NEW YORK — Fleet expense management firm RoadFlex has launched an artificial intelligence-powered program that company officials say delivers comprehensive fuel risk management and fuel tracking capabilities, saving fleet operators an average of 11% in fuel spend annually.
It’s called the Proactive Fuel Risk Management Platform.
“Fuel theft, fuel fraud and fuel card misuse are common in the transportation industry,” stated a news release from RoadFlex. “According to the Shell Fraud Matters report, over 86% of fleet managers believe there is fraud in their fleets. This often accounts for between 10-15% of a fleet’s fuel costs, which can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. This challenge is often exacerbated by outdated technology solutions, poor spending controls and lack of visibility into real-time fleet expenses.”
Even though large incumbent companies currently serve fleet-operating companies with fuel cards, these do not effectively address fuel risk management. In recent years, fleets have increasingly demanded enhanced card controls and more comprehensive fraud prevention features.
RoadFlex’s new technology combines real-time vehicle telematics data with transaction data to eliminate fuel fraud and fuel theft, the news release notes.
RoadFlex’s software platform grants fleet managers full visibility into every purchase and customizable spending controls for different employees and job needs. It authorizes purchases by verifying that the card is used by the correct employee and for the correct vehicle and blocks suspicious transactions and flags them for review — all in real time.
For example, the fleet director of a commercial utility services company could receive an alert if a driver is trying to purchase $100 more of fuel than he’s allowed to in a day, automatically decline a transaction if the purchase is too far away from the vehicle location, or automatically decline a purchase if the driver added non-fuel items to a transaction at Shell or Exxon gas station.
Led by veterans from the fleet telematics industry, RoadFlex works with thousands of businesses that operate fleets and field personnel such as trucking companies, utilities, pest control, HVAC, construction and last-mile delivery.
“With the RoadFlex platform, our customers get real time 360-view of their fuel spend per vehicle and driver,” said Rush Akin, chief revenue officer at RoadFlex. “We enable fleets to become more data-connected through seamless integrations with fleet management software, accounting tools, and telematics solutions. This facilitates the streamlining of financial operations through comprehensive fuel risk management, savings automation, and real-time fleet analytics.”
Born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and raised in East Texas, John Worthen returned to his home state to attend college in 1998 and decided to make his life in The Natural State. Worthen is a 20-year veteran of the journalism industry and has covered just about every topic there is. He has a passion for writing and telling stories. He has worked as a beat reporter and bureau chief for a statewide newspaper and as managing editor of a regional newspaper in Arkansas. Additionally, Worthen has been a prolific freelance journalist for two decades, and has been published in several travel magazines and on travel websites.
