Fuel Cards
fuelGenie
A Guide To fuelGenie Fuel Cards
Fuel cards are the go-to solution for many businesses throughout the UK. They solve many of the most common problems and time sinks that occur when operating a fleet—a lot of paperwork, little-to-no traceability, and no accountability. By using fuel cards to keep your fleet running, you are able to monitor driver activity, save money on fuel costs, avoid being a victim of fraud, and ensure that your fleet operates at the highest levels of efficiency.
Thanks to these benefits, fuel cards have grown massively in popularity throughout recent years. Today, virtually every medium-to-large business and most small businesses use them to keep their fleets running.
When your business is using the right business fuel card (whether that be a fuelGenie Fuel Card or one from another provider) its administrative workload becomes a lot more streamlined and many of the hassles associated with fleet management are eliminated. This is especially beneficial for larger fleets where a lot of vehicles form part of it.
The fuelGenie Fuel Card is one of several fuel card options available to businesses. In this guide, we are going to take a look at it in-depth so that you can learn more about it.
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About fuelGenie
fuelGenie is owned and operated by Worldline IT Services UK Limited, working with Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s. Worldline IT Services Limited has been operating fuel card programmes for the UK’s leading supermarkets for 17 years. Worldline IT Services UK Limited specialises in creating platforms that handle commercial transactions.
fuelGenie provides its own fuelGenie Fuel Card in partnership with these supermarkets. This makes the fuelGenie Fuel Card one of the country’s leading supermarket fuel cards, providing access to all their forecourts and then some.
About the fuelGenie Fuel Card
Whilst UK businesses have a huge number of options when it comes to fuel card providers, this guide is going to focus on the fuelGenie Fuel Card. It is a very popular choice amongst businesses both small and large nationwide, and many supermarkets use fuelGenie to provide their ‘own’ fuel cards.
Businesses with a fleet of vehicles can benefit hugely by using the fuelGenie Fuel Card. No matter the fleet’s size, the company’s partnership with prominent UK supermarkets means that fleet drivers are never far from their closest fuelling station.
But First, what is a Fuel Card?
It is important to know the fundamentals of a fuel card before looking at the different providers and seeing what they have to offer. At a basic level, all fuel cards are virtually the same and provide the same services.
A fuel card, sometimes called a ‘fleet card’, is a payment product that lets fleet drivers purchase fuel for the vehicles that they drive as part of their jobs. Business operators are free to dictate when fuel cards can be used so long as purchases are strictly fuel related.
Just like with any other fuel card brand, the fuelGenie Fuel Card is a payment product that looks virtually identical to other payment cards such as credit cards and store cards. The difference between a fuelGenie Fuel Card and a regular payment card, however, is that a fuel card can only be used for fuel and related purchases at a select range of service stations. The stations where a fuel card can be used depends entirely on the fuel card brand.
With a fuelGenie Fuel Card, your fleet drivers can fill up their fleet vehicles as normal and then use their card to ‘pay’ for what is drawn from the pump. Periodically, you will be sent an invoice with a total figure for all fuel drawn between two dates, plus VAT. This single figure HMRC-friendly invoice is one of the many ways that fuel cards simplify the administrative side of fleet management.
How Do Fuel Cards Work?
All fuel cards are fundamentally the same and work in the same way—a payment card that is used for fuel-related purchases.
Typically, a fuel card is printed with your company’s information and the information of the driver or vehicle (or both) to which it is assigned. Fuel cards also have their own magnetic strip, signature strip, and chip for PIN code authentication.
The fuelGenie Fuel Card, like most other providers’ fuel cards, also comes with its own online management tool that can be used to manage fleet cards, order and cancel them, view invoices and current spend, and see fuel usage in real-time.
Where Can My Drivers Use a fuelGenie Fuel Card?
One of the best things about the fuelGenie Fuel Card is that it is, first and foremost, a supermarket fuel card. This means that it can be used at a huge number of supermarket forecourts nationwide.
At the time of writing, the fuelGenie Fuel Card can be used at Morrisons, Tesco, and Sainsbury’s forecourts—around 1,370 in total in the UK. fuelGenie even provides an online tool that can be used to find the nearest petrol station that accepts their card.
