Posts Tagged :

Commercial Cardlock

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Use Pacific Pride to control your fleet fueling. 1024 683 Star Oilco

Use Pacific Pride to control your fleet fueling.


SEIZE CONTROL OF YOUR FUEL SPENDING WITH PACIFIC PRIDE FLEET CARDS

Star Oilco’s Pacific Pride card can give you control over when and where fuel is bought. We guarantee the highest level of control by offering human support to make it easy for a small business. You have enough to manage and don’t need another website to log into. Know who bought what, when, and where in real time to better manage the buying decisions by your drivers.

Pacific Pride, CFN, WEX, Voyager and other fleet cards all have similar tools. We find that small businesses need one extra tool. A human being on the other side helping make sure the total program is working. We help you grab control of every drop, dollar, and driver. We are your partner in Fleet Card and Cardlock Card success.

Star Oilco goes one step further than our competitors. We keep things simple and we make it easy for you. This is done with the obvious human element and best practices to complete the full value that a secured fuel card offers.

Call us and have us take care of that for you. You tell us what you want, we consult with you, and you get a working card program.

This is what we recommend for your non-management cards:
1) Set the fleet cards with the vehicles (attached to the license plate on the bill/place the fleet card on the key ring of the vehicle).

2) Design these vehicle cards to only work in the state’s zip codes that you service during the times of day you operate as a business.

2) Give each driver a unique and secret PIN attached to their name  (so when they use a card, their name appears on the bill next to the transaction).

3) Implement a “No Tolerance Fuel Theft Policy” with your Human Resource policy. Every employee signs a contract with your business that they own their personal secret PIN and it is only for them to use. Star Oilco can provide a recommended policy for you to use. If they give it to someone else, they are responsible for anything that happens. If theft is happening, it is a “No Tolerance” dismissal offense on the first occurrence.

4) Use the E-Receipt function with our fuel cards in order to see in real-time fuel purchases. An electronic receipt is emailed to your Controller or Dispatcher to watch for off-policy fuel usage in real time. This allows your Dispatch or Management to respond the same day to questionable decisions around fuel cards.

Now imagine how this works for your business in practice.

You can set up restrictions by days of the week, hours of the day or even by zip codes. If your business does not operate on weekends, turn off the fuel cards during the times you do not operate. If you your fleet is never on the road before 7am and is back at home by 7pm every night, set up those time restrictions to make it that much harder for fuel theft to occur. If you need to update this, change something, order cards, etc…. just call our office and we take care of that update for you.

With our E-receipt function, your Dispatch will get an email every time fuel is purchased. You will see where, what, who, and when this occurs. You can reinforce your company fuel policies at the local level the same day. No more waiting for the bill to see a driver did something that cost you money. By seizing control of your fuel, your drivers will also respond to your new level of control as well. By having control and transparency of what your drivers do, they will require less management as they know you are watching.

Often the most controllable expense related with fuel is the fuel that might slip through a business due to unethical employees or outside theft. Fuel slippage is the industry term for unauthorized fuel taking. With Pacific Pride cardlock fuel, you can take control over fuel purchases and avoid the loss up front with card controls. Contact Star Oilco for a total fuel security solution for your business.

Seize control with Star Oilco’s corporate fleet card solutions.

If you have further questions about Pacific Pride and control of your fleet fueling, feel free to contact us with the form below.

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Old School Fleet Fueling Key Lock System 1024 810 Star Oilco

Old School Fleet Fueling Key Lock System

Corporate fueling in the past was a far more complicated task than today’s Pacific Pride, WEX, Voyager, Fuelman, and CFN fleet cards.

Today, commercial fueling transfers data via satellite, securing and communicating in real time.

Prior to commercial cardlock and computerized site controllers for fleet fueling management, Key Locks were the standard. The way that Key Locks worked was simple. A vendor of fuel would set up a commercial fuel island or stand alone tank for diesel. Multiple commercial fleets would use the site reducing the overall cost of fuel and improving convenience.

