Matt Herr
7 min read
Unfortunately, carriers are seeing a rise in fuel fraud and are forced to spend significant time tracking and verifying fuel expenses. Back office fuel management and International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) accounting requirements mean that larger fleets spend sometimes dozens of hours per month simply reconciling fuel purchases.
Rich Taute, vice president of sales and strategy at QuikQ, joined Loaded and Rolling host Thomas Wasson to talk about what technologies and tactics can prevent fuel fraud and simplify back office fuel management processes.
Traditionally, most fleets provide their drivers with fuel cards to manage purchases on the road. These fuel cards are one way to simplify payments and expense accounting, but some systems are prone to abuse and exploitations. The rise in fuel fraud has led to significant losses in the past few years.
“While we have a traditional fuel card product, we’re also excited to talk about our cardless solutions, especially SmartQ RFID,” Taute said. “We’ve spent the last twelve months helping carriers mitigate fraud, and one of the most effective ways we’ve been able to combat fraud is through our RFID technology.”
SmartQ RFID works similarly to the toll tags that many trucks use to be able to pass through toll stations. QuikQ utilizes that same concept with SmartQ RFID to turn on the dispenser at the fuel pump and tie each transaction to a particular asset.
“This technology is very simple and secure,” Taute said. “In sixteen years, we’ve never had a single fraudulent transaction using our RFID payment instrument.”
Over the past twelve months, the QuikQ operations team and finance team have been working hard in the field to get these payment instruments to carriers, and Taute says those efforts have been immensely helpful in reducing fraud for customers.
“This is a great solution for you if you’ve ever experienced fraud,” Taute said. “If you haven’t, you’re honestly fortunate, as bad actors are actively targeting less secure payment methods.”
In many documented incidents, drivers and scammers have swiped fuel cards at the pump to let other trucks refuel for a cash exchange. SmartQ RFID technology prevents that kind of instance from occurring in the first place.
“Once that RFID tag disengages from the antenna, we’ll turn the dispenser off no matter if the pump is still running or not,” Taute said. “That way, drivers can’t defraud their carrier by fueling up another truck.”
An ELD solution will only verify whether a truck is at the truck stop, but can’t control a fuel station’s pumps. “Those solutions are safer than nothing, but only an RFID tag attached to our pump can really accurately account for fuel going into the correct asset,” Taute said.
