Pacific Pride Cardlock in Portland, Oregon.

If you are in Oregon, the widespread available Pacific Pride and CFN commercial fueling sites allows you to lock down your gas card security.  Eliminate fuel theft and save money with commercial fueling.

Star Oilco is an independent Franchisee of Pacific Pride

If you have employees buying gasoline for your business fleet, the most expensive risk to your business is fuel theft. Use Star Oilco to secure yourself from that fuel theft while also saving on your cost of fuel over retail. As Oregon’s minimum wage and regulations increase so does the cost at retail gas stations. We can save you money and significantly reduce your risk of fuel theft while also getting your drivers out of retail gas station lines.

Stand alone commercial only Pacific Pride and CFN sites in Oregon are a real resource for small business. They speed up the labor associated with fueling and significantly lock down the chance fraud or theft will occur to you related with a fuel card. Given Oregon has a legal history of outlawing self serve of gasoline, these commercial only sites are near industrial and commercial areas.

What do you need to access a Commercial Cardlock in Oregon?

All you need to access Pacific Pride sites in Oregon is a business license and proof that you use over 900 gallons of total fuel a year. CFN commercial cardlock sites have the same requirements. If you are a business using a commercial quantity of fuel, you qualify to self serve gasoline and you can stop paying your employees to shop at the most expensive retail gas stations with the best mini-mart selection. Instead, get them back on the road 24-7 and usually without a line to wait in.

Regardless of what system you choose, there are some organizational best practices that when implemented, will be self-reinforcing in your organization. Simple little changes to how you approach fuel cards will greatly reduce any opportunity for theft. These commercial sites also often can take other commercial gas cards as well. Typically anything with a Fuelman logo, Voyager, WEX, Comdata, and several others allow you to access Pacific Pride sites in Oregon.

With Pacific Pride and CFN stand alone commercial cardlock sites, there are other benefits beyond just the convenience. The biggest difference is that these commercial cardlock sites are built with security for your gas cards in mind. Retail stations are engineered to sell as many products as possible to those pulling up for gasoline. Commercial cardlock sites are designed for commercial users who seek the fastest fueling experience. That is a big difference between the two.

Commercial Cardlock also provides superior security if you use it strategically.

Top 5 Strategies to lock down your gas card from theft.

Gas Card Strategy #1

TAKE INVENTORY OF YOUR GAS CARDS – Annually take inventory of what cards you have and who is using them. Star Oilco will gladly do this for you in conjunction with our annual Oregon Fire Marshall audit. We will line up a list of active cards with your employees and make sure there isn’t a lost or unused card out there. You can also do this more regularly in-house. Often a card policy implemented by Human Resources or your Dispatcher is a good way to track what employees (or vehicles) have what cards. On a regular basis, pass a clip board around asking each employee with a fleet card to confirm they still have that card and initial a confirmation that the card is still in their possession. You would be surprised how individual cards can float between employees as it is easier than asking for a new card.

Gas Card Strategy #2

HAVE AP AUDIT YOUR TRANSACTIONS – Audit your transactions regularly for the one thing that most likely is theft. Just look for multiple transactions per day on a single vehicle or card. Also check for switching fuel types and refuels when your business isn’t open. Having your Accounts Payable looking for transactions that occur outside of normal business hours and days or more than once a day is usually the best way to spot theft. Look for locations outside of your service area as well. Also look for cards with more than one transaction in a day or large volumes. The most common times of day for employee fuel theft are early morning on the way to work (before you open) or after the bars close after midnight.

Gas Card Strategy #3

 ATTACH GAS CARDS TO VEHICLE KEYS – Put your Fleet Cards on the key ring dispatched with the vehicle, not with the driver. To limit a risk of a stolen card, restrict card ownership to management and maintenance. Everyone else should have cards directly connected with a vehicles license plate, so if that card goes missing it is obvious. You  can also connect this strategy to an e-receipt program so you are seeing fuel buying in real time as well.

Gas Card Strategy #4

SET THE GAS CARDS UP WITH LIMITS –  Program your cards for the vehicles they are attached to.  You know historically the max amount of gasoline a vehicle can use.  Limit it to that. You can also restrict a card to ensure no one accidetnaly buys expensive premium or worse puts the wrong fuel in the vehicle. By programming the gas card to only allow a specific fuel and amount for that vehicle (regular, premium or diesel) you lock the card down from theives.  This reduces the opportunity for theft to exceed a small minimum and also makes theft obvious when the limits are hit. You an also add limits on zip codes, states, and times of days.  If someone does steal a card they would be limited of the time, how much, and where they could buy fuel making sure your own theft exposure is a few dozen gallons instead of thousands of dollars.

Gas Card Strategy #5

USE E-RECEIPTS TO MANAGE FUEL IN REAL TIME – It’s the 21st Century so manage in real time. If your gas card is emailing your Dispatch or fleet management in real time as the fuel cards are being used, you can address anything the day of. Better yet, if theft is occurring you will see it immediately and be able to react. Not only will this lock down your gas card’s security, it will also allow you to address mistakes relating to efficiency. Instant feedback and communication is critical to change bad behavior of drivers who mean to do well but may just have made a simple mistake.

Lock down your gas card from fuel theft?

Call Star Oilco, we can make it simple.

Star Oilco can help you field all of these best practices. Our motto is “Keep it Simple” and we are here to make this easy. Feel free to reach out and see what Star Oilco can do for your fleet to upgrade its fleet fueling security.

To download a white paper on these Pacific Pride fuel card security feature best practices, go to our Stop Fuel Theft page.

Star Oilco is an independent Franchisee of Pacific Pride