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Long-haul truck fleets use the WEX Fleet One program at truck stop chains. WEX has approximately 120 strategic partnerships through which it offers card programs. These are partnerships with fleets, with merchants in the oil business and with service merchants. For a merchant looking to accept WEX or WEX Fleet One, the process is simple, Kavanagh said. "Accepting the card is just as easy as taking a debit or a credit card." For merchants that want to roll out a card program, Kavanagh said, "we can tailor it to the individual merchant. If they want a full blown program – their logo on the cards, on the reporting, on the website – we're able to set that up. We can even take care of the sales and the marketing and everything else. Retail operators who are partners with WEX receive rich data on the customers, Kavanagh noted. WEX's fleet customers range from two- and three-vehicle operations to the federal government's General Services Administration, which has 250,000 vehicles. WEX also holds the state contracts for 24 states, many of which use its direct program. Some other state government fleets use a branded program provided by WEX. "There are roughly 180,000 locations that we have acceptance at, including branded and unbranded retail stations," Kavanagh said. "The majority of fleets go to retail locations, because they want convenience. So (fleets) need to have that universal acceptance." WEX collects data, managing and presenting the information to end users via "closed-loop proprietary network." "Closed loop' means we do all the issuing, we do all the settlement, we do all the processing," Kavanagh said. "WEX establishes controls at the POS device so that when the device recognizes a WEX card it knows what to ask for, it knows what data to send back and it knows what the cardholder is allowed to do." This allows fleets to implement high levels of control over card usage, so that they know where fueling is happening, and can see real-time data. "We give them access to a secure website," Kavanagh said, where the fleet can also do account maintenance, such as adding and deleting cards, changing drivers, and ordering up reports on key types of information they want to monitor, whether daily, weekly or monthly. For the heavy truck over-the-road segment Fleet One focuses on truck stops operated by Pilot Flying J, Knoxville, Tenn.; Love's Travel Stops, operated by Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores, Oklahoma City, Okla.; and TravelCenters of America, Westlake, Ohio. "There is a whole host of services that the trucking industry needs to have in order to function that goes beyond just fuel and washer fluid," Cooper noted. "For long-haul truck drivers the cab becomes their mobile home. They need to be able to access food, showers, [and get] internet connectivity. They need to pull cash advances off that Fleet One card in order to pay the folks that are helping to load or unload the trailer." For long-haul fleets, new requirements are coming along all the time, for which the card controls must be tweaked. For www.npnweb.com n NPN Magazine example, the more recent models of lower-emission heavy-duty diesel engines use diesel exhaust fluid (DEF), often purchased at truck stops. "We need to be able to capture that as a product code," Cooper noted. Also, there are added services or features that Fleet One can provide to truck fleets, such as private site fueling and maintenance programs. The closed loop network WEX built benefits Fleet One in the truck stop industry too, providing the same levels of control within a card profile, Cooper said. "If you only want that driver accessing diesel fuel then they only get diesel. If you want the driver to be able to get showers and meals, you can turn that on – on a card-by-card basis." The benefit for long-haul truck fleets goes beyond control of fuel spending, Cooper said. Fleet One has a fuel management product that coordinates card-accepting locations and driver routes, taking into account factors such as drive time and distance to state lines. "Everyone seems to focus on how much fuel they bought and what they spent on it, "Cooper said. "What was the PPG" – price per gallon? But if per gallon savings required a twenty-two minute detour, he said, "You've just eaten up that entire savings." Using the fuel management program, Cooper said, WEX Fleet One helped a fleet client reduce the number of truck stops it was using from 6,700 to 79. That reduction helped the fleet maximize drive time, reduce wear and tear on trucks, and decrease overtime paid to drivers. "That's the kind of partnership with our customers and our clients that goes well beyond just savings on the price per gallon," Cooper said. University Trucking, Obetz, Ohio, a truckload carrier with a fleet of 145 tractors and approximately twice that number of dry van trailers, has been using the WEX Fleet One card for about two years, said Ebby Brewer, a co-owner and the general manager of the trucking company. Fleet drivers use their cards at Pilot Travel Centers, TravelCenters of America and Love's Truck Stops. Reports based on fuel purchasing data, compiled by WEX Fleet One, have helped the carrier identify specific truck stops that are most used by the fleet's drivers, Brewer said. Volume discounts with those stops were then negotiated, after which the carrier began directing its drivers to refuel at those stops to take advantage of the lower fuel price. As a result, Brewer estimated, the carrier is saving three percent to five percent on fuel expenses. FleetCor Technologies, Inc., Norcross, Ga., another provider of fuel cards and workforce payment products to businesses, announced this summer that it had extended its relationship with Shell's Global Commercial Fleet line of business to the U.S. FleetCor's payment programs are designed to enable businesses to better control employee spending and to provide card-accepting merchants with a high-volume customer base that can increase their sales and customer loyalty, the company said. SEPTEMBER 2013 27