The fuelGenie Fuel Card is perfect for businesses that operate in more rural areas and localities on account of its forecourt access. This is because supermarket forecourts are more common in and around cities and local areas rather than on the motorway network. No matter which city your drivers are operating in, they will never be too far off a supermarket forecourt that takes the fuelGenie Fuel Card.
fuelGenie Fuel Cards also come with many benefits. In addition to the more ‘general’ benefits that we will cover below, there are several specific benefits for your business when your drivers use a fuelGenie Fuel Card:
Supermarket Loyalty Points
By using the fuelGenie Fuel Card, your drivers can collect loyalty points from supermarkets where they purchase their fuel. This provides a benefit to your drivers who will not only be helping your business save money, but also earning points on their Tesco Clubcards, Sainsburys Nectar Cards, and Morrisons More Cards.
HMRC-Friendly Invoicing
Save valuable time and resources by not having to collect and process your paper receipts. fuelGenie Fuel Cards work through a simple invoicing system where you are sent a single HMRC-approved invoice periodically. This makes both payments and VAT reclaiming incredibly simple.
Unlimited Free Cards
Unlike with some providers, you do not have to pay a fee for your fuelGenie Fuel Cards. They are completely free, and you can have an unlimited number on your company’s fuelGenie account. Plus, no transaction fees or card fees are payable, either.
General Benefits of Using a fuelGenie Fuel Card
There are lots of general benefits associated with not just the fuelGenie Fuel Card, but other fuel cards, too.
1. Your business will save time on fleet admin
Fleet management involves a whole lot. This can very easily turn into a major time sink when it is not managed properly, and this time translates directly to money. Therefore, it is important that business operators do all they can to streamline the administrative burden that their fleets create. One way to do this is through the use of a fuel card like the fuelGenie Fuel Card.
When fleet drivers use your fleet cards instead of their own cash, personal payment methods, or company cards, this eliminates the need for yourself and your admin staff to spend hours processing receipts, calculating expenditure, and checking to make sure everything is right and that nobody’s fiddled anything.
All data that is captured by your fuel cards is stored online for you to view at any time, too. This means that you can keep an eye on fuel spend and ensure that your drivers are staying on task and are not deviating from their planned routes.
2. Your business will save money on fuel
The use of fuel cards often leads to savings on fuel purchases. This is because fuel card providers offer favourable rates to their customers and are known for rewarding their customers through the likes of fixed pricing, competitive rates, and bulk discounts. These vary from provider-to-provider.
Supermarket fuel cards like the fuelGenie Fuel Card provide extra savings, though. This is because supermarkets buy their fuel in bulk at wholesale prices and pass the savings on to you (the customer) instead of pocketing an inflated margin. This often means that supermarkets have the lowest pricing anywhere on the market.
3. Your business will benefit from tracking and fraud protection
The fuelGenie Fuel Card comes with its own online fleet management facility. Using this, you are able to monitor and track your fleet in real-time and see information such as fuel usage and spend, fuel efficiency, driver mileage, and recent transactions, amongst other things.
fuelGenie Fuel Cards also offer an extra layer of protection against fraud. This is because fuel cards can only be used to make payments towards fuel and fuel-related products either by a specified person or for a specified vehicle.
This means that it is impossible for unscrupulous drivers to ‘fiddle’ with their fuel transactions and add on extras that wouldn’t be caught through the traditional method of using a general payment method and then putting in an expenses claim.
Choosing the Right Fuel Card for Your Business
Though all fuel cards are fundamentally the same, their finer details often differ, and this means that a fuel card that works for one business may not work well for you. If your drivers spend the majority of their time on the motorway network, for instance, they would be better served by a non-supermarket card such as a Shell fuel card, BP fuel card or Esso fuelcard.
This is why comparing business fuel cards against one another is so important – it ensures you settle on the right one for your company.
Compare the fuelGenie Fuel Card Today
Why not compare the fuelGenie Fuel Card alongside a huge range of other ones? This way, you will see for yourself which one will provide your business with the best value for money, amongst other things.
The fuelGenie Fuel Card can be found and compared against others through the iCompario website. iCompario is operated by fuel card experts with over 30 years’ industry experience. By using their clever tool, you can quickly compare the fuelGenie fuel card alongside a range of cards from other providers. iCompario’s fuel card experts are also on-hand to help should you need it.
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