Each successive rise in oil and fuel prices makes the commodity a more attractive target for fuel thieves. Whether it is petty theft at the pump or organised theft from bunkered fuel in storage depots the damage to a company’s operating profits can be alarming.If employees are less than honest petty theft at the fuel pump, whether by additional fuel for a family vehicle or consumer items purchased on the company’s credit card, can slip through the accounting system unnoticed.
To help Operators meet this threat fuelcard companies are taking positive steps to limit the opportunities when theft can occur. One such company is abbey Fuelcards who are leading the way with a series of well-considered initiatives aimed at reducing the financial loss caused by theft or loss of the card and limiting the misuse of the card by the cardholder.
Steve Clarke, Sales and Marketing Manager for abbey Fuelcards Ltd, explains; ' We understand only too well the misuse to which a normal fuel card can be put and we have worked hard to provide safeguards with the abbey Fuelcard to minimize the risk to the Operator.
Our service is designed so that we can warn customers if the card is being used to draw more than a given amount of fuel; our customers can set their own notification parameters as to time-of-day-limits on withdrawals and the amount withdrawn.
We contact customers who have not used their cards for a period to ensure that the card has not been mislaid. Our cards can be set for diesel purchase only. Should the card be lost, we offer the option of zero liability insurance from the moment loss is reported ensuring that the customer does not have to meet an unexpected and large fraudulent fuel bill.
There are additional safeguards such as allocation of the card to a particular vehicle, a 24/7 free phone automated ‘stop service’ for lost or stolen cards, online account management that allows the Operator to analyse daily drawings on the cards and protection by chip and pin technology.
We are doing everything in our power to make the abbey Fuelcard the first choice for operators looking for a secure and competitive system of fuel payment throughout the UK.'