Fuel cards are being increasingly adopted across the transport industry, but unfortunately the rise in fuel card use has also garnered an increase in fraud that is affecting businesses across the board.
How does your business prevent fuel card fraud?
Not having a strategy in place to prevent against fuel card misuse and fraud could be a costly mistake for your business. There are a number of ways that fuel cards can be wrongly used at the expense of a company, such as;
Fuel card misuse
Misuse is the term used when an employee purposely uses their company fuel card for personal means. This could be either filling a personal vehicle or using the card to fill a family member or friend’s vehicle. If you do not monitor fuel card accounts this type of fraud can be difficult to detect and prevent.
Slippage
Fuel card slippage occurs when employees use their fuel cards to buy non-fuel related goods such as food and drink. If a fuel card is not limited to purchasing fuel only, this can also be very hard to prevent and will add to company costs.
Third party fraud
Often, fuel cards are stolen or skimmed and used fraudulently by third parties. This is easily done, with many cards being intercepted in the post or skimmed at a petrol station, with the card details being copied and saved for later use.
How can you prevent fuel card fraud?
To gain control of fuel expenditure and protect against fuel card fraud there are a number of steps business managers can take.
Use fuel cards with PINS
Most fuel cards now offer PIN protection as an extra layer of security. This prevents misuse if the card is lost or stolen.
Check your invoices
Regularly review your fuel invoices against your driver’s milage reports. As a transport manager you should be aware of the journeys completed by your drivers and the amount of fuel needed for each trip.
The KeyFuels card is one of the best cards on the market for preventing fuel card fraud. With its ControlMax feature, transport managers can create their own bespoke rules on an account level or on each individual fuel cards.
Setting spending limits is a fundamental step in gaining control of your fuel card use. With the KeyFuels card you can limit spend on each card with daily and weekly amounts. There is also the option to black list certain sites if you don’t want your drivers to refuel at them because of price or location.
Once you have created your fuel card rules you can also opt in to receive alerts if any irregular spending happens on your account. This means you can act as soon as you suspect fraud and prevent the impact it has on your business.
Speak to our fuel card team now on 01543 506117 to protect your business against fuel card fraud.
Company Head Office
AID Fuel Oils Group
Cocksparrow Lane
Huntington
Cannock
Staffordshire
WS12 4PB
