1. Get a Fuel Card (we would say that obviously!)

But just look at the benefits of fuel cards…..

It might seem easy to just keep using credit cards or cash to keep paying for fuel, and then process the receipts from your drivers. But fuel cards offer a range of benefits for you and your drivers.

The main fuel card benefits are:

• A simple payment solution for drivers – they don’t have to pay upfront for fuel, or worry about keeping receipts, as all transactions are recorded online.

• Powerful online management and reporting tools – you will be able to view all your transactions through fuel management software. You can run reports on drivers, vehicles, regions or departments so that you can understand how your money is being spent, and how you can save.

• PIN Security – set PIN access for your cards so only your staff can use them.

• Control – you can also specify what drivers can buy with the card, including extras such as car washes and goods.

• Easy payment and VAT approved invoices – make one payment by direct debit and receive a convenient electronic bill. You will be able to view all your transactions, and receive an HMRC approved invoice. No more processing multiple payments and paying expenses; just one easy bill.

• A huge choice of networks and fuel companies – you can select from a range of cards, to pick a network of filling stations that suits your company. Whether you travel mainly by motorway, locally, or within Europe there is something to suit you.

• Potential cost savings – cards offer different options for prices. You can pay competitive pump prices or benefit from weekly fixed prices, depending on your fleet. By planning journeys and understanding your spending you can look for ways to save money and take advantage of the best prices.

The benefits of fuel cards are applicable to companies large and small, and with all types of fleets. You reduce your administration and the time you spend processing payments, and your drivers have a convenient way to pay for fuel.

Fuel cards are highly secure, easy to use and give your business powerful information about fuel consumption. The benefits of fuel cards are clear, and with no joining fees and or hidden charges there is no reason not to use them.

For more detailed information read our guide called,   Seven Success Tips For Choosing The Right Fuel Card For Your Business.

2. Air up your tyres to the maximum recommended pressure each month.
Tyre air pressure is measured in psi. For every psi below the maximum recommended pressure that any one of your tyres falls, you’re losing 0.125% of your fuel efficiency. So, if all of your tyres are 8 psi low, you’re losing 4% efficiency just because of air. Your 25 mpg car becomes a 24 mpg car just because you haven’t aired up the tyres lately. Since airing up your tyres is free at many gas stations and it only takes a few minutes, you should take the time once a month or so to air your tyres up.

3. Minimize every little bit of acceleration and brake usage.
Every time you accelerate your car, your engine starts burning more fuel, and the harder you accelerate, the more fuel you burn. Every time you touch your brake, you’re compensating for too much acceleration earlier on or you’re ensuring that you’re going to have to accelerate more soon, which takes you back to more acceleration. Instead, accelerate slowly out of stops and break as little as possible.

4. Familiarize yourself with petrol prices along your route.
Which petrol station along your route consistently has the lowest prices? Watch the stations along your route and continually compare them. Often, you’ll find that a station or two tends to have lower prices than others along your journey.

5. Minimize your heater and air con usage.
Both of these burn fuel. Simply get your car’s internal temperature to something tolerable and turn it off. If it’s hot out, roll down the windows and use air motion to bring the car’s temperature down before using the air to lower it further.

6. Use your journey home for reasonable errands along the route.
If you know you’re going to need some specific item when you get home, incorporate it into your journey. That way, once you’re home, there’s no reason to waste the fuel to drive out again. I used to find that a Post-It note stuck on my dashboard in the morning was a perfect reminder.

7. Get rid of any and all extra weight in your vehicle.
If you are storing any items in your vehicle that aren’t necessary for the trip, take them out. Your fuel efficiency gets worse with every extra pound that your car is carrying. Take anything and everything extra out of your vehicle. (Remember, of course, that safety equipment, particularly in winter, is not an extra – it’s essential.)

8. Use the cheap fuel.
Read your manual and find out what kind of fuel is recommended for your car. Most of the time, the manual suggests regular fuel and, if it does, that’s what you should be using. There is very little advantage to the premium fuel – what little there is does not add up to the cost difference for a car that runs fine on regular fuel.

9. Get your oil changed regularly and use the type recommended in your car manual.
Fresh oil keeps your engine properly lubricated, minimizing the work that the parts have to do in order to provide the power needed to run your car. Old oil causes the parts to run with less efficiency. Thus, if you want to minimize your fuel use (and prolong the life of your vehicle), get oil changes according to the manufacturer’s schedule.

