Keep your fuel card transactions secure with Dynamic Prompt

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Fuel fraud results in a substantial loss of revenue each year for all kinds of fleets. Commercial driving companies experience significant economic losses annually— with 5%-10% of a fleet’s annual fuel consumption lost to theft or misallocation.

Dealing with fraud can be especially challenging for smaller fleets – and those without a dedicated IT team – to beat back the efforts of skimmers. About  fleet and trucking companies operate within the United States, and  vehicles. With small and medium-sized businesses dominating American fleet services, improved technology from ����Vlogcan help your trucking business combat this rise in fraud.

Use improved technology and increase fleet card security and savings

Skimming isn’t the only type of fuel fraud causing concern for fleet managers. The misuse of fleet cards by employees, or the unauthorized use of a lost or stolen card, can quickly add up to thousands of dollars in stolen revenue. Having the right security controls in place is a must.

Dynamic Prompt uses two-factor authentication technology to increase fleet card security and savings

Fuel fraud can present itself in a variety of forms that can be hard to catch, ultimately creating significant costs for the fleet owner. ����Vloghas designed a feature – Dynamic Prompt – that provides an extra layer of security through two-factor authentication on fleet cards in order to help reduce fraudulent transactions. Using this new feature helps keep accounts safe and helps mitigate disruption to cards or drivers when cards are shut off as a result of fraudulent activity.

Dynamic Prompt minimizes the threat of fraudulent activity with two-factor authentication, creating an additional barrier to prevent skimmers from being successful. This security feature helps you avoid disruption to your business and keeps your drivers moving.

Log into e-manager to learn more about Dynamic Prompt two-factor authentication from WEX.

Additional fleet card security features with SecureFuel

SecureFuel technology from ����Vlogcan be added to many of the WEX-issued trucking (over-the-road) fleet cards. This technology provides greater fleet card control, gives fleet managers sophisticated data reporting and telematics features, catches fraudulent use, and helps to prevent misuse.

SecureFuel technology delivers innovation to the fleet card industry

WEX’s SecureFuel technology – which doesn’t require any hardware – integrates with a truck’s built-in telematics data to monitor fueling transactions in real time, creating many more ways to keep an eye on trucks in the fleet. With the continued fluctuations in fuel prices, protecting a fleet’s overall fuel spend remains a top priority.

When a driver attempts to purchase fuel using his/her fleet card, the SecureFuel technology checks the truck’s location and tank level before securely authorizing the purchase. By combining telematics with fleet card transaction data, the ����VlogSecureFuel technology identifies any unauthorized purchases or misuse, and companies can choose to be notified immediately of the incident, or even decline the transaction.

WEX’s SecureFuel technology provides ECM reconciliation and protects against skimming

By combining truck telematics with fleet card transaction data to pinpoint suspicious transactions in real time – and by providing a report on the vehicle’s proximity and tank level after fuel purchases – ����VlogSecureFuel can quickly find purchase irregularities and trigger an alert to your fleet manager. SecureFuel is one of the industry’s only solutions that uses the truck’s engine control module (ECM); no additional hardware is needed. Plus, as a broadly accepted solution, SecureFuel technology works at more than 16,000 truck stops across the United States.

If Dynamic Prompt is not used, SecureFuel also provides protection against the impacts of skimming by monitoring where the truck is in real time compared to where it was fueled up. If the legitimate truck is not at the fueling location, SecureFuel will send an alert to the fleet manager who can then disable or shut off the card.

Learn more about SecureFuel from WEX.

For trucker stories and information on how to better manage your trucking fleet, visit:

• Truckers life hacks
• Using social media as a second income
• Credit card fraud prevention
• Safety Tips

All fleet cards are not the same, and different types of fuel cards suit the needs of different kinds and sizes of businesses. View WEX’s fleet card comparison chart to see which fleet fuel card is right for you.

Apply for a fleet card today

Resources:

Editorial note: This article was originally published on August 14, 2024, and has been updated for this publication.

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Right behind labor costs, the second largest expenditure fleet managers oversee is fuel expenses. With fluctuations in fuel prices, it is more critical than ever for fleet managers to track and control spending discrepancies, theft, or misuse of fuel cards. Fleet managers should instate clear policies on the use of fleet cards, ensuring employees understand all authorized uses and avoid damaging mistakes.

To take advantage of the security controls available today, it’s important for fleet companies to understand the fraud prevention technology behind the cards. Prompt reporting received from your fleet card company can provide the detection and protection you need.

