Fuel Card
A payment card issued to fleet drivers for purchasing fuel and sometimes maintenance at participating stations, providing centralized billing, per-transaction reporting, spending controls, and often volume discounts at specific fuel networks.
Category: Fleet ManagementOpen Fleet Management SoftwarePublished June 10, 2026Updated June 11, 2026
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Compare Fleet Management Software software →Major Fuel Card Networks and Their Coverage
The U.S. commercial fuel card market is dominated by a handful of networks, each with different coverage profiles, discount structures, and control features. The dominant players are WEX (formerly Wright Express), Comdata, Fleetcor (which owns Fuelman and Truckers Edge), and Universal Premium (formerly Pacific Pride). Major petroleum brands — Shell, BP, ExxonMobil — also operate closed-loop card programs that work only at their branded stations. The right choice depends on your fleet's geographic footprint and the fuel networks most common along your routes.
Spend Controls That Prevent Fraud and Misuse
Fuel card fraud costs U.S. fleet operators an estimated $400–700 million annually, with the most common schemes being unauthorized fueling of personal vehicles, fictitious odometer entries to mask usage, and card sharing among drivers. Modern fuel card programs combat this through: PIN authentication at the pump, odometer entry requirements (flagging entries that imply impossible fuel economy), vehicle-specific card assignment with automatic rejection if a card is used in a different state than the vehicle's assignment zone, and transaction velocity limits (e.g., one fill per 8 hours per card).
Operational Example: Catching Fuel Theft with Card Controls
Scenario
A pest control company with 34 service vans switches from credit cards to a WEX fuel card program. Within 60 days, their exception reporting flags three anomalies: one driver is fueling twice in the same day despite odometer entries showing only 40 miles between fills (a 16-gallon tank van cannot consume two full fills in 40 miles), one card was used at a station 180 miles from the driver's assigned service territory, and one vehicle's recorded fuel economy has dropped from 19 MPG to 11 MPG over 6 weeks — suggesting the driver is fueling a personal vehicle alongside the work van. The fleet manager addresses all three within the same month, recovering an estimated $2,800/month in fraudulent or wasteful spend.
Setting Up a Fuel Card Program: Implementation Checklist
- Assign cards to individual drivers, not vehicles — this creates an audit trail tied to the person, not the asset
- Set product restrictions appropriate to each vehicle class (diesel-only for trucks, no premium for standard vans, no car washes on work cards)
- Enable odometer entry requirements and configure exception alerts for MPG that falls more than 25% below the vehicle's baseline
- Set per-transaction gallon limits (e.g., 75 gallons max for a Class 8, 20 gallons for a cargo van) to flag tank overfills
- Set daily and weekly spending dollar limits by vehicle class to cap exposure from compromised cards
- Integrate fuel card transaction data with your fleet management software or telematics system for automated reconciliation
- Review monthly exception reports personally — do not delegate this task entirely in the first 90 days of a new program