No matter the size of your business, anyone running vehicles will be looking to improve the bottom line.
It’s not just fuel or charging costs that can increase over a budget period. Maintenance costs, administrative time, and other extra expenses can all add up quickly.
So apart from using Allstar fuel cards or electric vehicle (EV) charging cards, how else can businesses look to lower the costs of running a fleet?
Reduce time and costs associated with parking payments
If your business has vehicles on the road, it’s possible that they’ll need to pay for parking at some point during their working week. But paying for that parking can come at a cost to them, and your finance team.
Parking transactions tend to be low value but can be time-consuming with so many to process throughout the month. Drivers can also be left out of pocket if they’re taking on the payments themselves, regardless of the cost.
We’ve partnered with PayByPhone to reduce the need to handle those low value transactions. Allstar Parking allows drivers to add their Allstar card to the PayByPhone app and pay for and track parking expenses easily.
Finding low-cost fuel sites and electric charging locations
Even the location where your drivers refuel or recharge can affect the bottom line, especially if they do a lot of motorway driving. Motorway fuel sites can be a lot more expensive per litre compared to supermarkets for example. And if they’re charging their EV, whilst those sites are faster, they tend to be more costly per kWh too.
It’s so important to try and plan stops around more low-cost fuel sites or charging locations. And educating your drivers on where’s best to refuel can really help keep your business costs down.
Apps like Allstar Co-Pilot can help with that. Its map function shows low-cost fuel and Discount Diesel* sites across the UK. It can even help EV drivers plan their route around stopping off to charge, so they arrive at their destination with the exact charge they need in their vehicle.
Tracking mileage if drivers use their company car for personal use
An age-old problem that can be a manual, painstaking process for businesses and drivers.
Tracking personal vs business miles during a week, month or quarter has the potential to be an arduous task for employees and finance teams of alike. Especially as businesses are legally required to be accurate when recording their drivers’ business and personal mileage.
There are also potential fraudulent risks involved with leaving mileage to a manual process, so reducing that risk alongside admin time for the whole business is crucial.
That’s where Allstar MileagePoint can help. It can reduce mileage claim processes down to five minutes per month** thanks to GPS tracking technology. All transactions are processed into a HMRC-compliant audit trail, plus it gives detailed reports for payroll claims, fuel card transactions, business journey details, and more.
Getting an overall picture of your fleet’s fuel and charging costs
If you can’t track where your drivers are refuelling or charging, it can be difficult to help reduce your fleet costs.
Knowing that drivers are using more expensive motorway fuel sites over low-cost supermarkets can help you educate them on their fuelling habits. Or if EV drivers are charging at more costly sites, rather than at home – which can be up to 20*** times cheaper than on the road – you’d probably want to know.
Allstar Online can help give you that fuel or charging picture wherever and whenever suits you. It comes with every Allstar card and shows you where and when drivers are spending company money. With its detailed spend reports and HMRC-compliant invoicing, you can get the information you need quickly and efficiently, reducing time spent on admin, and letting you get on with what’s most important.
Our value-added services+ can help your fleet with cost control and admin efficiencies if you have Allstar fuel and/or charging cards. Read more about Allstar Parking, Allstar Co-Pilot, Allstar MileagePoint, or Allstar Online.
Speak to one of our friendly team about adding any of these to your account – request a callback here.
*Savings on Diesel can be made at participating Discount Diesel sites on our network when the card is swiped.
**Choose the version of Allstar MileagePoint that best suits your business needs. The version you select will determine the level of detail available and the speed of claim submissions.
***Data taken from Allstar AllCosts report 2024, which finds the true cost of EV charging at home vs public charging. To see the latest report, click here.
+Any additional charges are outlined in the Allstar Standard Charges document.
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