Fuel Cards for Business Use

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Fuel cards can be a great way for field service-based businesses to manage fuel expenses and provide a variety of other benefits to their drivers. Business fuel cards can save money, increase security, improve efficiency, and provide more specific information that will help guide your business practices. Getting and using fuel cards for your field service business is, simply put, good common sense for field service businesses of any size. Let’s look more closely at how using fuel cards can provide several benefits to your business.

Exactly how do fuel cards work?

Fuel cards are a simple tool to use for the drivers in your fleet. In a few easy steps, your driver is fueled up and back on the road. The driver simply:

Arrives at a fuel station that is in the card’s network
Fuels up
Presents the fuel card and mileage information to the merchant
Has the card swiped and authorized
Signs for the purchase
Gets back to the job at hand

It’s a simple and intuitive process that offers ease of use to your drivers while providing multiple benefits to your business.

What Are the Benefits of Using Business Fuel Cards?

With fuel prices being unpredictable, using fuel cards for your business is not only a better way to manage those expenses but can also save money, increase security, promote efficiency, and automate the accounting process.

Saving Money

One of the most significant benefits of using fuel cards is that they provide a discount on fuel when used at vendors within the card network. If your business has vehicles on the road, there’s no doubt fuel cost is at the forefront of your mind. With uncontrollable increases and decreases at the pump creating unpredictable fuel prices, a reliable means of savings is a serious benefit.

No doubt, the benefits of saving money on every fuel purchase is a significant perk. Who doesn’t want to save on one of the biggest line item expenses of their business? With the average savings ranging from one to five cents per gallon, the savings can add up quickly. Ever-expanding networks of fuel vendors make finding stations where you can get these discounts easier and easier to do with each passing year. And with more cards offering fuel rebates, options for savings continue to grow.

Fuel cards are also a more secure way of handling your biggest business expense. Providing more security for your drivers, and added protection for your business, fuel cards extend additional security for everyone. They eliminate the need for drivers to carry around large sums of cash or make withdrawals from ATMs. Without pockets full of cash, drivers are no longer the targets they once were.

Fuel cards also reduce or eliminate potential fraud or misuse of funds. Driver IDs can be connected to each card, giving you the ability to monitor their individual spending. With the ability to set purchase limits and location limits, unauthorized spending and questionable transactions are now a thing of the past. Providing extra security for your employees and your business becomes automatic and passive with the fuel cards of today.

When time is money, getting drivers back on the road faster literally translates to money in your pocket. Utilizing fuel cards provides a more efficient way of managing one of your most significant expenses. Instead of employees using credit cards or cash to purchase fuel and then submitting receipts for expense reimbursement, the whole process is handled in a one-step transaction. This speedy system for fueling up gets drivers back to the task at hand. No more running down receipts, verifying totals, and cutting expense checks to each of your drivers.

Automating the accounting process adds another level of convenience and efficiency to the field service-based business you operate. Data from each transaction is automatically collected through field service management software and supplied to your accounting department for expense reporting. At a glance, you will know the who, when, and where of each fuel expenses.

Add to that the ability to automate mileage tracking for your fleet, and the efficiency raises exponentially. Tapping into this fuel data can help manage budgets, improve driver performance, and spot inconsistencies, especially when paired with fleet GPS tracking.

The result? More time for you to focus on managing your business instead of managing your numbers! It’s like having a personal assistant in your back pocket.

Choosing a fuel card for your business

So, how do you go about picking a card that is right for you? The first step is understanding which perks and benefits are available to you. The second step is understanding which of those perks and benefits provides the most positive impact to your business.

With growing competition among vendors, these offerings become more significant every day. Fuel rebates, carrying a balance, mobile tracking, and 24/7 customer service are just some of the services available to fuel card users. Comparing the options among business fuel cards allows you to hone in on those that make the most sense for you and your business goals. With so many options, you are sure to find one that fits your needs.

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Fleet Dispatching

Dispatch software is a lifesaver when it comes to organizing your dispatch process and keeping operations streamlined. It offers a variety of features that make daily procedures so much easier, from fleet tracking to reports that help businesses make decisions. What features does dispatch software offer, and how do these features benefit fleets? We will break this down for you.

Assign and Monitor Jobs

It is easy to assign and monitor jobs with dispatch software because it uses fleet tracking. Fleet tracking allows you to assign jobs to crews in the field. If you need a lead technician for a job, it’s simple to attach that lead tech to any job you need. You can even sort jobs based on their status, whether they’re one-time, recurring, or multi-day, or based on urgency.

When workers finish jobs, they can mark the job as complete on their end. This way, you can know when each job concludes and when your technician moves on to their next task.

