Fuel Card

I assume you are running under your own authority? There are a number of the larger brokers and some factors who offer fuel cards with various levels of discounts. Some are significant and as high as any of the programs such as NASTC. With these cards, there are no fees to join. The down side to the broker and factor cards is that you cannot load the cards yourself. Only the owner can load the card. Some, such as Landstar and Mercer offer cards that have the same discounts given to the carriers who broker freight through them as they do the owner operators who lease to them. TAB Bank offers a card with a rebate that is paid weekly. I believe it is 1.75% on all fuel purchases. I prefer TCH/EFS and Comdata cards. You might contact them directly and see if they have any discounts for smaller carriers.

 

Comdata card issued by company and we get 15 cents off the gallon of fuel cash price at Pilot Flying, 10 cents at TA, 5 cents at Loves

 

The exceptions to the day-long sales pitch are 1. you are leased to a carrier, therefore wouldn't be a customer of the services being pitched, 2. You already have a fleet of greater than 5 (I think) trucks. So what. If you go to MATS, they offer a session on the Friday the show is open. If you go to their office for it, take your smarter half and make a weekend of it. Opryland, downtown music scene, all sorts of stuff to do in Nashville. If you like liquor, take a ride about an hour southeast and visit the JD and Dickel distilleries.

I sat thru the session at MATS last year. It was mostly interesting. Free box lunch and a few good speakers. I did not sign for any of their services other than the fuel program. I wouldn't exactly call it a waste of a day, especially now that I've been using the fuel program for two trucks since April last year. In my operation, I've reduced overall fuel spend by about $400 - 600/month, versus previously shopping the lowest cash price on-route, fuel capacity permitting. Easily covers the cost of admission by a huge margin.

Regarding price comparisons to cheaper mom & pop places: when fuel prices are stable, you still beat them by 5-10¢/gal, usually more. In fact, there are some of those mom & pop places in their network. Lately, the discount is substantially more. A frequent stop for us lately is Spartanburg, SC. Cheap places are running about $2.56. Today's NASTC price is $2.18. Don't get too wrapped around the axle of how high TA/Petro cash prices run. Call NASTC and ask about locations you would routinely stop at and get the real picture of whether there's savings or not. They will gladly give you the market comparison. Once in a while, there won't be savings. It happens, and rarely. Usually when prices are on the rise.

Besides that savings, say what you will about TA/Petro, or chain truck stops in general. They usually have a notch better parking and showers than the rest, plus a shop at just about every location if you're in desperate need for some repair. That has a little bit of value by itself.

 

Off topic but no kidding lots to do in downtown Nashville. Once in a while just for fun we get a room for the weekend and hang out on 2nd Ave. It is worth it just for that, a mini-vacation of sorts. Moore County - Lynchburg, TN is a dry county so no tasting the whiskey if you like the drink.

 

When I signed up for my NASTC membership, there were no strings attached to get into the fuel program, just had to pay our yearly membership fee. If they are making you go sit through a seminar now to get into the program, my advice would be to do it. There is not a better dicount card on the market for a 1 or 2 truck operation. Last year we ran an average of 6.3 trucks for the full year. My fuel discount was over $45000 for the year off cash price. Per gallon, our average discount was just over 30 cents. Like the others said, the last couple of months have been subtantially better than that. If you get up past 6 or 7 trucks, you may try contacting Pilot FJ and applying for their cost plus program. The discounts are very comparable to the NASTC program. Another money saving tip - sign up with CR England and haul 1 load a year for them. By doing that, you can piggy back off their national tire accounts and save big on tires. Not talking 20 or 30 bucks a tire, I'm talking as much as $150 off per tire. Just ask to talk to Carrier Services.

 

ANYONE not getting Cost plus pricing right now is taking a beating. back in the day I had TCH and then hooked up with OOIDA for their Fleet One card. it was great for managing my trucks, but the "discounts" were a joke. Going to a cost plus card will you save you money 95% of the time. The last time I fueled 1/15 in Effingham, IL I paid $2.13 a gallon. Pump price was $3.26. These are way above normal discounts, but if you aren't paying low $2's in high tax states, you're paying too much.
If I reactivated my authority tomorrow, there is no doubt I would have a Landstar Savings Plus card and a NASTC card in my wallet. LS will give you $0.20 off pump price at Loves and Pilot as well, which is great for when fuel is rising rapidly and the cost plus discount sucks.

 

just called CREngland Logistics about their fuel card i have in my pocket, after reading this thread

and i remember why it just sits in my pocket

it aint worth the aggravation