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Fuel Cards: Beyond Discounts at the Pump
Fuel Cards Providing More Data and Insights as Fleets Seek Tighter Controls
Key Takeaways:
- Fuel card programs have evolved into increasingly sophisticated spending and data management systems.
- Many fleets are using fuel cards “less as simple payment tools and more as financial control and risk management platforms.”
- For fleets testing alternative fuels or deploying electric vehicles, fuel cards are increasingly becoming energy management systems.
While operating in a soft freight market that has been squeezing margins for years, motor carriers of all sizes have been relying on fuel cards not just for savings at the pump, but to exert tighter control over their fuel expenditures.
In addition to securing discounts on diesel purchases, fuel card programs have evolved into increasingly sophisticated spending and data management systems.
Providers are rolling out deeper controls, real-time visibility tools and fraud prevention technologies as fleets focus on managing every variable that affects their cost per gallon.
, senior vice president and general manager for the over-the-road business at Wex, noted that fleets have gained more precise control over fuel spending.
“You can literally dictate when, where, what time of day, how many gallons a driver can purchase,” he said, adding that fleets use fuel cards primarily to get negotiated fuel discounts, but also to make sure that fuel is the only thing purchased. “It’s actually a cost-control instrument that helps you control all of your costs while a driver is out over the road.”
In contrast, an open-loop card provides the ability to buy things other than diesel fuel, resulting in “a pretty big hole in your expense management,” Hampton added.
When fleets use fuel cards “less as simple payment tools and more as financial control and risk management platforms,” their overall operations can improve, said Sam Brayman, a director of program management at Amerit Fleet Solutions, which offers fuel card and payment services in addition to its core fleet maintenance and repair business.
“Compared to two or three years ago, fleets are far more focused on eliminating uncontrolled spend, preventing fraud… and understanding true net cost per gallon,” she noted, adding that by controlling margins and optimizing driver behavior, fuel cards enable fleets to get the upper hand on unauthorized spending and fragmented reporting.
Relay Payments CEO said that in the current soft freight market, fleets aren’t just looking for the “pennies off per gallon” discount.
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Droege
“They now want more control, better visibility, fewer headaches around fraud, reconciliation,” he said, noting that some fleets are losing operating margin. “Fuel is a very manageable expense. We haven’t really run into a fleet where we can say, ‘Hey, you’ve done everything you can here.’ When a fleet upgrades its payments technology, it always opens up additional avenues of savings.”
As a digital payment provider, Relay enables data sharing between parties so fleets can reconcile payables and receivables. This applies to “any payment that a company may have to make or manage while their drivers are out on the road,” Droege said.
Fleets that use fuel cards mainly to pay for fuel can become overly focused on price, spending excessive time reviewing reports and chasing exceptions instead of preventing misuse or inefficient fueling, Amerit’s Brayman noted.
“Smaller and midsized fleets tend to see the biggest gains just by tightening controls and eliminating waste,” she said, “while large national fleets benefit more from scale, better pricing, and using data and driver behavior insights to get more incremental savings across a very large fuel footprint.”
, head of merchant partnerships for AtoB, said the business aims to “democratize” access to fuel programs for smaller operators.
“Very large fleets have access to the deepest discounts and products and services and the best technology,” he said.
In December, AtoB introduced a “business fuel card” in partnership with fuel retailer Murphy USA.
The card program is “purpose‑built” to serve small and growing businesses, Murphy USA and AtoB said in a statement.
The partnership offers benefits from “a wider credit aperture with criteria that recognize the realities of early‑stage businesses,” the companies said, including newer employee ID numbers and variable seasonal cash flow.
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Retailers like Murphy USA are targeting fuel card services toward small or growing businesses. (Murphy USA)
Hampton of Wex noted that larger fleets can negotiate fuel purchases directly, but “smaller fleets do not have that critical mass.” Wex offers such operators fuel discounts through its Edge card for small fleets or through its 10-4 cardless mobile app, which features “very aggressive fuel discounts for small fleets,” he said.
Fraud remains a moving target, and providers say its nature has changed. Traditional skimming, once the top concern, has faded as truck stop operators upgraded pump security. But the fraud hasn’t disappeared; it has splintered into harder-to-detect behaviors, such as card sharing, off-route fueling and small gallon overages that slip through basic checks. Digital compromises can spread across multiple cards quickly, creating a wider risk footprint.
In response, providers are shifting from after-the-fact detection to real-time prevention. Wex, for example, verifies a truck’s GPS location against the card swipe before authorizing a transaction, shutting down mismatches instantly through its SecureFuel tool.
Other systems focus on tightening authorization rules at the pump, flagging unusual patterns immediately and using more sophisticated analytics to catch anomalies before losses accumulate. Several providers are backing these controls with financial guarantees as they grow confident of proactive fraud prevention.
Making Better Decisions
While pricing is reasonably considered the main point of fuel cards, providers say driver behavior has a bigger impact on overspend.
“Once you’ve negotiated the best prices, [driver behavior] still matters a lot,” Relay Payments’ Droege said, adding that route choice, stop selection, daily price swings and state tax calculations all influence net costs.
“We’ve had fleets save thousands per month by just simply giving drivers access to real-time visibility” into those factors, he said.
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Brayman
Amerit’s Brayman echoed that point, noting that pricing and discounts matter, but once a fleet has a reasonable program in place, the difference between one price and another is typically minimal.
The real savings, she said, come from consistent fueling habits, such as choosing preferred locations, staying within policy and avoiding small but repeated deviations.
“Those small decisions, repeated every day across a fleet, can add up more than a few cents per gallon,” she explained.
Comdata is among the providers highlighting the expanding role of data in fueling strategy. Its “Predictive Pricing” tool offers near-term fuel price forecasts to help fleets decide when and where to buy. The system calculates the difference between the current average wholesale cost of fuel and the estimated cost the following day, helping fleets determine whether to fuel immediately or wait.
Comdata also offers electronic fund transfers to drivers or vendors, recurring deposits for cash-on-hand needs and driver settlement capabilities for expenses like tools, supplies and lodging. The company also integrates with mobile fueling vendors, giving fleets additional operational flexibility.
Future of Fuel Cards
For fleets testing alternative fuels or deploying electric vehicles, fuel cards are increasingly becoming energy management systems.
“Fleets don’t want separate programs, cards or reports for diesel, charging or anything new they’re trying,” Amerit’s Brayman said.
Providers are evolving their platforms to cover multiple energy types while offering the same controls and visibility across them, allowing fleets to experiment without adding complexity or losing track of costs.
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As fleets navigate a strained freight cycle and prepare for a more diverse energy future, fuel card programs are becoming less about buying diesel and more about orchestrating the entire cost ecosystem around fueling.
The next competitive edge won’t come from a few more cents at the pump, providers said, but from discipline, data and real-time decision-making these systems now enable.
Whether fleets are running diesel, testing alternative fuels or adding their first EVs, the goal is the same: a single platform that brings clarity, control and predictability to one of their biggest operating expenses.
While technology is crucial, the human factor remains important.
“We averaged 35 seconds to pick up the telephone” in 2025, said AtoB’s , head of customer support.
Agam also noted that speed matters and a driver’s time is precious.
“When you think someone could be on hold for hours and instead they get someone in 35 seconds, that is really valuable,” he said.
