The current volatile fuel market makes managing fleet fuel costs a difficult and frustrating task. Supply and demand is at constant odds and the global impact of rising crude oil costs has prompted fleet managers to adopt fuel management programs to help control fuel budgets. These programs offer a variety of benefits including timely and comprehensive reporting, security, expense monitoring, and a widespread network of fuel stations. An added benefit for public sector fleets is programs that offer exception processing of federal excise taxes on unleaded and/or diesel fuel. With one concentrated report, fleet managers can track purchase types, times, and purchase amounts. Detailed monitoring helps to maintain a fleet’s fuel economy and avoid losses. The implementation of fuel management programs can help cut expenditures and boost productivity in administrative cost by reducing paperwork and data entry time. Fuel management can be monitored in the same monthly cycle. Real-time monitoring allows for faster recovery of lost or stolen cards, and online exception reporting highlights deviations for immediate investigation. Web technology makes it even easier to access data and records for easy download to the fleet’s own database or computer system via Internet communications. The growth of these services and fuel management programs presents a daunting challenge, however, in choosing a provider. Many companies offer a wide range of capabilities and options for all fleet sizes and compositions, including security features, pricing, exception reporting, and account manageability. Knowing which fuel card to choose requires a careful analysis of each individual fleet’s fueling needs. These following charts offer answers to many fuel card questions by providing a detailed look at some of the more popular fuel card options available today. Provided in the charts are phone numbers, contact names, services, and Web sites for additional information. Check out www.fleet-central.com/ for a complete guide to effective fleet fuel management as well as tools, articles, and links with more information. Click here to view chart