How To Find The Best Fuel Cards For Trucking Companies

Choosing the right fuel card can seem like quite a task because there are so many fuel cards out there all claiming to offer different discounts, controls, reports, tracking capabilities etc.. But what’s the best fuel cards for trucking companies?

Good question. In this article, we’ll walk you through several steps to help you find the best fuel card for your company and also provide you with a list of the best fuel cards for trucking companies.

Deciding whether or not to fuel with a fuel card really depends on the size and organization of your trucking company. Most small to medium sized trucking companies are organized in the following three ways;

1. Owner Operator: Owns and drives one truck
2. Fleet Owner/Driver: Owns 3 – 10 trucks, manages the company and drives a truck
3. Fleet Owner/Manager: Owns and manages trucks, but does not drive

If you’re an owner operator, go for an owner operator fuel card with the biggest rewards and the least amount of fees or use a credit card that gets you airline miles, cash back, etc. It’s all about saving a little bit of money or stacking up some points for vacation. Who needs fuel controls when you’re managing your own money.

If you land in categories 2 or 3 you need an actual fleet fuel card that can help you control and track your driver’s fuel purchases at the pump because driver credit card misuse or even fuel theft is usually way more costly than any credit cards points that you could ever stack up.

FIND THE RIGHT FUEL CARD FOR YOUR COMPANY WITH THE FLEET FUEL CARD FINDER

There are three main types of fuel cards for trucking companies, universal retail fuel cards, over the road fuel cards, and cardlock fuel cards.

Choose an OTR fuel card if you fuel at one or a few big brand truck stops, an over the road truck stop fuel card will probably provide you with the biggest discounts available while giving you controls at the pump.

OTR fuel cards: Fleet One, Comdata OTR

Choose a universal fuel card if you need to fuel everywhere (retail gas stations, truck stops, mom and pop stores). Universal fuel cards give you fueling controls and reports all the stations you would normally fuel at.

Universal fuel cards: Voyager, WEX, Comdata Mastercard, Fuelman

Choose a cardlock fuel card if your trucks operates in the Western US, cardlock fuel cards are usually the best choice because cardlock cards usually provide the cheapest prices and the most control at commercial fuel stations.

Cardlock fuel cards: CFN, Pacific Pride

For a more detailed, side-by-side comparison of the these fuel cards, check out this article.

Read the fine print. Read the fine print. Read the fine print. I can’t repeat it enough.

You may see a fuel card that advertises 15¢ off per gallon. Sounds like a great deal, right? Then you read the fine print and it says 15¢ per gallon for the first 3 months or up to 1,000 gallons, whatever comes first. Sure it saves you $150 dollars up front, but it’s really not as good of a deal as it sounds.

Also look for fees because they add up quickly, transaction fees, card replacement fees, account maintenance fees, invoice fees, etc.. You’d be surprised how much some companies are paying in fuel card fees every month.