Anyone who does delivery work knows how important it is to be able to refuel quickly and easily. Access to infrastructure and quick-use products can make the difference between completing a job comfortably on time and under budget, and racking up costs.
While a lot of providers focus on building and renovating stations, other companies are coming up with innovative ways to improve the refuelling process for hauliers. One is AS 24, which is making changes with its new fuel cards. Read on to learn more.
Flexible Fuel Cards
AS 24 is already a leading provider of European toll badges, and it knows a lot about the demands of delivery work across the continent. This has allowed it to develop a new product that’s perfect for drivers.
Fuel cards come in two variants: single and double.
Single cards
Assigned to one vehicle or one driver, these are most useful for owner drivers or any business where one operator uses one vehicle predominantly.
Double cards
Better for fleets and other shared vehicles, these provide two cards: one to stay in the vehicle and the other to be carried by drivers. This allows managers to easily keep an eye on who is driving at any time.
Both give access to a range of facilities and services, including:
· 24/7 breakdown assistance in 40 European countries
· HGC refuelling options
· AdBlue emissions converter
It also accesses a range of dedicated parking spaces across the continent, including at the Eurotunnel.
Benefits
The PIN-protected cards enable hauliers doing delivery work to automatically pay and generate invoices for fuel. This massively simplifies the process, making it far quicker to fill up. In many cases it gets rid of the need for human intervention entirely.
More than this, AS 24 UK and Ireland managing director Roland Saunion stressed that the technology had been developed with hauliers’ needs in mind. Stations are placed in ‘strategic locations’, he said, to avoid ‘unnecessary travel’ and provide clients with access to as wide a range of services as possible.
He also noted the importance of simple services in an interconnected world. ‘With the growth of free trade and free market policies,’ he pointed out, ‘the international exchange of goods throughout Europe has considerably increased’. This has ‘redefined the role of transport’, requiring drivers to travel ‘hundreds of kilometres each day, load and unload cargo, refuel, pay for road tolls or tunnels, and use parking or ferries.’
With their fuel cards, AS 24 aims to provide hauliers with the best means to navigate this changed world.
The Road Ahead
AS 24 has already become popular with those doing delivery work for its PASSango system, which makes paying tolls across Europe much easier.
Fuel card customers also get access to a variety of guarantees, including Card Alert, which monitors fuel consumption and expenses, and Card Control, which allows account holders to set limits on consumption and manage activation. All this is crucial for allowing customers to monitor and limit their fuel duty.
The company is already looking to expand its coverage, with PASSango due to expand through summer 2019 and card exposure set to increase.
All in all, this new technology is a great way to simplify and lower costs of delivery work, with drivers and fleets both set to benefit from the way it streamlines refuelling.
Norman Dulwich is a Correspondent for Haulage Exchange, the leading online trade network for the road transport industry. Connecting logistics professionals across the UK and Europe through their website, Haulage Exchange provides services for matching delivery work with available drivers, and is now the fastest growing Freight Exchange in the UK.
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