Introduction

In Europe, fuel cards often have stringent eligibility criteria which prohibit small business customers from applying. This exempts small businesses from benefitting from fuel cost savings and ease of monitoring offered by commercial fuel cards. This brief identifies and profiles those oil-company branded and independent cards which are suitable for small fleet customers in Europe.

Features and benefits

• Assess your competitive position by identifying which competing cards in Europe can be used by small fleet customers.
• Judge which cards should be accepted at your forecourts to attract small fleets by learning about relevant oil-company branded and independent cards.
• Develop product ideas by gaining insights into features and benefits of other commercial fuel cards applicable for small businesses.
• Understand which additional services you should provide to gain a competitive advantage by looking at most common and unique card services.

Highlights

Some fuel card issuers exclude very small business customers by imposing a minimum fuel consumption limit. However, independent issuers including CSC Group do not have any such requirement, making their cards suitable for all types of customers, independent of fuel spend and number of fleet vehicles.

Few fuel card issuers provide a fuel card exclusively for small business customers. Aral and TOTAL provide fuel cards that are applicable only for businesses with up to five or six vehicles.

Large fuel card issuers use card re-issuers as a key channel to reach out to small customers. Be Fuelcards is an exclusive fuel card re-issuer for BP and sells the BP Bunker Card and BP Plus Card to small business customers including those with only one vehicle. The cards are available for a one-time charge/fee.

Your key questions answered

• Which commercial fuel cards are suitable for small business customers and what fee and discounts are applicable?
• What are the various features and benefits of fuel cards valid for small customers? Can they be used to pay for shop products and other services?
• How do relevant fuel cards compare against each other in terms of on the road services, security features, management control and reporting?
• At how many sites can each of the identified fuel cards suitable for small business customers be used?