Fuel-card misuse: swipes far from the truck
The fuel card is the easiest-to-misuse financial instrument in a fleet. Some fleets lose up to 22% of card spend to cards being swiped away from the truck (Aon Eurasia Risk Report 2024).
Mechanism is simple: the driver hands over the card, another truck gets refuelled. The card transaction processes; no system verifies. The monthly report doesn’t catch it — because the card-to-truck mapping doesn’t exist on the bank statement.
Why the fraud surface is wide open
Three reasons:
- Card providers don’t see trip context. UTA/DKV/Shell only see card number + station + amount. Which truck?
- Manual GPS matching is unfeasible. 5,000+ transactions/month; tying each one to a trip record by hand isn’t realistic.
- No evidence at the station. Field audit coverage is limited.
Card transaction + GPS matching
Lognari matches card-transaction time + location with truck GPS. Matching is evaluated within minutes:
| Card transaction | Truck GPS | Distance | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| UTA · DE-Köln · 14:22 · 60 L | Köln motorway · 14:21 | 1.2 km | ✅ OK |
| DKV · NL-Eindhoven · 09:14 · 50 L | Eindhoven depot · 09:13 | 0.8 km | ✅ OK |
| Shell · TR-Adana · 23:48 · 100 L | TR-Mersin parking · 23:47 | 78 km | 🚩 FLAG |
If the distance threshold is breached, instant flag: which truck, which driver, which station. Alarm at the ops centre.
Three-stage process
Stage 1 — Single event: The driver may have forgotten the card at a dealership. Another driver may have refuelled. A single event does not trigger discipline; a reason is requested.
Stage 2 — Pattern (3 repeats): If the same driver shows the pattern again, reason-entry becomes mandatory. Surfaced in driver mobile app.
Stage 3 — Discipline process: Same driver + 5+ repeat pattern + inconsistent reason = card block + HR review.
Impact by fleet size
| Fleet | Annual suspect-tx protection | € equivalent | Side effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 trucks | ~50,000 L | €31,500/yr | 95% of cases caught in first 3 months |
| 300 trucks | ~150,000 L | €95,000/yr | 0.8–1.2 pp extra discount in UTA/DKV/AS24 bonus tiers |
| 1,000 trucks | ~500,000 L | €315,000/yr | Card-pool reorganisation (truck-specific cards) |
Pilot — 210-truck container fleet
In the first 30 days, 47 transactions were flagged — card in city A, truck in city B 240 km away. 22 drivers were asked for a reason (mobile-app form):
- 14 cases had legitimate reasons (card left at depot, another driver refuelled)
- 8 cases proved explicit misuse (recurring pattern + inconsistent explanation)
Action:
- 8 cases: card block + HR review
- €4,300 one-time refund claim via card provider
- 11 trucks moved to truck-specific cards
- Next 90 days: 0 new cases
Side effect: card-provider negotiation
After the pilot, the Lognari report becomes negotiation leverage. The argument “our fleet is below EU average at 0.8% fraud rate” unlocks bonus tiers. UTA Edenred and DKV gave 0.8–1.2 pp extra discounts to two pilot fleets.
What’s next
If your fleet hasn’t reported a single card block in the last 12 months, fraud is happening — just not getting caught. A pilot typically pays back in 4–6 weeks.
Reach out via the contact section — reply within one business day.
Statistics referenced from Aon Eurasia Risk Report 2024 + UTA Fraud Trends Report 2025 + Lognari pilot data.
