.
3. I have been using Harvest Energy for a few years now as they do not charge any fees for card use, pricing based on volume, and they update you every Friday with the following weeks prices.
   Usually, 15p per litre cheaper than pump price, only downside is Supermarkets charge a fee of 5% for processing so we never use supermarkets.
   Fastfuel and Keyfuels so all motorway services take the cards.
4. Allstar seems to best suited to us.
5. We use Husk. They track market best prices. We have a secondary Shell Card for supermarkets.
6. We use Key Fuels at the moment but tend to monitor the prices every 6 months.
7. Very valid question, I think! We went with Interfuels about 10 months ago and never looked back after being with WEX for a few years. Easy to use web platform, no hidden charges and very helpful staff to deal with too. Seem to be quite a large outfit too. Alas not all cards are accepted everywhere so my lads also have a backup company credit card just in case but I would imagine most companies work on monthly expense claims instead. At least worth a phone call. They send a text every Friday to a phone (or they can email) to notify you what the pump prices will be set at the following week as well – it’s always cheaper than the actual pump prices too and unlike most they do not sneak the prices up either which most do. Hope this is helpful!
8. We use Allstar for exactly that reason and have 60 vans.
9. We have three suppliers and engineers are emailed each Monday morning and advised which to use for the week. Husk, Fuel Card Services and Inter Fuels all on the Key Fuels network. Usually comes down to the latter two!
10. We use The Fuelcard Company – customerservice@fuelcards.co.uk The cards we have from them can be used in all Shell Garages which we find to be good availability in our area.  We have just completion a cost comparison & they were still cheaper.
11. We use Keyfuels. We use two companies, Fuel Card Services and Interfuels. Every week we receive an email from both companies, and we instruct our engineers which card to use.
12. Our engineers have a credit card with a low spend limit. They can fill the van wherever they need to and can also buy any non-stock parts if needed. Because we pay the balance each week/ fortnight or month there are no charges applied to the cards, so there is no additional charge. We use Capital on Tap.