North Carolina-based Solid Rock Carriers was hit with $27,000 value of gas card fraud in a single day by way of card skimming. Though the corporate was in a position to recoup the cash, it had different ramifications when it got here to addressing the fallout, together with back-office stress and driver frustration.

The firm has since employed the usage of Relay Payments for gas and unloading funds to cut back gas fraud and enhance processes for its fleet.

Most carriers expertise some type of gas fraud, from bodily theft like siphoning to stealing card data, also called card skimming. With constantly excessive gas prices and the financial, operational and reputational value related to gas fraud, many have turned to know-how to mitigate their losses. That know-how consists of digital fee strategies and fleet administration software program.

The value of gas fraud

Though bodily strategies of gas fraud like siphoning and puncturing gas tanks are nonetheless used, as know-how has progressed, dangerous actors have discovered simpler methods to defraud carriers.

Over the previous few years, the predominant technique has been card skimming – instantly correlated to the rise in cardless transactions primarily by cellular apps with restricted safety, mentioned Steve DeMelis, vice chairman of product at Comdata.

“The ability to simply enter a card number into a mobile app and facilitate a transaction has made it significantly easier for fraudsters who previously had to rely on stealing the physical card or going through the process of creating a card to attempt a transaction,” DeMelis mentioned.

Though technological advances have made it simpler for exterior dangerous actors to commit fraud, he mentioned it has enormously decreased the speed at which carriers are seeing inner gas fraud dedicated, which has beforehand been the largest menace. With digital fee options, many carriers are shifting away from archaic fee strategies like money and checks – strategies that made it simpler for inner fraud.

Based on evaluation of fraud instances between January 2022 and now, Comdata has discovered that card skimming – the first fraud technique utilized by exterior dangerous actors – accounts for 75% of gas fraud, whereas inner worker fraud now accounts for 8.5%. The the rest is because of card theft. The FBI has reported a rise of 700% of card skimming in any respect companies. The precise value of fraud for trucking is unclear, however from conversations with carriers that switched to Relay for gas funds, they estimated it was costing them $20,000 per thirty days for a fleet that averages 100 vans, mentioned Relay Co-Founder and President Spencer Barkoff.

Security controls

There are bodily boundaries resembling locking gas caps and anti-siphoning units to stop bodily gas theft. With new fee strategies, it’s about digital safety controls.

“External fraud can be significantly mitigated using technology and verification, employing such controls as spending limits, additional prompting at the pump, frequency controls and dynamic card blocking – all standard features of a Comdata fleet card,” DeMelis mentioned. “We find that the best method to catch internal frauds is through having advanced levels of reporting as is offered with our OneLook product. OneLook aids fleets in looking at driver trends and identifying when a driver’s fueling activity is suspicious, such as if they have fueled the same amount of times as other drivers running comparable routes but have spent significantly more on fuel.”

Jim Gripp, senior director of program and product administration at Powerfleet, mentioned one of the simplest ways to mitigate inner theft is to challenge firm gas playing cards that may be configured with spending limits by day, time and site, in addition to limits to gas and upkeep product purchases.

Combined with fleet and asset intelligence software program and telematics information, he mentioned gas playing cards are a really useful administration software. They present fleet managers with the flexibility to make use of fleet, route and automobile gas utilization and financial system information to proactively determine and get rid of fraudulent driver purchases. Further supporting fleet managers are set off notifications despatched from the SaaS system, flagging suspicious exercise and summarizing gas spending traits.

He mentioned driver training and coaching are additionally key in prevention.

“While physical measures and driver education play essential roles in preventing fuel theft, the true game-changer lies in employing advanced fleet management solutions that offer a holistic view by aggregating and analyzing data from diverse sources in a single pane of glass,” Gripp mentioned. “Crucial to thwarting fuel fraud is the seamless integration of fleet operations, routing and vehicle fuel efficiency metrics with external data points like fuel card transactions.”

Digital funds

While carriers and fuel-card issuers usually set each day spend caps to restrict fraud threat, Barkoff mentioned scammers have varied methods of working round these measures. That’s why Relay – and plenty of truckstops – are advocating for all-digital fee strategies.

“Most of the time, carriers only learn about card skimming fraud when a driver calls to tell them their card won’t work at the pump and they are stranded. This leads to immediate operational hassles, (driver frustration), and there could be delivery delays,” he mentioned. “Carriers have to figure out how to get another card to the affected driver, but it often takes days or weeks to receive a new card, and then you have to deliver it somehow to the driver who’s on the road. You can quickly see how this is a substantial headache for fleets and drivers, and this doesn’t even take into account the cash flow issues and trying to recoup lost funds.”

The easiest answer, Barkoff mentioned, isn’t any bodily card.

Relay makes use of an app on the gas pump that gives a one-time fee code that isn’t tied to any bank card and is additional bolstered by geofencing know-how and configurable driver insurance policies, eliminating the chance for different types of fraud.

Comdata addresses fraud by way of cellular apps by implementing multi-step verification processes to make sure who the person is that’s trying the transaction.

Comdata provides prevention options that happen earlier than or in the course of the authorization means of a transaction to confirm the person making the transaction, restrict the transaction to the fleet’s parameters, and make sure that the gas bought by the fleet goes into fleet autos.

Some options Comdata provides embrace issues like card lock controls, automobile location and gas stage information by telematics, spending limits and rule units that can decline a transaction primarily based on issues like distance for the reason that final swipe, for instance.

“The ideal solution to fuel fraud is detecting and preventing (it) at the time of the transaction before any money is spent. The typical fleet manager doesn’t have the time to verify every transaction their fleet is making before the driver makes the transaction; this is where technology provided by payment providers is key to detecting and stopping fraud in real time,” DeMelis mentioned. “It is through this application of technology that a fleet can identify and detect fraud activity before it happens.”