Discount Fuel - Fuel / Fleet cards

[travelrover]

Hi all

I have had a searched through this site but have not found anything on Fuel/Fleet cards. I recall almost 30 years ago this was a hot topic at the Range Rover Club, but it was decided the responsibility to manage the accounts was too great a burden for the club to engage in, and certainly not really a club activity.

Technology has certainly moved on a little in the intervening years as have the options available from the providers and the onus now seems very much on the individual rather than an organisation to service your debts.

All these cards offer discounted fuel and this seems to vary from 4 – 6 cents a litre, roughly a saving of between $3.00 - 4.50 a tank full on a Defender 110 ($156 - $234 annually if you fill up once a week). There are all sorts of cards from company specific ones, BP, Caltex and Shell (Canstar Blue - Australian Fuel Card Comparison (http://www.canstarblue.com.au/vehicles/fuel/fuel-cards/)), Caltex seems a clear winner here, to Fleetcare, Motorpass and others which seems to be company agnostic.

Does anyone have any experience with any of these cards? Do you think there may be some value in AULRO (as a potentially large fleet) looking into the benefits of a ‘bulk buy’ type arrangement?

[crash]

I would think the administration of an AULRO group would be HUGE.
Do you have to be an organisation or can you get them as an individual?
I would stay away from Motorpass and Fleetcare as I use to regularly see signs at pumps saying they were not accepted.
When I had a novated lease I had a Motorpass card. Advantage of the Motorpass card you were not tied to any particular fuel brand.

[sam_d]

I was about to start a thread / ask a question about fuel cards. Sorry for hijacking this one but I think my question would fit nicely here...

I am about to embark on a biggish trip (approx 15,000km) and I'm trying to find the best way to get discounted fuel. A few cents per litre here and there is always good and will add up over this kind of distance but, what the best options? I don't have an ABN so can't get one of those fleet cards but I can get 5% discount on Woolworths Gift Vouchers via an employee benefits scheme however, not all Caltex stores accept them (for example, only 10 Caltex stores across the whole of the greater Melbourne area accept gift vouchers).

Any help appreciated! Thanks in advance!

[V8Ian]

Puma offer 4cpl off simply by asking for a loyalty card, that goes on your keyring.

[cjc_td5]

Being a RAC member will get you 4c off at Puma in WA. Do other motoring organisations have similar deals?

[LandyAndy]

Coles/Woolies do it with shopper dockets.Coles (Shell) seem to be a tad dearer CPL.
Andrew

[AK83]

use a service like fuelspy to locate fuel .. and hopefully cheaper retailers whilst you're at it!

I just did a trip out to Broken Hill(from Melbourne) and used it mainly to see where fuel is located, and then of course that one place was 121.9/lt, whereas the place just up the road was at 129.9/lt!
Of course I filled up at the 121.9/lt place.

etc, etc ....

[LandyAndy]

use a service like fuelspy to locate fuel .. and hopefully cheaper retailers whilst you're at it!

I just did a trip out to Broken Hill(from Melbourne) and used it mainly to see where fuel is located, and then of course that one place was 121.9/lt, whereas the place just up the road was at 129.9/lt!
Of course I filled up at the 121.9/lt place.

etc, etc ....

WA has a government run system.Fuel Watch.Fuel sellers must nominate their CPL prices the day before.They cannot change that price.Infact,one seller was fined for selling fuel at a stupid low price due to a decimal place error which led to people paying next to nothing CPL.It was an unmaned credit card site.

FuelWatch | Department of Commerce (https://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/consumer-protection/fuelwatch-0)

Andrew

[LandyAndy]

use a service like fuelspy to locate fuel .. and hopefully cheaper retailers whilst you're at it!

I just did a trip out to Broken Hill(from Melbourne) and used it mainly to see where fuel is located, and then of course that one place was 121.9/lt, whereas the place just up the road was at 129.9/lt!
Of course I filled up at the 121.9/lt place.

etc, etc ....

WA has a government run system.Fuel Watch.Fuel sellers must nominate their CPL prices the day before.They cannot change that price.Infact,one seller was fined for selling fuel at a stupid low price due to a decimal place error which led to people paying next to nothing CPL.It was an unmaned credit card site.

FuelWatch | Department of Commerce (https://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/consumer-protection/fuelwatch-0)

Andrew

[travelrover]

I was about to start a thread / ask a question about fuel cards. Sorry for hijacking this one but I think my question would fit nicely here...

