Gas cards are like a credit card, but are generally can only be used for purchasing gasoline, diesel and other types of fuel at gas stations and truck stops.
Many of these cards offer a large number of benefits, in this article we’ll outline how these cards save you money. Whether you are a fleet of one or managing thousands of vehicles the benefits can be significant, including saving a lot on your gas or fuel bill.
Gas cards for business are more sophisticated than a standard credit card or even a gas card for a consumer. These business cards are known as fleet cards to many people, which if you’re new to owning and managing vehicles for business could be a new term to you.
Fleet cards offer a lot of benefits to business owners. As mentioned above they help your business save money. Most fleet cards offer a discount on gas/fuel at various stations/brands, these savings can vary from as little as a couple cents a gallon to over 15 cents a gallon. Most often the brand business gas cards will offer the biggest discounts, but limit you to only those stations, brands like BP, Arco, Speedway, and others all offer their own card option that can only be used at their stations, but generally offer the greatest discounts. So if you can keep your fill ups at a branded station you can save the maximum amount on your fuel expense for your business.
If you travel nationally, or cannot be limited to a single brand of station you’re not alone and there are great options out there for you. There are fleet brands, most notably Fuelman Gas Cards which offer you access to a wider network of gas stations, and still offers among the largest of savings on gasoline and diesel fuel. Some of these cards offer 8 cents a gallon off, and still provide a lot of flexibility in where you can fill up your business vehicle.
The last option is what are known as Universal cards, these offer almost endless flexibility in where you use them but the least amount of savings, sometimes only a couple cents per gallon. Though, that can still add up quickly in savings for your company on your fuel bill. These universal cards are most like a traditional credit card that can be used on a wider range of purchases, but still limited to just fuel if you want to restrict access.
Beyond the cash savings at the pump, there is a great security feature in fleet cards that will surely save your business money in time. Gas cards for business can be programmed, or set, to only allow the purchaser to use the card for gas or diesel purchases. How this saves you money is that it prevents your employees from being able to add items to their gas station purchases, from a quick snack while on the road, to less innocent cigarettes, lottery tickets, and alcohol. We all hope for the best from our employees but you never know when they may be tempted to do something like this, a fleet card guarantees it can’t happen because they cannot be used for purchases like that.
To review, you can save a lot on gas purchases for your business with a fleet card. A fleet card is similar to a gas card that a consumer would use, but with special features just for businesses. The focus of this article is how you can maximize your savings with a fleet card for fuel purchases for your business. Beyond a reduced price per gallon with most fleet cards, which translates to immediate savings for your business, you also have some security built in that will also save you money from the potential theft or employees abusing their fuel purchases. These savings can amount to a lot of bottom line growth for your business all by using the right card for the job, a fleet card.
