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Trucking fleet

Avoid fleet card skimming with two-factor authentication

August 14, 2024

With the trucking industry experiencing an increase in skimming, fleet managers are on the hunt for additional fleet card security features. Skimming occurs when illegally installed devices on fuel pumps, point-of-sale (POS) terminals, or ATMs record the cardholders’ personal identification numbers (PINs) or capture data. The skimmers – the criminals behind these scams – then use the data to create fake credit or debit cards and ultimately steal from victims’ accounts. Unfortunately, skimmers are getting smarter, and their efforts are getting more sophisticated.

Fuel fraud results in a substantial loss of revenue each year for all kinds of fleets. Commercial driving companies experience significant economic losses annually— with 5%-10% of a fleet’s annual fuel consumption lost to theft or misallocation.

Dealing with fraud can be especially challenging for smaller fleets – and those without a dedicated IT team – to beat back the efforts of skimmers. About 1.2 million fleet and trucking companies operate within the United States, and 91% of these companies own six or fewer vehicles. With small and medium-sized businesses dominating American fleet services, improved technology from WEX can help your trucking business combat this rise in fraud.

Use improved technology and increase fleet card security and savings

Skimming isn’t the only type of fuel fraud causing concern for fleet managers. The misuse of fleet cards by employees, or the unauthorized use of a lost or stolen card, can quickly add up to thousands of dollars in stolen revenue. Having the right security controls in place is a must.

Dynamic Prompt uses two-factor authentication technology to increase fleet card security and savings

Fuel fraud can present itself in a variety of forms that can be hard to catch, ultimately creating significant costs for the fleet owner. WEX has designed a feature – Dynamic Prompt – that provides an extra layer of security through two-factor authentication on fleet cards in order to help reduce fraudulent transactions. Using this new feature helps keep accounts safe and helps mitigate disruption to cards or drivers when cards are shut off as a result of fraudulent activity.

Dynamic Prompt minimizes the threat of fraudulent activity with two-factor authentication, creating an additional barrier to prevent skimmers from being successful. This security feature helps you avoid disruption to your business and keeps your drivers moving.

Log into e-manager to learn more about Dynamic Prompt two-factor authentication from WEX.

Additional fleet card security features with SecureFuel

SecureFuel technology from WEX can be added to many of the WEX-issued trucking (over-the-road) fleet cards. This technology provides greater fleet card control, gives fleet managers sophisticated data reporting and telematics features, catches fraudulent uses, and helps to prevent misuse.

SecureFuel technology delivers innovation to the fleet card industry

WEX’s SecureFuel technology – which doesn’t require any hardware – integrates with a truck’s built-in telematics data to monitor fueling transactions in real time, creating many more ways to keep an eye on trucks in the fleet. With the continued fluctuations in fuel prices, protecting a fleet’s overall fuel spend remains a top priority.

When a driver attempts to purchase fuel using his/her fleet card, the SecureFuel technology checks the truck’s location and tank level before securely authorizing the purchase. By combining telematics with fleet card transaction data, the WEX SecureFuel technology identifies any unauthorized purchases or misuse, and companies can choose to be notified immediately of the incident, or even decline the transaction.

WEX’s SecureFuel technology provides ECM reconciliation and protects against skimming

By combining truck telematics with fleet card transaction data to pinpoint suspicious transactions in real time – and by providing a report on the vehicle’s proximity and tank level after fuel purchases – WEX SecureFuel can quickly find purchase irregularities and trigger an alert to your fleet manager. SecureFuel is one of the industry’s only solutions that uses the truck’s engine control module (ECM); no additional hardware is needed. Plus, as a broadly accepted solution, SecureFuel technology works at more than 16,000 truck stops across the United States.

If Dynamic Prompt is not used, SecureFuel also provides protection against the impacts of skimming by monitoring where the truck is in real time compared to where it was fueled up. If the legitimate truck is not at the fueling location, SecureFuel will send an alert to the fleet manager who can then disable or shut off the card.

Learn more about SecureFuel from WEX.

For trucker stories and information on how to better manage your trucking fleet, visit:

All fleet cards are not the same, and different types of fuel cards suit the needs of different kinds and sizes of businesses. View WEX’s fleet card comparison chart to see which fleet fuel card is right for you.

Apply for a fleet card today

Resources:
Forbes
Gitnux
Truckinfo.net

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