Choosing a fuel card provider: what are the key selection criteria?

Choosing a fuel card provider should not be taken lightly. It’s however a quite simple thing to do with the right method, and even more so after an in-depth analysis of the needs of the company and of staff concerned by the program.

Interested procurement managers or company executives should look into the following:

• Nature of the vehicle fleet (cars, two-wheelers, heavy goods vehicles, vans...),
• Type of fuel – diesel or petrol,
• Area concerned by business or service trips,
• Additional services the company might need (payment of toll fees, parking fees, car wash, car care consumables...),
• Invoicing frequency and settlement conditions.

With these elements, fuel card providers will be able to send proposals matching the needs of interested companies in the form of business quotes.

The best fuel card provider is not necessarily the cheapest. The best fuel card provider is the provider of the product which will help one specific company to improve its overall performance. The biggest source of financial gains related to fuel cards is not the discounts on pump prices which some fuel card providers offer. What matters most is to optimise fuel expenses through fine management of fuel consumption, advanced monitoring of vehicle mileage and better preventive maintenance. Finally, it’s also about eliminating costs related to the management of expense accounts and minimising the risk of mistakes.

Fuel cards also make it possible to monitor all fuel-related tax expenses such as VAT and other fuel taxes, as well as to manage payment and refunds of these taxes where applicable, and minimising the risk of mistakes here as well. 

Choosing the right fuel card provider is not a trivial matter, and deserves a solid selection process. Using an online fuel card comparison tool may make it easier, all the more so as there are so many fuel cards and fuel card providers. 

The following can be mentioned:

• Major oil companies like BP, Esso or Shell,
• Specialised independent card providers such as Edenred with the Right Fuelcard company, Allstar, Keyfuels, fuelGenie, which issue fuel cards for major supermarket chains with filling stations.

But the most effective way is to request as many quotes as possible to relevant fuel card providers. Companeo makes it extremely simple: in a few mouse clicks, any interested decision-maker can request quotes from fuel card providers and select the proposal that best matches his company needs.

Read our detailed article about the best fuel card providers to learn more about their products.