Hello all, I am still on the long road to owner driver heaven… or hell, hoping to be up and running on the first of March. The latest hurdle to jump is the fuel card issue, could someone please give me a rough idea of what they are all about. Are there any pitfalls with certain cards? Are they all free? Do they affect Vat? Do you really need one? Any replies would be greatly appreciated, Cheers.
saves carrying lots of cash and they get the VAT back quicker
plus dependingon what type you use,you can re-fuel,pay road charges
ferrys shuttle, breakdowns, etc etc, go have a look at this site
go on to the german flag, when it changes to a picture with
3 fields go over to the righthand side where it says
TANKEN NOTRUF DIESELPREISE
CLICK HERE IT will show you a list of
sites for FUEL CARDS have a look most of these do change into english
you don’t need a fuel card, you night be able to find a cheap garage somewhere and pay with a credit card 
it will cost you more per litre but you will probably get longer to pay!
They make it easier to do the vat as you don’t need to keep receipts - it’s all on the bill
They are not all free, and some may ask for deposit upfront if you have no credit history 
you’ll just have to ask the card companies ( I’ve never paid upfront but I’ve been self employed since 1984 so had a history before I applied, I know someone who had to put £500 upfront for a BP card)
I’m using Smartdiesel/Fuelcard Express , Fuelserv, RHA keyfuels
I’ve also got a Allstar for the times you end up in the wrong place!
just to make sure they keep the prices competitive cos if you only use one the price seems to slip upwards
If you put in an O licence application you;ll probably get lots of them ringing you, I have recently cos I’ve done a variation
- they get your details from A&D
i use shell euro at the mo mainly cos it’s handy for msa’a etc got a fuelserve somewhere but stopped using it becuase the price just got daft, still the cheapest fuel is at a local garage account with 30 days to pay from month end so an option not to be overlooked, as said you’ll prob get many send you bumf through stating this weeks price was… something ridiculously cheap, take the card on and would you believe it? the price has gone up
as for cash upfront recently had someone offer me a card at the uaual extemely low rate but wanted me to pay 4k upfront for the privilage i think not!
paul b:
, as said you’ll prob get many send you bumf through stating this weeks price was… something ridiculously cheap, take the card on and would you believe it? the price has gone up
I had one of those, pestered with phone calls to have one of their Keyfuels cards, price always better then anything else, finally gave in and signed up, for the next 12 months the price was 2p above everything else!! between xmas & new year they came up with a good price so went to use the card and found it had expired 
then to top it all another dept of the same company rang me last week offering me a fuel card, having no idea I had one already ( one office in Ireland, one in this country)
Twice recently I have had letters from fuel card providers, complete with forms to fill in etc. The letters both said the same thing - thank you for your recent enquiry regarding our fuel cards. Now given that I haven’t owned a truck for nearly 8 months why would I have made an enquiry? 
Both companies made follow up phone calls and were a little put out when I told them it was my company policy not to deal with anybody who sends me unsolicited mail.
Thanks allot for that guys, much appreciated.