Sophisticated data reporting to catch fuel card fraud

Whether the unauthorized use of fleet cards is by an employee, or the result of a lost or stolen card, unapproved uses can add up to thousands of dollars in stolen revenue. It’s important to have the right security controls in place to prevent this kind of fraud.

A common example of fleet card fraud is when a perpetrator finds a lost card and uses it before the card owner realizes it’s been lost or stolen. WEX’s SecureFuel technology can be added to many of the WEX-issued over-the-road (OTR) fleet cards your company issues. This technology provides greater fuel card control, gives you sophisticated data reporting and telematics features, catches fraudulent uses, and greatly reduces risks.

Customized authorization features for accuracy

Like ATM cards, fleet fuel cards are typically assigned to individual drivers. Each driver uses their card by entering their data card prompts, such as driver ID, unit number, trip number, or several other available options to validate the transaction before the authorization. Each card can be customized by your company to be authorized for purchasing a variety (or limited number) of items such as fuel, maintenance, and convenience store items.

If there are any questionable purchases or attempts to purchase an unauthorized item, most fleet cards on the market have the technology to automatically flag that fraudulent purchase and give companies the ability to cancel the card. The difference between available fuel cards lies in the accuracy of the technology that flags discrepancies. When shopping for a fleet card for your company, compare the different technologies being offered and survey customers about accuracy before making your decision about which fleet card company you’ll contract with.

WEX’s SecureFuel technology delivers innovation to the fleet card industry

Before SecureFuel technology was developed, what fleet card companies did was install hardware in every truck throughout each fleet network. Only in this way could the truck location and mileage be tracked. Today, there’s no hardware necessary. WEX’s SecureFuel technology integrates with a truck’s built-in telematics data to monitor fueling transactions in real time, creating many more ways to monitor every truck in the fleet.

����Vlogis an innovator in this space. It launched its SecureFuel technology back in 2015 and has implemented many upgrades since then. Today, ����Vlogintegrates with dozens of telematics providers for access to real-time truck data. With the fluctuations we experience with fuel today, protecting your fleet’s overall fuel spend has never been more important.

Monitoring tank level and more with your fleet card account

When a driver attempts to purchase fuel using their fleet card, the SecureFuel technology checks the truck’s location and tank level before securely authorizing the purchase. By combining fleet truck telematics with fleet card transaction data, any unauthorized purchases will be picked up with the ����VlogSecureFuel technology, and companies can choose to be notified immediately of the incident, or even decline the transaction.

A truck’s built-in telematics can provide fleet managers with everything from the location, speed, fuel level, and more. Prior to SecureFuel, many fleet managers set limits on the fuel level allowed for each truck, but this method of tracking left room for exposure. The truck could be sitting for a few days, but the daily fuel limit would keep refreshing, which skewed the data.

The SecureFuel software can check the telematics data for the fuel capacity of a truck’s tank at any given time. When the fleet card is swiped, the tank level is monitored in real time and limits the allowed purchase amount. This substantially reduces fuel card theft and can amount to large savings over time.

Tank level monitoring catches a lot of the discrepancies that could occur in the data. If a customer doesn’t have telematics or a black box on their truck, SecureFuel can enable their phone to provide location information, which does assist in tracking how much fuel a driver is using. The game changer with SecureFuel is that managers can stay updated on the fleet’s tank levels in real time, which is a big piece of the puzzle when it comes to fraud prevention. 

Turnkey software implementation with your fleet card

SecureFuel is one of the only data management solutions available today in the fleet trucking industry that uses your truck’s telematics or Engine Control Module (ECM). The ECM is the brains of the truck and where the truck’s systems data lives.

SecureFuel technology integrates with most third-party telematics providers, so no additional hardware installation is necessary and new telematics providers are being added continually.

Accurate real-time information to compare truck location and fuel card usage

SecureFuel provides accurate and real-time information about a driver’s activity by combining the truck’s telematics with the driver’s fleet card transactions. Now more than ever, fleet managers can closely monitor the activity of their fleets.

If companies don’t have software technology like WEX’s SecureFuel, fleet managers will be stuck looking at multiple data sets and comparing them against their truck GPS or black box location devices which can be a complicated process. With SecureFuel, the data is pulled at the time of the transaction and compares the location of the truck with the location where the fuel card transaction is happening. If the two don’t match up, there’s a red flag.

