My company has just started a new fuel managment program and will soon be limiting where driver cans fuel using the COMDATA card. Do other trucking companies dictate where driver fuel at? If so do they make it nation wide or does it vary by each highy segment?

USA Truck has a fuel stop book with our approved stops in it. if for some reason you need "out of route" fuel you call dispatch and they approve you for 50 gallons. they get a discount i think from these select stops

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PMTG is also part of a fuel network. We have a card with all of our approved fuel stops. Some we can only get 75 gallons. We can fuel just about anywhere that takes Comdata but if we fuel out of network we get penalized when it comes to our annual bonuses. Right now with the cost of fuel being so high, they are coming down hard on drivers who routinely fuel out of network.

We have a list of approved stops, simply meaning that we know that they are able to take our T-Check without having to call in to have the fuel purchase approved. Our stops incluse all Speedway,s Loves, Petro, T/A's, Flying J's, and Pilots, so we pretty much have all the major chains. But, if we run an area and need to have a fuel stop there, we can call our office that handles it, and tell them of a local fuel stop, and they will make arrangements for that stop to be on our list. For example, we have a stop on I-75, at the 111 mile mark in Ohio that was added in. it's a T/A now, but it was independent when we added it. One of our drivers went that way frequently and needed a fuel stop in that area, so they added it in. Having a set of defined fuel stops isnot the end of the world, just something to save the company a few cents and make sure the billing gets done right.

The company a friend of mine drives for even tells him the fuel stop to use along the route.

Some companies do that, but it's being ridiculous. We are left alone to manage our fuel, because most of our drivers realize that fuel is a part of the trucks weight, and you may not want to carry that extra 1200 pounds along at certain parts of the trip. telling me a specific place to fuel would deprive me of the ability to manage my weights, and would be a big problem. but, for the most part they don;t tell me what route to use either, so they sure aren't going to tell me where to fuel. I've never been questioned on either my routing or my fuel stops.

I did have to call in one time to get approved for fuel at a stop not on our list, and the lady in the office got a tiny bit snippy about my fuel planning, but I pointed out to her that my dispatch assignment had been changed 4 times in the past 2 hours, and that impacted my planning more than a little bit. At that point she had a foot in mouth moment.

Thanks for the input. I just found out that the company wants to get us down to Pilot, TA and Loves. With a few independents scattered around. I guess Petro is not giving them the discounts they want. We are a private fleet hauling our own prod. and deliver into all 48 states and Canada..... Not sure we will have the coverage. Not a big fan of Loves either and I will miss Petro. Pilot is OK and I hear they will start getting some Denny's restaurants. Oh well, as long as don't get stuck somwhere in WY looking for an approved stop.

As far as I knew, JBHT stops at Pilot, Petro, TA, Flying J, and the terminals with pumps.....which is just about every city in the USA.

Pam has directed fuel stops as well, some areas its a bit rediculous as there my be just a couple fuel stops in a whole state. 99% of these are specific pilots. Though we can call in an emergency fuel stop if needed on empty for 50 gallons.

Western Express drivers can only fuel at Pilots. If we need to get fuel and can't make it to a Pilot we have to call and get our card opened up so we can fuel anywhere that takes Comdata.