Fuel Card
In Arabicبطاقة الوقود
A payment card issued to a company so that its vehicles or drivers can buy fuel at stations, with spending limits and a record of every transaction.
What is a fuel card in fleet management?
A fuel card replaces cash and expense claims at the pump. Each card is usually tied to one vehicle or driver and can be limited by fuel type, litres or amount per day, and sometimes by station or time of day. Every purchase is logged with station, time, litres and price, and the company receives one consolidated invoice. Some Gulf schemes replace the card with an RFID tag fitted near the vehicle's fuel filler, so fuel can only be charged to that vehicle.
But a card records what was paid for, not what reached the tank. That is why fleets match card transactions against telematics data: where the vehicle actually was at the time, and how much its tank level rose.
How it works
- 1Card issued and limits set
- 2Driver pays by card at the station
- 3Transactions matched with vehicle data
Why does a fuel card matter in fleet management?
Fuel is the largest variable cost in most fleets, and much of the leakage passes through cards: a private car filled on a company card, a receipt for more litres than the tank holds, purchases on days the vehicle never moved. Card limits stop the crude cases; only matching each transaction with the vehicle's own data catches the rest.
What you gain
- No cash at the pump
- Spending limits per vehicle
- Transactions matched to real fills
How does Safee help check fuel card transactions?
Safee does not issue fuel cards, but it holds the evidence every transaction should match. It records where each vehicle was at any moment and, for vehicles with a fuel level sensor, detects every fill with its time, place and litres in the Fuel fill/theft Report. Exported to Excel, or passed to your finance system through API integration, these records expose transactions made while the vehicle was away from the station, quantities larger than the fill, and fills with no transaction behind them.
A field example
An agricultural produce haulier in Tabuk running 70 trucks paid for fuel by card and checked only the monthly invoice total. Matching three months of card transactions against Safee's refuelling records showed 46 transactions made while the truck was more than 20 km from the station, and 31 where the card was charged for at least 80 litres more than reached the tank. The company tied each card to one truck and added fill records to the monthly invoice check, and its fuel bill fell 9% the next quarter over the same distance.
Frequently asked questions
Can fuel card data replace a fuel level sensor?
No. The card tells you what was bought; the sensor tells you what reached the tank and what left it afterwards, including siphoning between fills.
Which fuel card controls matter most?
One card per vehicle, a daily litre limit close to the tank size, a set fuel type and a driver PIN. Station and time restrictions help where routes are fixed.
Want to put this to work in your fleet?
Talk to a Safee fleet expert about your vehicles and how you operate, and we will suggest what fits.
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