Fuel inventory and billing was managed with the Key Lock system. Each fleet using a site was issued their own key. That key would turn on the pump, but would run the gallon transactions through a distinct totalizer. At the end of a week or month the company selling the diesel would take down the totalizer number and bill each individual firm for their share of fuel. The pictures below show an old school Key Lock system. Notice the side where there is a stack of different totalizers next to a key point. That’s how it worked prior to today’s modern cardlock systems. Easy and secure in analog time.

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WEX article on documenting fuel theft 683 1024 Star Oilco

WEX article on documenting fuel theft

Wright Express Fuel Cards versus Fuelman Fleet Cards for small business

Wright Express  (also known as WEX) has a great article for corporate fuel buyers on the best practices when documenting and confronting fuel theft.

WEX: Tips for enforcing proper fuel card usage and preventing employee theft.

A few things they left out that Star Oilco would include. As a Pacific Northwest Commercial Cardlock provider serving Oregon and Washington, we approach things a little differently than a credit card concept like WEX. We accept and love working with WEX, Voyager, Comdata and other fleet cards but still like personalizing the security of a fuel card to the use of it.  Call your current fuel vendor (or call Star Oilco) and review your security features.  If you suspect there is fuel theft, rather than watch it happen just eliminate the places it can occur. With either CFN or Pacific Pride networks the features are inherit and we can help you guarantee they are being used correctly.

Get out of the gas line

The Four Step Approach to Fuel Card Management

When a customer tells us they suspect fuel theft this is what we recommend to do with either CFN or Pacific Pride cards:

  1. Establish a no tolerance fuel theft policy and have every employee sign it.  This policy includes an acknowledgement by them they have a secret PIN unique to them and if it is used they are responsible for it. So if there is theft with their PIN they can be fired for that theft.
  2. Now that all users of your company vehicles have a unique PIN code. Attache their name to the use of that PIN.  So when you get your fuel bill, the actual names of the users of the cards is there next to the transaction. Just this best practice (and sharing this evidence with your team) will keep honest people honest. If they know their name appears to the transaction they will think about ownership of their actions.
  3. Ensure you have set limits on the cards to line up with the needs of the business.  Attach the fuel cards to the vehicle that uses them.  Then make sure the fuel type and volumes allowed line up with that vehicle. If a vehicle is diesel, that fuel should be the only fuel allowed to be used.  If that vehicle has a 30 gallon or 100 gallon tank set limits so no more than that can be fueled in a given day.  Just limiting the fuel volume to the tank size of a vehicle can eliminate most of the fuel theft that would occur.  Also you can limit the time of day as well as weekends. If a fleet isn’t on the road after 6pm, you can guarantee no fuel theft occurs after 6pm.
  4. Turn over the cards by having all drivers/staff turn in their old cards. Then re-issue those cards attached to the key-rings of the fleet keys.  Star Oilco can provide a card older designed to go on the vehicle key-ring to make this a no cost easy reform.By doing those things which is an easy project you will knock out most of the opportunity for theft as well as send a strong signal to your team that fuel theft is not okay. Honest employees will understanding clearly that theft is occurring and is not okay, the dishonest employees will know to immediately stop.  If theft continues it will also be very easy to spot as the name of the thief will appear on the bill alongside the transaction. That combined with a No Tolerance Fuel Theft policy will make removing the fuel thief an easy proposition for you regardless of your state of operation.If you do business in Oregon and Washington and have questions about securing your fuel purchases.

For more on how to stop fuel theft in your small business please see the Star Oilco whitepaper on securing your fleet cards at StarOilco.com/Stop-Fuel-Theft/ for a strategy on saving your business from the pain of managing drivers from stealing.

Call Star Oilco’s Sales Team at 503-283-1256 for an complementary audit of your processes and how we can give you peace of mind and less to worry about in your business.

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