10. Replace your air filter according to your maintenance schedule.
Change your vehicles air filter on a regular basis to boost the fuel efficiency of your car. Change the filter according to the recommendations of the filter manufacturer.

Keep on top of these things and you’ll get more miles for your money.

Did you know we can save you a guaranteed 3 pence per litre on diesel pump prices when using one of our fuel cards?   Visit www.forecourtfuelcards.co.uk  for more information.

The warning comes from TRACKER, which says that criminals are targeting long-term car parks, knowing that it could be hours before a driver misses their stolen car. Thieves then use the sat nav or GPS system to find the destination marked “home” and burgle the house, often taking a second vehicle, using the keys found in the home.

Stuart Chapman, TRACKER police relationship manager, said: ‘UK police do regular examinations of sat nav systems to gather evidence on criminals, but now thieves are using the same methods to help them with their criminal activities. Car owners need to be aware of this growing threat and take steps to reduce the risks. We urge people to use a postcode some distance from home, rather than their actual address and mark it as a “destination”.’

He added: ‘We advise car owners to keep all navigation systems, computers and Smartphones out of sight, when leaving their vehicle, including anything containing personal information, such as letters. Never leave keys in the car and don’t hide a spare key in the vehicle, making it easy for thieves. People should invest in good security for their vehicle, including a tracker unit, as this could help police stop thieves in their tracks.

www.forecourtfuelcards.co.uk can show you the best deals based on your individual requirements, from your estimated fuel spend to the size of your fleet.  

How A Fuel Card For Business Can Work For You

Essentially a Fuel Card works like any other credit card, but with the added customization you need to run your fleet of vehicles. You can customize your cards to fit your unique business needs. You can also set purchase controls such as fuel grade, transactions per day and gallons per transaction and can prevent non-fuel purchases and take control of your expenses.

Why Do You Need a Fuel Card?

A Forecourt Fuels Fuel Card will help you manage your company’s fuel and maintenance expenses, save you time and money and give you the controls you need to run your business. You can even make extra savings with our Save 3pence Per Litre Guarantee.
Fuel cards for business give you accurate purchase control, and a comprehensive detailed report showing purchases by driver or vehicle and miles per gallon and nationwide fuel and maintenance locations.

How You Can Take Control With A Company Fuel Card

You can restrict purchases to fuel-only or fuel and maintenance and prevent random purchases by limiting your cards to “fuel purchases only”. You can also track purchases by driver and or vehicle, as well as this you can limit purchases, require driver or vehicle codes for every purchase to minimize fraud, and also set spending and usage limits for each card by day, week or cycle.

Take Control With Fuel Card Reporting

Forecourt Fuels have their own bespoke online account management called “Velocity” which has all of the above features plus several more and is available to all clients completely free of charge.
With the vast majority of companies now using the internet as an integral part of running their business, it’s vital that your fuel card supplier is able to offer these facilities (especially in the case of larger fleets) to ensure your account runs smoothly and efficiently.
Below are just some of the features offered on Velocity.
•    View transactions on your account, both historically and new, uninvoiced ones
•    Organise individual cards into cost centres for accounting purposes
•    Run MPG reports
•    Gain snapshots of MPG fuel usage patterns either individually or collectively
•    Stop any existing cards promptly and reliably, especially in the event of loss or theft
•    Order additional cards for any new vehicles or employees
•    Download or view historical invoices for your account
•    Update account information such as contact details etc.

Did you know we can save you a guaranteed 3 pence per litre on diesel pump prices when using one of our fuel cards?  

Visit www.forecourtfuelcards.co.uk  for more information.

Features such as breakdown by vehicle in showing the registration and mileage at the time of the transaction cannot be demonstrated by any other purchasing method, including credit card.

This makes life far easier for businesses that need to break down costs by individual or vehicle in order to help manage their fleet efficiently.

VAT breakdown is also an very useful feature for your accountant or accounts department and will save you money alone as it means you won’t need to trawl through mountains of receipts working out the VAT element!

If you’re running a larger fleet of vehicles, you may need to break the standard transaction reports down further into cost centres to enable different parts of the business to show their individual costs.

