Which fuel network gives you best discounts?

Rollin, still waiting to load? We're at Big River. Ill tip one for you.

 

Yeah this place is a madhouse suspect ETA is going to be a tad past scheduled but nothing I can do about that.. will keep you posted.. Have a pilsner or 3 for me would ya? And Lauren too

 

If a small carrier is running randon it's hard to get a decent discount. About the only way is to use some fuel cards program but that doesn't amount to much. If you're running lanes beat on the small chains. One small chain i use(about 15 stations in a 3 state area)averaged .334 discount for the year. Another(6 stations along I-80) averaged .391 for the year. Compared to Pilot/J that averaged .244.

They won't come looking for you,you have to chase them down. A few thousand gallons/month means a lot to them.

 

this is why i bobtail to the gas stations

i get my discount that way

 

Odds are, the majority of diesel sold at the 'major truck stops' never sells anywhere close to the price on the sign.

Don't be confused by discounts that are tied to you doing business with a particular carrier in order to use their card. A true fuel card network is one where you are paying the money out of pocket to the card to go wherever you want within that card's network.

I use the NASTC/QPN Fleet One card and am quite happy with it. Without hauling loads for someone else, I get 7-days-to-pay on fuel ($3000 weekly limit), and can fuel wherever in the network I want, and can quickly look up what price I will pay today or tomorrow. The discount is also automatic on the transaction (no end of month rebates, etc).

QPN also is available for more than just TA/Petro. A lot of these carriers have a deal with JUST one major fuel provider and that's why they can guarantee more business to these outfits to guarantee more money coming out. They also are probably buying 'future' contracts. Guarantees of x number of gallons per month to get the rate they want. If they fail to get that minimum, they may face increased prices.

 

I have enjoyed using NASTC and have done quite well with them. I have had no negative issues with fleet one.

 

Question on the various programs out there .... how much do they charge for a transaction fee? On network? Off network?

As for myself, I've been shopping for the discounts. I run all 48. For the year I'm at $3.84 vs the national average (each week on the EIA over the year) of $3.97. I really started focusing my efforts the last 4 months of the year my average over that time was $3.88 vs the national average of $4.06 ... Oh and before you ask, I'm only $149 out of pocket for the year on IFTA.

 

You join NASTC for $250.00/year and then it's $3.75/mo for the card (FleetOne fee). There's no transaction fees in network. I honestly forget what the out-of-network fee is. I think it's $2.50 per transaction, but am not sure.

NASTC/QPN is very specific that you must try to make all your fueling in network. If your out-of-network gets too high, they can boot you from the QPN.

The % of fueling in network is part of what they use to argue cheaper fuel prices from their contracts. That's why big carriers can command great deals, they can guarantee large volume and near universal acceptance of in-network only fueling.

 

transam does it that way too with the L/O like effingham ill pilot was $.37 off the pump price last week
but we can fuel anywhere if we think we are smarter then the computer model
now the computer model doesnt take into account over fueling per load so we have to be smarter then the machine

 

The important part that was left out of that rumor was that the 5cpg was PROFIT, not markup. Say the markup on fuel grossed a particular station $10,000 this month. Their building rent, utilities and salaries came to $9,950 for the month. So on $10K, they can say they only made $50 profit on fuel for the month, although the owner's salary took up $5,000 of that $10K.