A poll from Fleet News showed that 63 percent of companies are not expecting their fuel costs to increase. In recent months fuel duty and VAT have increased, but these companies are using fuel cards to reduce their expenses. About 37% of those companies polled said they would see a rise and probably around 10% more for the fuel usage.

A lot of research has been conducted with regards to fuel usage. In this research about 5 companies out of everyone polled is now using fuel cards. This comes to 71% of the companies in the UK using fuel cards in order to save money. It is also about the administration benefits these companies can offer. Office employees can take less time to validate expenses based on mobile operations because they have better information at hand. There are accurate records of charges so that any fraudulent ones can be eliminated. There is also a removal of human error regarding processing given that the drivers’ information is a back up to the reports that have already come from the fuel card reports.

Fuel cards can also offer better fuel efficiency thereby reducing the carbon footprint one leaves behind. CO2 emissions that were once high in a business can be lowered. With companies turning greener it is better not only for operations but also for PR needs. It helps show the low impact a company has with their mobile means of business.

Monitoring and other tools exist for fuel cards. These options will help examine driver behaviour. Often times driver behaviour is where a lot of the money for fuel goes. With excessive speeding or longer routes, a driver may have to fill up more often. They may also be choosing more expensive stations. With fuel cards the driver will have to go to the petrol stations of your choice. It can also help you clean up any behaviour, you may see as wasteful. With good driver habits your company can start to focus on what is more important.

There are plenty of ways to change driver behaviour besides looking at the fuel receipts. You may not have proof about speeding and idling issues, but if you have policies in place with too many fuel fill ups it could stop the driver from running the truck too long. You could also have a switch that turns a truck off if it idles too long. These additions are not too expensive when it comes to the savings you can find. You can also choose fuel supermarkets that are closer to the driver routes, including their home address. This way they do not have to go out of the way in order to fill up on fuel. It is always best to consider the miles per gallons being used and how you can reduce this by adapting to driver habits such as finding locations near their home for them to fill up at and fuel cards that work there.

Consider also finding a generic mile per gallon amount when you set up the budget for your expenses. You may find that employees could pay for all the fuel and then you pay them back. In this way you pay for a certain amount per gallon per mile so that you get the savings. It does have a negative aspect in that the drivers may not be happy to get only a certain amount of money per mile, but on the other hand it can stop the excessive issues with over use of fuel and therefore make it easier for you to go back to a better method.