Financial fraud costs organizations approximately 5% of their revenues annually. If that’s true for your fleet fuel card spend, how much money are you losing? With the Motive Card’s fraud control, and its new SMS unlock feature, you can cut the risk of fraudulent card transactions.

Before we dive into how the Motive Card can reduce risk and help prevent fraud, we need to understand what a fleet fuel card is and why businesses choose to use them.

What is a fleet fuel card?

Fleet fuel cards are a popular way for businesses to allow drivers or other employees to purchase fuel on the road while getting discounts. Some also allow cardholders to pay for vehicle maintenance at accepted locations. You might also be able to make convenience store purchases or charge transactions at other merchants (often within a pre-approved network).

These cards are designed to cut operational inefficiency by simplifying fleet and fuel spend management. Unlike credit cards, fleet charge cards must be paid in full by the end of the billing cycle. 

Fleet cards can also contribute to employee retention by making it easier for cardholders to make purchases without having to file expense reports and wait for reimbursement at a later date.

Cut your fraud risk

You’re probably familiar with the fraud prevention features of consumer credit cards, which help protect cardholders from the financial fallout due to lost or stolen cards, fraudulent purchases, and identity theft. Fleet cards often have similarprotection because fleets face many of the same challenges. A driver’s card can be lost or stolen or a fleet manager may notice charges that seem out of place or potentially fraudulent.

Fleets also battle fuel shrinkage (a nicer way of saying theft). It’s estimated that shrinkage accounts for between 5% and 10% of a fleet’s annual consumption. That’s a big hit when the national average for diesel fuel was $4.68 per gallon on February 1, 2023.

Fleet cards can help managers catch fraudulent charges and shrinkage while reducing the time spent each week auditing outlier transactions to identify theft after the fact. Fleet cards like the Motive Card come with data-driven, proactive defenses — fraud detection and controls — to stop fuel theft before it happens.

Adding Fraud Controls to the Motive Card

We’re always listening to our customers and evolving our products to better suit business needs. That’s why we’ve launched a new product feature to help secure your fleet fuel card transactions. With other cards, if the charge card falls into the wrong hands, and someone knows the PIN, they can make purchases. Motive adds a layer of card security by requiring the user to have their assigned phone plus identity verification via four-digit code in order to unlock the card. 

This additional text message security feature can help reduce fraud and unapproved spend. With only cardholders or fleet managers able to unlock cards with their assigned phone, unauthorized users can’t make purchases without the card details, phone, and phone PIN verification. 

How it works

Fleet administrators first enable Fraud controls for the Motive Cards in their fleet. Setup will require cardholder phone numbers. Once enabled, the Motive cards are locked by default and cardholders get notified that they now need to unlock their card before use. 

Before attempting purchases, the cardholder must send an SMS to Motive from their registered phone to unlock their card. Adding this layer of security requires physical Motive Card data as well as the cardholder’s phone, helping us to validate the cardholders’ identity. Once cardholders verify their identity, the card will unlock and be available for transactions for the next 30 minutes, after which the card gets automatically locked.

Connect fleet and spend management. Uncover new ways to save.

Motive also helps simplify spend management with an all-in-one platform. Fleets of all sizes can maximize savings using discounts offered with your Motive Card, with diesel discounts averaging more than 20c/gal at premier partners Love’s and TA, and other big discounts at vendors like Casey’s and Road Ranger. You can also enjoy discounts on maintenance and tires (e.g. Boss Truck Shops, FlowBelow).

Motive also boosts fleet fuel card security and reduces unauthorized spend by integrating spend management and fleet telematics data in a single platform. Managers can set up spend controls and detect fuel theft more easily. You can:

• Compare purchased gallons with fuel level changes to make sure any fuel purchased goes into your vehicle. 
• Review telematics GPS data against transaction location to identify potential fraud. 
• Update limits and controls in real time to temporarily authorize one-off or emergency purchases.

Additionally, the all-in-one view of fleet spend data helps optimize operations and save time by automating tasks like IFTA reporting in a few clicks. If you ever need support, you can reach a Motive product specialist 24/7.

Fraud control security features help you protect your business and minimize financial risk. Confirming the cardholder’s identity before allowing a transaction is just the latest way Motive supports your efforts. Learn more about our fleet fuel card and how it compares to our competitors. Apply for your Motive Card and get a response within three days.