The SecureFuel system will detect if there’s a difference between the location of the truck and the location where the card is being used. There are different levels of security controls on SecureFuel, from providing activity reports and alerts to actually declining transactions in real time. Customers can become more active users the more comfortable they become with the technology, as well.

Engine Control Module (ECM) reconciliation protects against skimming

Traditional fleet fuel cards have a PIN number for protection, but the illegal practice known as skimming is a long-standing problem in the industry. This type of fuel card theft happens when there is an overlay device installed on the pump keypad that steals card information – including the card number and PIN.

SecureFuel monitors where the truck is in real time compared to where the fill-up is taking place. If the card does not pass the proximity validation with the truck, the SecureFuel software will send an alert. When fleet managers receive this alert they then have the option to disable or shut cards off upon receipt.

Fleet card activity monitoring  guards against driver misuse

SecureFuel provides daily transaction reports, allowing fleet managers to monitor activity in real-time on a desktop or mobile app. Fraud becomes easier to identify, helping to reduce loss by a disgruntled employee, for instance, who may be tempted to misuse the card.

Whether the fleet size is 50 or 5,000 vehicles, detailed reporting capability allows fleet managers to easily check unauthorized use by employees or anyone who steals or misuses the card. The online tools make it convenient to check activity by driver.

Reduce driver keypad errors with your fleet card account

All truckload carriers today must maintain accurate fuel records for each truck or vehicle in the fleet, including types of fuel purchased. A tanker trailer versus a reefer (refrigerator trailer), for example, requires different codes for different taxes. If a driver is not careful and puts in the wrong code, a higher tax could be mistakenly assigned and paid with the purchase.

WEX’s SecureFuel technology can eliminate this improper coding by automatically associating the truck with the correct transaction code. Not only that, but accurate fuel records will be easily maintained for improved record-keeping. The SecureFuel technology will even check for accuracy when a driver is prompted for an odometer reading at the pump.

Reduce fleet card paperwork for expense reporting

When you have sophisticated fuel card technology controls, the time that office staff spends on travel and expense reporting can be reduced substantially. If a fleet company accounting department needs the last three months of activity by a specific driver, for example, the report can be accessed instantly.

If a request is made to tally the total fleet transactions in a specific category, like maintenance or oil changes, the reports are easy to generate, and can be filtered by category. Virtually any report by truck category or driver is at your fingertips with the SecureFuel software, making it extremely customizable for the fleet and the user to schedule reports daily, weekly, or monthly.

Fleet card push notifications via email or text message

Fleet managers can set up notification profiles at specific times during the day for different shifts. These custom notifications are perfect for fleet managers overseeing multiple divisions. Push notifications can be set to send alerts to trucks in a specific region, for example.

Today, fleet drivers are becoming more productive with mobile apps that can access these important push notifications and compliance alerts. By providing these convenient features to drivers, fleet managers are increasing their overall fleet productivity.

Technology that works across ����Vlognetwork locations

WEX’s SecureFuel technology can access a network of over 130,000 truckstops and retail fuel locations across North America. In comparison, credit card merchants cannot necessarily provide these location details for transactions.

The SecureFuel technology can pinpoint specific merchant locations, even if they are across the road from one another. This large network gives fleet managers the edge on GPS location tracking for card transactions, providing even more security against fuel theft.

Universal Network Authorization can limit fuel purchase to tank capacity

Before authorizing any fuel purchase, the ����Vloguniversal secure payment technology can validate any attempted ����VlogOTR card transaction and tank fuel level by checking the location of the truck. Then, once the purchase is complete, the carrier or fleet manager will receive the information.

The Universal Network Authorization will find purchase irregularities and trigger alerts to pinpoint any suspicious transactions in real time by reporting on the driver’s location and tank level after purchase. This secure payment authorization is guaranteed by WEX.

As an added level of security, SecureFuel can set limits on the fuel purchase with the tank capacity that is available. In other words, fleet managers can ensure that the fuel fill-up is limited to tank capacity left in the truck and be prompted with real-time activity alerts and reporting.

SecureFuel provides reporting and analysis for complete transparency

WEX’s SecureFuel technology provides complete transparency into how your fleet is purchasing fuel – all without interrupting your driver’s operations. SecureFuel uses big data to help identify purchase irregularities, trigger real-time alerts, and ultimately help you better manage and control your second largest variable expense: fuel.

