The Top 2 Ways To Fuel Your New Fleet

Posted on: 2 July 2015

If you plan on using a fleet of vehicles to get your new business going, you are going to need a solid fuel plan. Here are the top two ways you can fuel your new fleet of vehicles.

#1: The Paper Route: Reimbursement

You can always go old school and reimburse all of your drivers for their gas costs. If you go this way, you are going to want to keep a detailed paper trail. You will need your employees to keep track of their fuel costs with a fuel log. This fuel log should document:

  • the date they purchased the fuel
  • where they purchased the fuel
  • the cost per gallon of the fuel
  • how many gallons of fuel they purchased
  • the total cost of the fuel.

In addition, you'll also need your employees to submit all of their fuel receipts to you. A fuel log system such as this works best if the fuel log is attached to a large manila envelope with a pen inside. That way, your drivers can easily enter the information onto the fuel log and secure their receipt at the same time.

The downside of this system is that it requires your drivers to take a few extra minutes every time they fill up to write down this information. It also requires your drivers to not lose their receipts, and it requires you to collect the fuel logs on a weekly or monthly basis, tabulate the costs, and issue refunds to your drivers.

#2: The Electronic Route: Fleet Fuel Cards

Another way to pay for fuel costs is to use fleet fuel cards. You can provide each driver with a fleet fuel card, or you can pair a card up with each vehicle in your fleet; whichever option makes the most sense for your business model. 

Most fleet fuel cards are for a specific brand. Your drivers will only be able to fill up at fuel stations that are owned by that brand. All your drivers will need to do in order to get fuel is find an appropriate gas station, pull in, fuel up and get back on the road.

You will be sent a bill for each card that will detail how much gas was purchased, the cost per gallon and the total cost of the purchase. Instead of reimbursing individual drivers for fuel costs, you'll just have to pay a monthly fuel bill instead.

The one drawback to this method is that there needs to be plenty of gas stations around that are owned by the company you have a fleet fuel card with. One way around this drawback is to use a universal fleet fuel card for your company.

Many businesses use one of the two methods listed above. The key is to choose a system that works with your business model and style. A reimbursement system puts most of the responsibility for fuel costs and refunds on your employees and requires a lot of manual tracking. A fleet fuel card system allows your employees to not worry about the cost of gas, and allows you to more easily track gas trends within your company. For more information, contact a fleet service in your area at http://www.nulookcollision.com/.

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