mitigate risk Archives

Impac’s Customer Service: Risk Management

May 23, 201900Articles, Company NewsTags: customer service, Fleet, Fleet Fueling, fuel card limits, Fuel Cards, mitigate risk, risk, risk management

Mitigating risk is a responsibility most employees in a management position will be tasked with handling. Running an automotive fleet company comes with its own risks. Preventative countermeasures protect a company. By enforcing risk management practices, a company can reduce or stop fraudulent behavior.

Risks Associated with the Automotive Fleet Industry

Unauthorized purchases remain the biggest threat to businesses within the automotive fleet industry. Without limits, employees are more likely to partake in fraudulent behavior, like making unnecessary purchases in the convenient store on snacks or other items. Employees might also use the fleet card to fill up their personal vehicles. These risks can be minimized through fuel card limits and restrictions.

Methods of Risk Management in the Automotive Fleet Industry

The first step to proper management within the industry is determining the limits needed for a company’s fuel cards. Impac offers account management services. This service allows Impac representatives to review current limits in place and provide personalized recommendations for a company. The first thing a representative will help decide is whether the card should be attached to a vehicle or employee. From there, restrictions like date or time limits, spending maximums and limits on types of purchases can be implemented to reduce risk.

A 24-hour review of all fleet cards also helps manage risk. Each day, Impac searches a company’s fleet cards and reports any fraudulent behavior to management. Impac also tracks every call, email and case as another form of risk management. With any claim, Impac’s personal support representatives can refer to previous conversations to quickly provide information and solutions.

Mitigating Fleet Risk: How to Set Fuel Card Limits

April 25, 201900Articles, Company NewsTags: Fleet, Fleet Fuel Cards, Fleet Management, fuel card limits, limits, mitigate risk, Purchase controls

Setting fuel card limits can increase business productivity and help mitigate fleet risk. The automotive fleet industry benefits from implementing company regulations on driver purchases. Below are steps to choosing and setting up fuel card limits to best fit a company’s needs.

Determine How to Assign the Fuel Cards

A company can either assign the fleet card to an individual driver or to a vehicle. If employees drive different vehicles each day or a company has high turnover rates, it might be best to assign fuel cards to a vehicle. To do this effectively, the company should assign each employee a unique pin number usable on every company card. This identifies what driver fueled the vehicle registered to the card.

If an employee drives the same vehicle daily, it is best to assign the fuel card to the driver. Assigning the fuel card to a driver allows management to easily monitor spending habits of employees.

Setting Up Fuel Card Controls

Making sure a fuel card has limits set in place keeps drivers from making unnecessary purchases and expenditures. A company can enforce limits to restrict suspicious activity but still allow drivers to travel efficiently.

First, ensure the fuel card is only able to purchase fuel. This keeps employees from purchasing convenience store items with company money.

Other basic fueling controls include gallon or dollar limits per transaction, time of day or day of week, limits number of transactions per day and fuel type. Controls should reflect the needs of a company, giving management to impose stricter or relaxed limits based on employee spending habits.

It is important to note the controls are tied to the driver, regardless of if the card is attached to the driver or vehicle. Management is responsible for enrolling all drivers in the program with correct controls to mitigate risk.

Get Access to Purchase Information

How is the Fleet Industry Changing in the New Year?-Impac

Purchase alerts allow a company to stay updated with a driver’s spending. These alerts send notifications if a driver attempts to make an unauthorized purchase. For example, if a driver tries to purchase more gallons than assigned, Impac’s customer service team notifies management with text and email alerts.

Being able to monitor all purchases online is also crucial. This allows a company to check spending in real time, taking action to increase productivity and cut unnecessary costs.

The Bottom Line

Fuels cards are an easy and effective way to mitigate risks associated with money. At Impac, our comprehensive fuel card program offers customizable limits for fleet companies and notifies managers of unauthorized behavior. Impac’s customer service team helps determine ideal limits of individual companies and customizes restrictions based on need.

In the next article of our series, “How to Run an Efficient Customer Service Department”, you can discover how to implement strategies within the customer service department to increase efficiency.

Mitigating Fleet Risk: What Fuel Card Limits Are Available?

April 5, 201900Articles, Company NewsTags: Fleet, fleet risk, Fuel Card, fuel card limits, mitigate risk, Purchase controls

Fuel cards incorporate security features designed to protect fleet companies against unauthorized activity: purchase controls or limits.

Mitigating Fleet Risk: What Fuel Card Limits Are Available? - Impac

Once a fleet company has determined if the implementation of fuel card limits would be beneficial to their business, they are able to choose the limits that best suit their daily operations.

Setting limits that are satisfactory for the drivers and vehicles that make up a fleet can be a challenging task; if controls are too restrictive, drivers may face delays with lost time and company money as a result. However, if they are too relaxed, vulnerability to internal suspicious activity increases.

Most fuel card programs have various helpful limits available: gallons or dollars allowed per transaction or day, number of transactions per day, authorized fueling times and days, fueling location, fuel only or fuel and maintenance usage, and driver PIN numbers.

Some cards can restrict the fuel or product type that cards can purchase. Product type limits have the ability to prevent unauthorized behavior, as well as to prevent drivers from inadvertently filling the tank with the wrong type of fuel–reducing the risk of maintenance issues down the road.

While utilizing a fuel card can bring significant savings to a fleet company effortlessly, those companies who implemented the limit of restricting the number of gallons or dollars allowed per transaction per day saw an annual savings of at least 6 percent.

When fleet owners begin applying these limits to their cards, they must consider the nature of their business. If all drivers and vehicles have similar needs, one card limit template is acceptable to use for all cards. However, customization by driver or vehicle may be key to defeating unauthorized usage.

At Impac, our comprehensive fuel card program offers customizable limits for fleet companies, including time of day, day of week, purchase amount and fuel type.

In addition, our attentive customer service team notifies fleet managers of unauthorized behavior with real-time text and email alerts, as well as detailed account management.

Whether a business prefers more restrictive or relaxed limits, the purchase limits that are established on fuel cards should fit the unique needs of the fleet. Although there are a number of diverse limits on the market, fleet companies must know how to choose their ideal limits.

In the next article of our series, “How to Set Fuel Card Limits”, you can learn how to effectively choose and implement fuel cards limits that can increase business productivity and help mitigate fleet risk.