Manage Fleet Expenses With Smart Apps and Cards

Money managers talk a lot about how important it is to manage expenses by staying a step ahead of them, but for the trucking industry, managing fleet expenses in real time is critical. Every time a company dispatches a truck, it needs to track those expenses, both outgoing and incoming, as quickly as possible. Analyzing the P&L at the close of every month is possible only if the company has tracked and controlled those daily expenses as well. Fortunately, just like most industries in the world today, the trucking industry has turned to technology for help. Fleet management systems, tools, and apps have become as valuable for tracking fleet expenses as they have for tracking vehicles and locations.

Controlling Funds, Tracking Fuel, Reporting Expenses. There’s an App for That.

Efficient fleet expense management is more than just tracking the costs of drivers and travel. Fleet can also manage their expenses better by actually controlling how and where the money is spent, and in many cases they can do that through a fleet card. Partnering with a company like EFS/WEX that issues the cards and the apps for managing funds can simplify the day-to-day financial management of the company by making it more transparent and way more controlled. Controlling funds, tracking fuel, and reporting expenses — there’s an app for that.

The EFS SmartFunds card is a revolutionary multi-purpose card that conveniently combines both “limit” and “declining balance” transactions within the EFS truck stop network on the same card. The SmartFunds card allows you to securely manage company purchases and driver pay or contractor settlement conveniently on one card. The SmartFunds fleet card offers a way to streamline your administrative procedures by providing your employees and contractors with immediate access to their settlement funds with no waiting for a check. And with the app developed to manage a SmartFunds card, drivers have some control as well. EFS CardControl for EFS SmartFunds® 2.0 is the innovative source that allows your drivers convenient access to their EFS card functions while on the go. This app allows drivers to manage their cards anytime and anywhere from their mobile device.

With EFS CardControl, drivers can:

• Get real-time card balances and recent transaction details
  
• Register checks
  
• Manage their EFS SmartFunds
  
• Transfer funds to external bank accounts
  
• Find fuel prices and locations based on a specific location (e.g., location of their mobile device)
  
• Find fuel prices and locations by route. Download the app from the Apple App Store or Google Play. While the app is free for the public to download, users must be a current EFS customer with a valid and active EFS card number and PIN to use this app.
  

Fuel Reporting App Provides Control and Savings

The WEX Fuel Audit tool can also provide a way to control your fleet expenses by understanding your fuel spend. Leveraging your transaction data will give fleet managers greater transparency and visibility so they can better manage and control the industry’s second largest variable expense. The fuel audit app will save valuable time auditing and reconciling fuel spend with real-time reporting and analysis. Additionally, it will help to improve driver performance with KPI tracking and reporting, plus mobile fuel price discovery and optimization tools.

Features Include:

• Web based – no software needed

• Discount reconciliation

• Individual transaction verification

• Mobile fuel price discovery and optimization

• Full purchase reporting

• Key Performance Indicator tracking

• Driver compliance reporting

• Benchmarking and competitive analysis

Electronic Expense Reporting Streamlines Fleet Expense Management

Finally, with electronic fleet expense reporting, fleet managers and drivers alike can streamline travel expenses with a robust electronic reporting and reconciliation program.

1. Control costs with an automated workflow process

2. Reduce risk with real-time transaction visibility

3. Gain visibility and insight into spend data analytics

Consolidate fleet T&E expenses, P-card purchases, and other corporate expenses into an online expense reporting tool. Electronic expense reporting software reduces manual processes company-wide through data consolidation and workflow automation, resulting in an efficient and affordable program. Online solutions like the one from WEX/EFS provide the following advantages:

•  Intuitive and web-based program

• Configure to fit company business rules
• Auto-populate expense reports with corporate card data
• Attach scanned receipts to corresponding expense reports for easy accessibility

• Reduce cost and effort of processing expense reports

• Enhance productivity with workflow automation

• Improve compliance and communication

Management, accounting departments, executives, and cardholders gain visibility to all spend, including out-of-pocket expenses. The program allows approvers to be set up at each level, and to pull a variety of accounting and transaction detail reports. The executive dashboard provides insight into key spend metrics for purchasing pattern analytics.

Combined with the expense management reporting solutions, a WEX fleet card will provide an even more comprehensive fleet expense management solution. The WEX Fleet Card is the fastest way for a growing business to drive real savings, with automatic accounting and reports, controls on employee spending, purchase alerts, and available rewards.

• Accepted at 95% of U.S. fuel stations
• Automatic accounting
• Detailed custom reports
• Advanced spending controls
• Online and mobile account access
• Purchase alerts
• Available rewards

Clearly, managing expenses in the trucking industry has come a long way. Technology that enables expense management and tracking in real time is not only streamlining the process, saving time and money, but also allowing more focus and effort on a vision for the future brought about by even more technology.

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