Tracking features include tank level analysis and reporting, real-time alerts, purchase reconciliation reports (difference in purchase activity and tank level change), invalid purchase attempts (purchase attempts outside of an acceptable proximity of a truck’s current location), rejection reporting, transaction reporting, and advanced unit grouping.

Universal acceptance and security

SecureFuel is a universally accepted solution with technology that works across 16,000 truck stops and 150,000 retail gas locations in the ����Vlognetwork. The SecureFuel technology is a solution to protect your OTR fleet and manage fuel expenses by catching unauthorized purchases in real time – without interrupting your driver’s operations.

SecureFuel provides your company with unparalleled fleet card software control. WEX’s state-of-the-art technology integrates with a dozen or more third-party telematics providers for access to real-time truck data. Combined with instant fleet fuel card reporting, the ����Vlogtechnology is one of the best safeguards against fleet fuel theft available today.

All fleet cards are not the same, and different types of fuel cards suit the needs of different kinds and sizes of businesses. View WEX’s fleet cards to see which fleet fuel card is right for you.

����Vlogis a leading, global fintech solutions provider, simplifying payments and back-end business processes in the fleet management, benefits management, and corporate payments areas. To learn more, please visit the company’s About ����Vlogpage.

Apply for a fleet card today!

Editorial note: This article was originally published on June 28, 2022, and has been updated for this publication.

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Competitive Industry, Fluctuating Fuel Prices Make Smaller Airlines Vulnerable to Default

One of latest casualties was the much-hyped WOW air, made popular by providing low-cost fares across the Atlantic. Though WOW air was a fairly new airline (launched in 2012), it’s not just new carriers or even low-cost carriers that have suffered.

2017 saw the shuttering of Air Berlin and Monarch Airlines, both large, well-established airlines with decades in the industry. Monarch blamed the decline on routes in politically unstable areas where popularity dwindled, forcing it into other highly competitive markets where revenues were lower. The fall in the value of the British Pound following the Brexit vote also made the UK-based company vulnerable to exchange rate fluctuations.

Smaller airlines, though, are inherently more vulnerable. Of the twenty that closed in the past year, most were smaller regional airlines without the scale and capital resources of the large carriers. In an industry rife with competition, subject to price wars and significant fuel price fluctuations, smaller companies are having a harder time weathering the downturns.

Meanwhile, larger airlines are learning how to compete with low-cost carriers by offering no-frills fares to the price-conscious consumer. Some of the failed airlines were actually a victim of their own successes. For example, Primera Air grew very quickly and then faced poor customer service and reputational damage it couldn’t recover from.

Impact Of Supplier Defaults On Travelers And Travel Companies

Unfortunately for both travelers and travel companies, the majority of airline bankruptcies have been announced suddenly and without warning: WOW air was reportedly selling tickets the morning it closed.

In cases like these, passengers are stranded, and travel companies are left with the question of, how do I recover the cost of future bookings made on behalf of customers? Not to mention how to best to keep those customers who have placed future bookings for that supplier satisfied.

For any type of supplier default, being paid back for services not rendered becomes a time-consuming task with often uncertain results.

Chargeback Rules Help Protect Against Losses From Supplier Defaults

Different types of payment have different levels of protection from supplier defaults, as well as other payment disputes. When a travel company uses virtual cards, chargebacks may be raised depending on the situation. Chargebacks are a tool to recover funds when other alternatives have been exhausted or are not applicable.

The chargeback is raised by the travel company’s payment provider or card issuer and reverses a prior payment to a particular supplier. Chargebacks can be raised for a variety of disputes from overcharging of services to fraudulent activity, and of course supplier default.

(For more on how virtual cards protect your business against fraud and misuse see: Data Breaches Continue To Plague The Travel Industry.)

With virtual cards from WEX, these chargebacks are raised with the card scheme (for example, Mastercard or Visa) on your behalf in order to recoup any costs from airlines or other suppliers that have already been paid and are unable to perform or complete their services. Chargeback rules are in place to help protect your business against loss, each chargeback is subject to scheme policies and in certain circumstances, there may be no chargeback rights.

Raising chargebacks from payments made using virtual cards can be an effective way to recoup the costs of payments made to defaulted suppliers so you can focus on helping your customers.

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In writing for Phocuswire, Max Starkov of HEBS Digital notes “the .” As he explains, only two people out of 100 who visit a site will book, and the other “98 will look around before leaving to make a booking elsewhere–either with your competitors or with the OTAs.”