I am about to embark on a biggish trip (approx 15,000km) and I'm trying to find the best way to get discounted fuel. A few cents per litre here and there is always good and will add up over this kind of distance but, what the best options? I don't have an ABN so can't get one of those fleet cards but I can get 5% discount on Woolworths Gift Vouchers via an employee benefits scheme however, not all Caltex stores accept them (for example, only 10 Caltex stores across the whole of the greater Melbourne area accept gift vouchers).

Any help appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Hi Sam

I think some such as motorpass require an ABN/ACN not sure about the others. Also some appear to have a minimum number of vehicles to qualify, say 3. Am sure there will be other qualifying requirements but I have not investigated this yet. It was just an idea :-)

On the east coast the NRMA have a fuel watch type app that seems to be available to everyone not just members and I think they have a fuel discount system but that is probably dependent on the level of your membership, requires more investigation.

It maybe worth a few local members getting together and creating a smaller local group rather than all AULRO Ozzie based members and see if that would work.

[sam_d]

Hi Sam

I think some such as motorpass require an ABN/ACN not sure about the others. Also some appear to have a minimum number of vehicles to qualify, say 3. Am sure there will be other qualifying requirements but I have not investigated this yet. It was just an idea :-)

On the east coast the NRMA have a fuel watch type app that seems to be available to everyone not just members and I think they have a fuel discount system but that is probably dependent on the level of your membership, requires more investigation.
\.

That's pretty much what I found so far with most of the fuel cards: you need an ABN, a minimum fleet, monthly subscription. All of these would cost me more than any savings I would get.

Fuel watch apps are all well and good but they only show the prices; they're still not getting you a discount as such. If you have to go out of the way to save 2 or 3 cpl is it worth it? Even if my long range and aux tanks were dry I'd still probably not bother. And in a country town with one servo it doesn't help at all.

At the moment the best I have found is a Caltex Star Card Debit. That saves 2cpl on regular fuels and doesn't require an ABN or anything but 2cpl isn't really that great a saving at all.

[Tombie]

Cheap fuel is often false economy...
On the occasions where we have used "independent" fuel suppliers there has been a notable decrease in fuel range...
Whilst the base hydrocarbons may all come from the same source there seems to be calorific differences in the fuels..

Biggest variance was 80km less from a tank....

Fuel is the cheap bit... Even over 16,000km with an average fuel saving of $0.05 cpl you will only have a variance of $224.00 for the entire journey.

[Toxic_Avenger]

Fuel is the cheap bit... Even over 16,000km with an average fuel saving of $0.05 cpl you will only have a variance of $224.00 for the entire journey.

Yep.
Just cut back on the quality of the plonk at the obligatory grey nomad 5pm happy hour and you are in front
[wink11]

[sam_d]

Cheap fuel is often false economy...

Yeah, that's why I'm not after 'cheap' fuel. Just trying to find the best way to get good fuel cheaper :)

I've gone back to the drawing board and found that thanks to the long range tank I can actually get to the sparsely spread out Caltex outlets that accept the cards I can get 5% discounts on for about half of the trip without having to go out of my way to do it. All I've got to do is print out the vouchers before I go. Hardly a big effort.

Sure, it still only a hundred bucks or so, which is small change in the overall scheme of things on a big trip, but that money can go towards some nice beer (or a lot of horrible beer) and I don't actually have to do anything difficult to earn it.

[DiscoMick]

I just buy my fuel at 7/11 as it is usually cheaper than Coles or Woollies.

[Toxic_Avenger]

I just buy my fuel at 7/11 as it is usually cheaper than Coles or Woollies.

Probably because the cashiers are being paid $0.50 an hour!!!
:wasntme:

[DiscoMick]

True. Puma can be cheap too.

[cuppabillytea]

I just did a 3,500 K trip and didn't connect with my discounter until the last stop. Then I forgot to present the card.
How much saving did I miss out on and should I really care?

[sam_d]

Okay, I'm revisiting this now I've completed my trip.

14879 km travelled, 2132 litres of diesel used (around 14.3l/100km)

During my travels I used Woolworths Caltex where possible to get 4c or 8c per litre off. In the end I saved $85.29 by doing this. After the savings I spent pretty much bob on $1500 on fuel at Woolworths Caltex which was done using E-Gift cards which I bought with a 5% discount so that saved another $75. An overall saving of $160.

So, $160 saved over 3 months. It's a drop in the ocean when compared to the overall cost of the trip but hey, $160 saved is $160

Oh, and before the "pics or it didn't happen" reply, here's a pic at Purnululu :)

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