Transport companies: control all expenses easily with one smart card

How do you control fuel costs made by drivers when they are on the road, across borders, or even in different time zones? It is a challenge many transport companies face. Asking drivers to pay out of their own pocket leads to frustration, and corporate credit cards require a lot of paperwork. There’s an easier, more efficient way to manage these expenses. 

Sometimes, transport companies can resemble administration offices. Operations and finance departments work overtime to process and check all (fuel) payments. Meanwhile, drivers must pay large sums of money out of pocket to do their jobs, save receipts, fill out forms, and wait to be reimbursed.

To add to these challenges, diesel prices have become a huge issue for transport companies. And according to current fuel monitors, there’s not much hope of improvement.

Paying in cash or with prepaid fuel cards

Fuel payments and other business expenses are often disregarded in favour of operation and logistic improvements.

As a result, too many companies with fleets of over 100 vehicles still allow drivers to pay for fuel themselves or with prepaid fuel cards. However, these debit cards are often restricted and come with a lot of limitations, causing dissatisfaction among drivers. These restrictions also make it difficult to cover overnight stays, road repairs, or parking fees.

This solution doesn’t benefit fleet managers and financial controllers either, and may even put the company at risk. Cash payments can encourage fraud, corporate credit cards are often misused, receipts get lost, and there’s no way to track spending in real time.

Admin hassles

For transport companies, accounting can be complex – even if it’s just about fuel costs. It causes a great deal of frustration among drivers, accountants, fleet managers, and eventually CFOs.

Drivers have trouble managing expenses without having to work overtime on a daily basis. Especially when they’re on the road and have to fill up their vehicles – often across borders and sometimes in other time zones. This admin work involves processing payments, managing cash expenses, and processing claims in the company’s accounting system.

Accountants, fleet managers, operations managers, and even drivers waste too much time on these tasks, all at the expense of productivity. These unproductive hours cost money, and can’t be spent on their ultimate goal: getting from point A to point B.

Drivers must also prove what they have spent in cash, which adds to the hassle. Cash payments are hard to verify, but they keep them going and relieve the administrative burden. Checks may prevent business fraud, but they undermine the trust of those making the payments.

Top 5 benefits of using Soldo

Transport companies such as Titans, Girteka, Gruber Logistics, and Wallenborn all chose Soldo because it offered them at least one of these five advantages:

1. Easy payments for fuel and more

With a smart payment card which drivers can use for fuel as well as other expenses, there’s no need to go out of pocket while on the road. They don’t have to use a business credit card and provide guarantees or collateral in exchange. They charge just as easily for overnight accommodation, repairs and parking costs – even in different geographical locations.

2. Real-time view of costs

Soldo gives accountants, fleet managers and operations managers real-time insight into drivers’ costs while they’re on the road. They get a notification whenever a transaction happens, and can instantly top up drivers with only a few clicks.

3. Flexible spending and limits

Smart payment cards make it possible to set what drivers are allowed to spend in a way that works for you. You can choose what type of expenses employees can make, and where (such as specific merchants of geo-locations). This gives you total control over fuel costs and other business expenses while drivers are in transit, even in different countries.

4. All expenses in one place

You can track and manage all fuel and business expenses at once with the Soldo platform. It shows you all incurred costs in detail, whether costs are rising and where savings opportunities exist. And thanks to our auto-tagging feature, payments will be automatically sorted by category.

5. Increased security

Replacing cash with smart payment cards for expenses greatly reduces the risk of false claims and fraud. Moreover, should employees fail to comply with rules and regulations, you can easily lock their cards to disable spending and switch off cash withdrawals.

Smart payment cards with flexible options

Looking for a way to combine all the benefits of a business credit card with a system that saves you a tonne of admin headaches? Give drivers and other employees a physical card as well as a virtual alternative. Virtual cards are great for ad-hoc and online payments, for instance.

Soldo is the all-in-one management platform your transport company needs. Stay on top of every penny while saving time, and boost employee satisfaction.