The concept of fuel cards is simple and universally effective. They are credit cards restricted to paying for fuel, a running cost applicable to any business. Thereby anyone can stand to reap the benefits, from city slickers to country dwellers. Regardless of location, a good deal is a good deal. As a rural business owner who relies on a vehicle for work, you should consider adding a fuel card to your toolkit. They save you time and money, but also make life much easier on a daily basis. Read on to help judge whether your rural business could benefit from investing in a fuel card scheme.
The laborious prospect of admin tasks is a certainty for any business venture; being based in a rural area proves no exception to bills, tax, or the generally mundane realities of running a company. You can waste hours looking to claim back expenses, rummaging about in the back of a 4X4 for crumpled up receipts which are no doubt in the bin. Fuel cards offer up a release from all the above, allowing businesses to evade paperwork and focus on the jobs that pay such bills. Firstly, being a type of credit card, a fuel card scheme allows businesses to go completely paperless. Meaning no more cash and no more receipts. Any applicable information about a fuel transaction will be recorded by the card online. And payments will be charged to a single designated account. Better yet, many fuel cards like Texaco fuel cards are HMRC approved. Therefore, you should be supplied with a ready-made HMRC compliant invoice every time you make a purchase. Thus making it much easier to claim back VAT. However, Texaco fuel cards do not monopolize the market. And there are tonnes of alternatives on offer which excel at slightly different things. Rural businesses, for example, should be looking for a card that isn’t restricted to certain garages. Due to the fact garage locations become more sparse the further away from a city you venture.
Be it rural or urban areas, the effects of money worries are universal. And over the years we’ve witnessed fuel prices fluctuate alongside ever-growing economic uncertainty. Fuel is an expensive running cost at the best of times. But when you have to worry about the changing landscape of agriculture and the tentative survivability of local businesses, then the stress is magnified. Fuel cards offer up a solution in the form of agreed fees. Often fuel card providers will accommodate and agree to set fuel rates. By effectively freezing your fuel rates you can stabilize outgoings and focus on other problem areas. Uncertainty is never a good thing for any business. Levelling out expenses protects you from variables, promotes stability and help you save money in the long run.
As rural businesses owners and workers, you want to gain a better understanding of your business operations. Creating better transparently will help you make informed decisions and give insight into where changes should be made. Fuel cards are a great way to collect data and implement an ayre of transparency into your business operations. The card will record data and in turn provide all the information you need to start making changes. It’s clear the modern world doesn’t just belong to city life. And rural businesses can adapt to the use of new technology. Most fuel cards come with a software management interface you can access on your phone from an app. On there you can observe fuel usage, how drivers perform, and the routes drivers take. The fuel card allows you to visualize otherwise invisible elements of your business through its vehicles. Openness can be useful to any region of rural industry, from food deliveries to farming work. Recommended reading: Changing transport and diet in the coming green age Using a fuel card could reap some real benefits for rural businesses so long as they understand it is no miracle fix. Owners must also acknowledge that each card performs a slightly different function; finding a card which best suits your business operations is vital. But all in all, fuel cards exist to make your day to day vehicle needs more manageable.