Examples of this may be separating out different office or depot locations or departments within one location such as sales, engineering, manufacturing and admin etc.

Many Fuel Card providers don’t have the technology available to meet these requests and in the case of those that do, will charge for it in most instances.

Forecourt Fuels offer this additional service completely free of charge on a bespoke basis and would be happy to discuss your business fleet’s requirements.

To open a Fuel Card account with no hidden costs or set up fee and take advantage of the only fuel price saving guarantee on the market, visit www.forecourtfuelcards.co.uk

If you like many other people are looking around for another Fuel supplier, then please read our seven success tips which explains how Fuel Cards work and what they can do for your company.

We hope that reading this will help you make an informed decision on what to do next and also help you to choose the right Fuel Card for your company.

1) Fuel Pricing

Fuel costs are more often than not, the first point raised by new clients when discussing the various fuel card options. With fuel prices consistently reaching new highs here in the UK, there is more emphasis than ever to save money wherever possible so it seems like the logical place to start!

There are a number of fuel card products that offer the user a fixed, weekly rate for their diesel (and even on unleaded petrol too for “Fastfuel” customers).

Some of these products are “commercial” fuel cards which offer (predominantly) diesel at wholesale rates, usually linked to the Platt’s pricing mechanism.

These cards normally offer the best solution for those looking to save money off pump prices, with savings occasionally as high as ten pence per litre in extreme cases, but usually closer to two or three pence below the UK national average pump price.

However, many suppliers have been known to offer artificially low fuel rates in the first instance to gain interest from their prospects and then slowly but surely increase rates over time, often eventually leading to the customer consistently paying rates higher than average pump price!

One of the key factors you should look out for when opening a commercial fuel card account is to request a weekly price notification from your chosen supplier. This would normally be sent in advance either by email, SMS text or fax, whichever is your preference.

Receiving a price notification allows you to monitor the price
movement from week to week and compare it with national
average or individual pump prices at the stations you regularly use to ensure you continue to receive a competitive rate.

If a fuel card supplier refuses or is unable to send you a price notification, this should set alarm bells ringing, as it probably means they’re reluctant to be up front about their fuel pricing!!

In other instances, fuel may be supplied at a national rate based on the card supplier’s
network of sites. This can result in savings for some or result in paying a higher rate for others, it all depends on how competitive the pump prices are at the particular outlets the end user draws from.

Once again, a price notification in advance ought to be requested to ensure you’re paying a fair rate.

Finally, there’s a number of fuel cards that simply offer fuel pricing at the prevailing pump price at the time of the transaction, which of course means no savings are made but equally importantly, you’re not paying more than the pump price either!

In 2009, Forecourt Fuels successfully introduced a brand new, price guarantee scheme to over 500 customers which ensured the account holder would save a minimum of three pence per
litre on average off the national average pump price over the course of the year, the first of its kind and something no other supplier had previously offered before or since (at the time of
writing).

These customers were assured by the guarantee they would receive at least a three pence per litre saving off national average or else they would receive a refund for the difference in the event  of the savings falling short of target!

Since 2009, over three thousand UK businesses have taken advantage of what is still a unique offer in the fuel card market and have collectively saved over £3.5 Million off their fuel costs!!

2) Site Coverage

Another vital aspect when choosing the right fuel card for your business is the service
station coverage it offers.

This could range from a handful of sites in the case of a small, independent company that own a handful of sites through to several thousand sites with extensive coverage right across the UK (and Europe in some cases).

Some businesses just need sites in their
local town or on a particular route, whilst
others may require regional or even national coverage in the case high mileage drivers, larger fleets or companies with multiple depots.

When speaking to a potential fuel card provider, be sure to tell them about any key areas where site coverage is essential to your business… and get them to prove any recommendations they make will meet your requirements in those locations.

Either way, it’s vital to do this or else you may well end up standing the time and cost of drivers having to go off route to fill up (which can easily negate any potential savings on offer through a keen price!).

Forecourt Fuels have recently launched an app in conjunction with UK Fuels called
“e-Route UK” which allows users to pinpoint their nearest available sites by card type, either by current location or destination.

Alternatively, to gain a greater perspective of available site coverage in any chosen part of the UK and to help you to see which product best fits your needs,
visit our Station Locator

In addition to this, Forecourt Fuels have also added a free satellite navigation website at
www.SatNavDownloads.com which allows regularly updated service station networks to be
downloaded and installed on to TomTom, Garmin and Navman units, ensuring drivers can easily find their nearest available site.