Easier Communication

Back and forth calls between technicians and managers are no longer a problem. With dispatch software, you simply input the job you want your technicians to address. Your technicians access it from their phones and know what to do from there. When they’re done, they can mark it complete and view their next job right away. They can track their time, update their schedules, and input notes all while on the go. Everything you need to know will be on your screen when you need to know it, no need to track the information down.

Improve Customer Service

Dispatch software can improve your business’s customer service reputation in a variety of ways. Firstly, GPS tracking allows for route optimization software, which gets your technicians to their destinations quickly and efficiently. No more late technicians making your customers wait. Furthermore, dispatch software allows you to assign technicians to customers they already know, building an improved relationship with your business. And with all of your customer information in one place, it’s easy to respond to disputes and issues in a timely and personal manner.

All of your client and order information is available in a field service CRM that details everything you need to know about your customers and the jobs you’ve done for them.

How to Get Dispatch Software

Azuga offers state-of-the-art dispatch software that your business is sure to benefit from every single day. These benefits will improve your fleet’s daily operations, boost customer service, and maximize productivity among your workers. These features and more bring your fleet to its maximum potential, allowing you to focus on making important decisions to help the business grow and thrive. Find out everything you can do with dispatch software by trying out a free demo today. You’re certain to be impressed with the improvements.

Multi-Drop Route Planning

A multi-drop route planner is a process that plans a route for a driver to make more than two deliveries in multiple locations. It uses vehicle routing software to collect and analyze thousands of data points and determine the best delivery route. This route planning software can plan, re-route, and reschedule without causing any danger to the driver, environment, or business. It considers many factors, such as the number of distribution centers, warehouses, or residential areas a driver has to visit, resource availability, and driver safety.

How Does Multi-Drop Route Planning Work?

The route optimization software tracks the vehicle while factoring in when deliveries need to arrive. Of course, a human being should ensure that everything has been planned out properly, but the process should be automatic. Both this person and the system should look at distances, travel time, and fuel consumption.

Once a route is set, the route optimization software compiles data to choose the best vehicle and driver depending on the delivery. It uses data based on the route and the client’s needs. At this point, it also considers the driver’s hours and weather conditions to determine how much time is needed. These systems need to work in real-time to ensure that managers and clients can connect with up-to-date information.

Benefits of Multi-Drop Route Planning

There are various benefits to multi-drop route planning. It maximizes productivity, keeps fuel costs low, promotes driver safety, and helps businesses stay compliant with federal driver hour regulations. Your business will save money by using its drivers effectively and not using as much fuel.

Where to Get Multi-Drop Route Planning Software

If you’re looking for this software, you don’t need to search any further! Azuga’s route optimization software allows for multiple stops. It provides the best routes based on historical data, traffic conditions, weather conditions, and machine learning that helps it create the best routes for you in real-time. See what you can do with route planning software by trying out a demo today!

Fleet Dispatching

If you manage a fleet, you probably already understand the delicate dance that is fleet dispatching. If not, you may not realize just how crucial this process is to the success of any fleet-based business.

What Is Fleet Dispatching?

Simply put, fleet dispatching is the process by which commercial fleet drivers are sent out into the field to make deliveries, service customers, and handle other business-related tasks. But it involves so much more than simply telling drivers, “you go there.” Good fleet dispatching may also involve considerations for traffic conditions, road hazards, driver skill sets, customer preferences, and onboard equipment. When done correctly, it’s a skillful juggling act that helps a business reach its daily goals. When poorly handled, it can be a disaster for all concerned.

What Is a Fleet Dispatcher?

A fleet dispatcher is a person in charge of scheduling and arranging dispatch for a commercial fleet. Small fleets may have a single dispatcher to manage all calls, while larger enterprise fleets may employ an entire team.

A fleet dispatcher must clearly understand schedules and routes, job proficiencies, fuel management, fleet maintenance, and regulations related to hours of service and other fleet compliance issues. A good fleet dispatcher knows the drivers in the fleet well and can anticipate their scheduling needs and which jobs they are most suited to handle. Fleet dispatchers must be masters of communication and have elite organizational skills.

Fleet Dispatch Software from Azuga

Fleet dispatching is as much an art as a science, and it can be overwhelming at times. The best way to support the fleet dispatchers on your team is to give them tools and technology that make the job easier. Fortunately, Azuga offers the answers to all of your fleet dispatching conundrums.

Our GPS Fleet Tracking software can keep track of all the vehicles in your fleet along with large equipment and other assets. Dispatchers can use this information to see which vehicles are nearby when a job pops up. What’s more, we offer top-notch route optimization tools to help guide drivers around road construction, accidents, and other hazards that might prevent them from getting to their destination on time. We can even help you schedule routine maintenance, promote road safety, and automatically deliver dispatch notifications to drivers in the field.

Learn about all the ways Azuga Fleet can help your commercial fleet stay productive and efficient while simplifying maintenance schedules and creating a culture of safety on the road. Schedule an Azuga demo today!