That’s a lot of business walking out the virtual door, and hospitality could take a cue from other online experiences. AZDS Interactive Group works with luxury hospitality brands, and its founder and CEO Adam Deflorian recognizes Amazon for raising the online shopping bar, and “the rest of us have no choice but to follow suit.”

He acknowledges what not meeting this high standard can mean. “If consumers are accustomed to making a purchase in 10 clicks or less, it’s only natural to hold other brands to a similar standard. Force your customers through an arduous purchasing process, and chances are you’ll become part of an unwelcome statistic (brands lost $236 billion due to checkout process friction in Q1 2018 alone).”

Switchfly addressed this in an August skift.com article: “Today’s travel consumer faces a needlessly . There are too many choices, and offers are not customized to address buyers’ unique needs. To solve this problem, travel brands must use what they already know about their customers to simplify, streamline and personalize the purchase process.”

Reasons consumers leave without buying

There are many reasons a potential customer may visit a site and not book. But, there are three that top the list (and are easily remedied):

• Complex

If it’s challenging to navigate, visitors will click elsewhere

• Outdated

If it’s more than two years old, it likely doesn’t use the latest best practices, which leads to

• Slow

If a mobile site takes longer than three seconds to load, 53% of visits are abandoned.

Getting past these more obvious issues, what else can lead to high dissatisfaction and high abandonment rates? HEBS’ Starkov lists several , including no real-time availability, inflexibility (particularly in terms of number of travelers), and results that don’t meet the customer’s criteria.

McKinsey & Co. took a look at travel distribution and customer experience last year, and they found an area travel companies may not be addressing–unique . Robert Carey, Del Ross and Nathan Seitzman write about five specific behaviors that can impact conversions. They found that mobile users:

• Keep sessions short

They “engage with content for less than half the time of desktop web users.”

• Move on

Users “rarely return to a previous browsing session, so a click away to another site is an exit, not a detour.”

• Multi-task

Visitors are “often doing something else, such as standing in line, commuting, riding in an elevator, or sitting in a meeting.”

• Focus

They “don’t browse travel sites randomly.”

• Expect speed & accuracy

Most will abandon a site or app if it doesn’t “load quickly, respond accurately, or answer the query thoroughly.”

Give them a better booking experience

It’s not always about the best price or the freebies you might throw in. Today, travelers are looking for a that offers accurate, personalized content as part of a streamlined process.  That may seem like a tall order, but it’s really not. Travel companies, like other online companies, need to take a step back and remember that because we can add something to a site, an app or a process doesn’t mean we should.

For example, in his forbes.com article, AZDS’ Deflorian lists steps companies can take to improve their customers’ online experience. He recommends:

• Allowing customers to save their orders to revisit later. And companies benefit from having a reason to reach out and remind customers what they left behind.
• Helping guests make adjustments with an edit function that offers an easy way to review and change an order.
• Limiting booking steps to reduce annoyance. Deflorian notes that an AZDS case study found “a 60% drop-off rate on every additional page of a booking engine.” He suggests that hotels reduce their booking process into “three easy steps: picking dates, selecting accommodations and filling out guest and credit card information.”
• Simplifying checkout by using auto-completion when possible and “only collect the information you actually need for your operation.”

The McKinsey & Co. team stresses mobile sites “should provide a , especially for infrequent customers,” while apps, which are more likely to be used by loyal travelers, “should always be functional both on- and offline, but should be developed specifically with offline utility.”

Technology is available to help travel companies for their potential customers—whether it’s real-time availability, offering personalized options (over and above the original criteria) or including flexibility to accommodate families and single travelers.

Having the right back-end solution is critical to meet or exceed the expectations of today’s online booker, particularly in terms of accurate availability and pricing. For organizations that work with multiple global suppliers, partnering with a payments provider like ����Vlogsimplifies the process because solutions are easily integrated with any system.

In addition to technology solutions, the all-important improvement in personalization will take data. Switchfly and Skift suggest “creating a carefully curated variety of options – informed by customer data, when possible – opens up while still leaving room for them to explore, discover, and come back again.”

Solutions to improve the booking experience and reduce the abandonment rate aren’t out of reach, especially when it comes to data. As the Switchfly and Skift writers note, “Travel executives can deliver better buying experiences simply by leveraging the data they already have to ultimately deliver a more relevant, and personalized, e-commerce experience that inspires conversions and leads to more direct bookings.”

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