3) Online Account Management

Most, but not all suppliers are now able to offer an online facility to enable you to manage your account via the web.

Examples of the type of features you should expect to be available to you free of charge include:-

•    View transactions on your account, both historically and new, uninvoiced ones
•    Organise individual cards into cost centres for accounting purposes
•    Run MPG reports
•    Gain snapshots of MPG fuel usage patterns either individually or collectively
•    Stop any existing cards promptly and reliably, especially in the event of loss or theft
•    Order additional cards for any new vehicles or employees
•    Download or view historical invoices for your account
•    Update account information such as contact details etc.

With the vast majority of companies now using the internet as an integral part of running their business, it’s vital that any prospective fuel card supplier is able to offer these facilities (especially in the case of larger fleets) to ensure your account runs smoothly and efficiently.

Of course, if you’d rather speak with a human being when you have a query, then make sure
you have a point of contact you know you can confidently expect to reach during business hours.

Forecourt Fuels have their own bespoke online account management called “Velocity” which has all of the above features plus several more and is available to all clients completely free of charge.

4) Management Information / Cost Centre Reporting

One of the main features of using a fuel card, regardless of type and normally of supplier too, is the additional information available as standard to the account holder, which is normally sent as part of the regular invoicing at no extra cost.

Features such as breakdown by vehicle in showing the registration and mileage at the time of the transaction cannot be demonstrated by any other purchasing method, including credit cards.

This makes life far easier for businesses needing to break costs down by individual driver or vehicle in order to help manage their fleet efficiently, as mentioned in the previous section

VAT breakdown is also an extremely useful feature for your accountant or accounts department and will save you money alone as it means you won’t need to trawl through mountains of receipts working out the VAT element!

If you’re running a larger fleet of vehicles, you may need to break the standard transaction reports down into cost centres (as mentioned in the previous section) to enable different parts of your business to breakdown their individual costs.

Not all fuel card providers have the technology available to meet these requests and in the case of those that do, will charge for it in many instances.

If cost centre reporting is important to your fleet, be sure to check with any provider you speak with as to whether they’re able to meet your requirements.

5) Security

Another feature that sets most fuel cards apart from other fuel purchasing methods is the ability to pick and choose by individual card exactly which products can and can’t be purchased.

An example of this would be a fleet with twenty vehicle comprising 15 salesmen, 3 engineers and 2 directors.

The salesmen could be restricted to just diesel only to ensure they’re not buying snacks,
cigarettes or magazines etc, on the company’s account!

However, the engineers may need petrol as well as diesel to power machinery for example, so their cards could be set up to allow “all fuels”.

And finally, the directors could have a fuel card which allows them to buy anything available within the shop (as after all, it’s probably their money! ☺)

Some fuel cards are issued with a pin number for added security. Normally this is a 4 digit number and is generated at random when the card is produced.

6) Free Issue Of Fuel Cards, Transaction Fees & Set Up Costs

Another factor to check with your preferred fuel card provider is whether they charge for
opening an account by way of an admin or set up fee and do they charge an annual or monthly fee for the cards themselves?

It has also recently come to light that one of the leading fuel card suppliers in the UK has
started charging up to £2.00 per transaction! This alone can add up to 5 pence to the cost of every single litre which could potentially cost a large fleet thousands of pounds a year for
essentially zero added value!

For example, a fleet with 100 vehicles, all of which fill up twice a week, would have just had their fuel costs increased by £20,800 + VAT!!

Card fees have also been known to vary from £5 a year (or 40 pence a month) per card to a whopping £75 per year per card in some cases, so well worth checking the small print and asking the question when signing up as failure to do so could cost you a small fortune.

Finally, I’ve also noticed recently that some suppliers have started charging their account holders for low or non-usage so once again, check the small print carefully.

Personally, I’ve always felt it inappropriate to charge customers for choosing Forecourt Fuels as their fuel supplier and therefore we definitely do not charge any of the additional fees mentioned above!

There’s only one product we have a card cost for and this is because we’re contractually bound to do so by the oil company in question!

7) Interest Free Credit

My final tip is to check the payment terms applied to your fuel card and ensure there are no charges for receiving a credit account.

