Fuel cards

I use to carry $500 cash a week for fuel and that was all I needed, I miss those days.

 

I remember those days Jon. First time I went to Vegas I blew all my fuel money... a whoping $400.. had to call my dad to have more wired to me. that wasn't a good conversation. lol

$400won't even fill the tank now

 

For fifty dollars (deposit), I opened an account with Flying J's bank. They sent me a frequent fueler moneycard/mastercard. I can deposit via direct deposit from broker settlements with no fees, express codes from broker advance(even comchek) (TChek charged me 20 bucks to deposit any express code that was not tchek), I got cash price at the pump, TCH check use for a $2 fee. That is if you want to use J's exclusively, or pay credit price at other fuel stops (I think Petro takes TCH now). Of course, all may change soon, as Pilot bought the fuel side of the J's, so who knows....But it is a good start up for single or small fleets to use, very easy with minimal cost.

 

Fast forward to 2011,

1. If you use the new Pump Start at Pilot and pay by CC you will get the cash price.

2. Get ahold of Endlands fuel card. It is Comdata and you can fund it, at not charge, just about anyway you want. Comcheck from broker, CC with no fee, transfer from bank account, drop off 200,000 penies in SLC. Then you get a discount off of cash price.

3. If you haul for Landstar at all you can get their SavingsPlus card and have your settlements deposited onto the cards AND you can scan invoices and POD's at the TS avoiding sending in original paperwork. You pay 1.5% and get the money in a couple days. And you will get cost plus or $.20 per gallon off at TA's and $.30 at Petros. Plus you are able to get other Landstar discounts. I for one don't mind the 1.5% because I overnight all my invoices that require orginals (far to many games with stuff being lost).

 

I stopped at a truck stop in North Platte, Ne. yesterday & as i was paying for my fuel,there was this team paying for theirs. I don't know what co. they drove for but when they gave the cashier their fuel card she said that the card was rejected because they were buying to much fuel in a certain time frame.
I figured that if you drive far a company they should have funds on the card for fuel. I didn't stay to find out what happen latter. Is this normal or not, I drive for a O/O & he gives me a credit card for the truck only.

 

Most fuel cards have the capability for the owner or carrier to limit fuel and other purchases. It is usually based upon a maximum number of gallons or dollar amount within a 24 hour period. The team should have been aware of the restriction before pumping fuel. The carrier can allow for an override, but most prefer to not have to deal with it. Setting limits helps to protect the carrier from unauthorized purchases. From your post it sounds like it was not a matter of not having money to buy fuel, but the drivers buying too more fuel than they were authorized in a certain time period.

 

As G/MAN says, it's a way to limit losses if a card gets loose. The comdata card I'm using right now enables me to set the daily limits you described. I've set mine to permit the maximum fuel possibly needed to run the truck 11 hours with the reefer at -10 the whole time, and enough cash to pay lumpers, get a PM or get a spare tire mounted. I can go online and post a one-day increase on the limit for exceptions. Example: A trailer tire blew on an axle I was already planning to mount a set on. I increased the limit to cover 4 tires at the TS since that was way more than the regular daily limit. Sounds like the team's boss forgot they could run longer, or they were using more fuel than expected on a close estimate (heavier than usual load, road speed, terrain, etc).

Running out of cash on the card happens sometimes too. Last week I let my fuel card balance get too low on account of taking a series of longer than usual runs that had my funding going in less frequently (but larger amounts), leading to money getting on the card two days later than needed. Then a FedEx foul-up occurred that added a third day. It was only a three day gap, but you can burn a lot of fuel in three days LOL. I got the unexpected call from the fuel pump and quickly checked to make sure there hadn't been any fraudulent activity causing the problem. Once I established it was a planning failure on my part, I instructed him to use the emergency credit card he's carrying to buy fuel and move on. Unless you have your fuel card set up with a backup line of credit from the supplier, funding must be done by ACH or wire and that can take a few hours on a good day. I have that emergency credit card on the truck to avoid driver delays and late deliveries in the event of a problem.

 

Getting ready to add second truck and have been thinking through this. Need to make sure we are not delaying because we are waiting on transfers but don't just want to have a couple grand more than is needed just sitting on card. Not to mention no fraud protection.

 

Depending on whether this 2nd truck will be run as a solo or team will dictate the upper limit. A solo can run 700 miles per day so if the truck averages 5 mpg the truck will burn through around 140 gallons per day. With the price of fuel around $3.75 to $4.00 per gal figure on setting up a daily limit somewhere between $550.00 to $600.00 per day.

In the event your 2nd truck will run as a team then figure the truck can travel around 1300 miles in a day. If that truck averages 5 mpg then the truck will consume around 260 gallons per day. Using the same average cost for fuel, set a daily limit of somewhere between $975.00 and $1040.00 per day.

Other factors to consider in setting your daily fuel limit is; will you approve cash advances from the card? additives such oil, washer fluid, antifreeze, anti gel (for winter months)?

I have run team and solo over the years. It was not uncommon to go through a $1000.00 in fuel each day when running as a team (turning and burning).

The problems begin when running off the major routes and the driver not fueling EVERY day. If the driver skips fueling 1 day then he may find himself running very low on fuel the next day and unable to actually fill the tanks. When running as a team we ran into this problem a couple of times and had the company issue both drivers their own fuel card with a thousand dollar limit. This solved the problem of partial fills.

 

Anyone in California have any thoughts on this?