Top tips to help you and your business cope with COVID-19
We’ve put together our top tips to help businesses that need to keep their employees on the road during these challenging times.
Tip 1 - Keep safe when fuelling
The advice from the health service is to keep our hands, and surfaces that our hands touch, as clean as possible. This especially applies to payments, where cash and payment devices may pick up germs.
Here’s our 6 suggestions for employees to consider when refuelling vehicles:
1. Use outdoor payment terminals or night payment hatches where possible.
2. Use gloves where provided (or take your own) to prevent direct contact with payment terminals and pump nozzles.
3. For drivers who have a signature payment card, we recommend that they carry their own pen with them to use when paying for the transaction.
4. Look at refuelling during quieter times of the day if possible.
5. Keep vehicle touchpoints and cards clean, using anti-bac wipes and following government advice: wash hands and or use hand gel before and after each visit.
6. When employees need to queue outside of their vehicle for fuel, they should stay a 2 metre distance away from the person queuing in front of them.
Tip 2: Give your employees the tools they need
Whether employees are on the road or working from home, they need the right tools to help them get on with their job.
Your employees shouldn't need to worry about how and where they stop to refuel. A fuel card, used in combination with a fuel station finder, can help avoid the need to drive extra miles to find a low cost site.
Tip 3: Stay on top of costs
With all the challenges businesses have right now, now is the time to keep an extra eye on running costs.
The cost of fuel can vary dramatically even within a local area so use a tool such as The Fuelcard Company’s Site Finder to identify the low cost fuel locations.
Our fuel card finder is a tool that can help you to be sure that you’re using the right fuel card for you and your business. If you’re not sure if your current fuel card offers the best value for money, then this tool can help you to improve your fuel card deal.
Tip 4: Don’t let your paperwork get out of control
Amidst all the confusion that businesses are facing, now is not the time to let your paperwork get out of control. Further down the line you’ll be needing to reconcile expenses, submit VAT returns, and gather up receipts that may get forgotten.
Avoid this pain by using the right tools:
Avoid an administrative headache by choosing the right fuel card to suit your business’ needs.
The fastest way to manage your account is through your online account, giving you 24/7 access to order and cancel cards, view HMRC- compliant invoices or transactions, and more.
If you have any queries that cannot be managed online, please email us at customerservice@fuelcards.co.uk and a member of the team will respond as soon as possible.
Tip 5: Be fraud aware
Sadly even in these difficult times, we have seen instances of attempted fraud. Ensure you and your employees pay using secure methods; for example, fuel or expenses cards rather than cash.
We will never call you up asking for your full PIN, password or payment details.
You can also keep you cards and account safe by asking your drivers to not share any card PINs and report cards lost or stolen to you as soon as they’re aware. If you notice anything unusual about your account or a card is lost or stolen, you can report this online or contact our customer service team at customerservice@fuelcards.co.uk.