Thanks to the growing availability of fuel cards for truck drivers, you now have the tools you need to ensure you are paying the lowest price possible during your next fill-up. When it comes to diesel fuel, you may have control over how much fuel you use or how efficiently you use it, but you don’t have much control over exactly how much you have to pay for it, especially during times of rising oil prices and inflation.
How Do Fuel Cards Work?
Fuel cards offer carriers and drivers per-gallon discounts on fuel and other services specific to trucking. Companies offer fuel cards and set up partnerships with truck and fuel stops, and the discounts provided usually vary depending on location and change daily. Comparatively, these cards function the same as a credit card, except they provide you with a discount on fuel.
Fuel Card Types
There are many different types of fuel cards offered by various companies. Truck stops, fuel providers/oil & gas companies, trucking and driver associations, and fuel card-specific companies offer fuel cards. Each fuel card will provide its discount amount, partner with truck stops, and have additional discounts and benefits. Some fuel cards are better for different types of truckers; some are better for those that live in some regions of the country; some are better for individual drivers, while others are better for small fleets. Consider all of these options when you take advantage of fuel card savings and discounts.
Interested in fuel savings? Check out RTS fuel savings card and save up to $0.75 per gallon, take advantage of a $3,500 weekly line of credit, and have access to $2,300+ fuel stations!
Fuel Savings Calculations
The two savings models that fuel card providers most commonly offer are “retail-minus” and “cost-plus.”
Retail-Minus: is a reasonably simple concept. A certain amount of money is deducted from the per-gallon fuel price every time you use the card. Those savings are then passed directly to the fuel card user.
Cost-Plus: is more complicated and is based on the Oil Pricing Information Service’s base price of fuel for each location. The base price includes taxes, transportation costs, and other fees. However, this price is lower than the retail price offered at the truck stop, and most of the time ends up being cheaper than the retail minus cost.
Some fuel cards will offer a “better of” option to give the card user a better discount between retail-minus and cost-plus.
Other Reasons To Use A Fuel Card
There are fuel cards have more benefits other than discounts on fuel. Others offer discounts on other services such as maintenance, tires, document scanning, lodging, and other everyday expenses.
If you use a fleet card for your small fleet, you can control who uses the card, what it can purchase, how much it can buy, and will leave you with much more control when compared to a standard credit or debit card.
When you use a fuel card, it will automatically keep track and provide you with important information and documentation that will help you with things like IFTA filing, which will save you a lot of time by not gathering this data yourself.
Fuel Card Alternatives
There are a few alternatives to fuel cards that provide discounts on fuel. Most of these alternatives are downloadable apps on your phone.
Mudflap: is an app that focuses on independent truck stops. These truck stops are usually 20 cents less than major chains. Paying for fuel through Mudflap saves you an extra 25 to 50 cents per gallon.
Fuelbook: is another app that automatically looks up fuel prices for you to see where the cheapest prices are. They look at over 7,000 truck stops nationwide and update the app six times daily.
GasBuddy & Fuelio: are other apps similar to Fuelbook that help you compare prices and find the cheapest places to stop.
The availability of fuel cards for truck drivers is constantly evolving, but don’t rely only on fuel cards and other alternatives. Driving with fuel efficiency in mind is just as important than utilizing fuel cards and discounts. Check out our Fuel Savings Tips For Truck Drivers blog for tips on how you can save fuel while you’re on the road. Remember, fuel savings = more revenue for you!
Click the button below to learn more about RTS’ fuel savings card.