Payment terms are nearly always by direct debit only, normally taken on a set amount of days after the end of the accounting period (usually a minimum of seven).

Some fuel card providers will also offer monthly payment terms (subject to credit status) to give you the maximum amount of credit available.

Again, if requesting monthly terms, this may come at a price due to the “cost of the money” and the very small margins associated with selling fuel so it’s worth asking the question whether the additional credit line sought will affect the cost of the fuel and if so, by how much.

Well, that’s it! I hope you’ve found this guide to finding the best fuel card for you helpful and informative and has made the numerous choices available a little easier to set apart from one another!

If you have any questions on using a fuel card that remain unanswered, please feel free to call our team here at Forecourt Fuels completely free of charge on 08000 14 14 64 and ask away!

Thanks for reading and best wishes,

Nick Staples

Managing Director – Forecourt Fuels Ltd

www.forecourtfuelcards.co.uk

Forecourtfuelcards.co.uk point out that, by applying their market knowledge and buying in bulk, they can secure significant savings against pump prices for all their cardholders. Each week, via email or text to a mobile, we will quote you the price per litre that will apply at every refuelling stop that accepts the fuelcard concerned for the next 7-day period starting each Sunday. Every member organisation therefore has the benefit of pricing consistency both geographically and throughout a week’s operations.

We can guarantee to save you 3 pence per litre below pump price on petrol and diesel, representing substantial on going budget savings over time compared with pump price fuel costs.

Forecourtfuelcards.co.uk offers several fuelcards, each with its own countrywide network of refuelling sites, and each designed to suit a particular type of operation.

Let www.forecourtfuelcards.co.uk show you the best deals based on your individual requirements, from your estimated fuel spend to the size of your fleet.    

Regulations that came into force yesterday now require tyres to be sold with efficiency labels similar to those displayed on electrical appliances. They indicate a tyre’s fuel economy and braking distance in the wet using a simple A to G.

An A grade tyre is expected to reduce fuel bills by up to nine per cent compared to the worst performing G-rated products, saving typical passenger cars up to £184 a year and vans up to £288.

Brussels expects consumers to buy greater numbers of fuel-saving tyres as a result of labels, leading to CO2 savings of between 1.5 million tonnes and four million tonnes a year by 2020 – equivalent to taking 500,000 to 1.3 million passenger cars from the roads each year.

Research by the Energy Saving Trust estimates UK businesses could make significant savings by switching the tyres on the estimated 3.9 million company vehicles on the country’s roads.

It says changing tyres on just 50 per cent of company cars from the least to the most efficient grade would lower fuel costs by up to £500m a year and reduce CO2 emissions by more than one million tonnes, as well as providing significant safety benefits.

“We welcome this new legislation and hope that fleet managers and leasing companies benefit from the substantial long-term savings they can make,” said Tim Anderson, senior knowledge manager at the Energy Saving Trust.

In other fuel card news, So you want to save money on your fleet fuel bill?

Did you know we can save you a guaranteed 3 pence per litre on diesel pump prices when using one of our fuel cards?  

Visit www.forecourtfuelcards.co.uk for more information.

The survey revealed that 66.7% of the drivers asked were satisfied with the amount they were eligible to claim for. During 2011 the Government released guidelines on fuel mileage rates for business vehicles, with the objective to reduce the time spent on calculating fuel rates for both employer and employee alike.

According to the survey there is controversy surrounding the government guidelines, as employees have the possibility of losing out if the guideline rates are used too rigidly. The report shows that employees can be left financially out of pocket; warning employers that this may leave them susceptible to the danger of employees inflating their claims in order to make up their financial loss.

Time to look at getting a Fuel Card?

If you spend too much time carrying out administrative tasks for your fleet or want to circumvent rising fuel costs we can help. Our Fuel cards will allow you to purchase fuel at the most cost efficient rate form our UK networks.

Our range of fuel cards will make the process of managing your fleet simple; you can make excellent savings and gain additional purchase control over your fleet’s costs. We supply a large number of fuel cards for both UK and European coverage, giving us the ability to meet almost any need.

Did you know we can save you a guaranteed 3 pence per litre on diesel pump prices when using one of our fuel cards?  

Visit www.forecourtfuelcards.co.uk for more information.