Talking Wise
The podcast about logistics, self-employment, and what it actually takes to scale without the wheels coming off.
Talking Wise
Episode 10: How one client saved £28.5k on fuel - without lifting a finger
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Fuel costs are one of the biggest overheads for logistics businesses - and often one of the least transparent.
In this episode of Talking Wise, we are joined by Arthur Elmes, owner of Carefuel to unpack how businesses can stop overpaying for fuel without taking on more admin.
We dive into how Carefuel helps businesses secure better fuel card deals, removes hidden surcharges and continuously tracks prices to protect against creeping costs.
If you’re a business managing vehicles, fleets, or fuel costs - this episode shows how the right partnerships can create real savings and real value through Wise Advantage.
This card that's designed to save them money on fuel. What's the most extreme difference you've ever seen from a pump price to a fuel card? It was 46p above. Oh how does that happen? How do you overpay for fuel when you're using a fuel card?
SPEAKER_02The truth is there's a real lack of information. Even if you do get your price, how do you know how good it is? Yeah. What have you got it to benchmark against? How do you know if your price drops by 1P, it's not supposed to drop by 3P? No one knows. We do all of that for you. We've got loads of data, we've got a pool of providers that we work with. We know exactly what the market's doing at any given time.
SPEAKER_00Why wouldn't you use a company like Care Fuel You could GutFuel Cards?
SPEAKER_02That's the question I'm asking this other. Well, it's not about the price you pay this week. It's about the price you pay every week for the next 52 weeks. When prices fall, that is the time to be most aware of your pricing.
SPEAKER_00That's really you know, you've been definitely top three most popular suppliers that we've had on the platform.
SPEAKER_02Wanting to keep the servers free for our clients because we think they shouldn't have to pay to be on the best fuel cut deal. Yeah. You know, that's what they were designed for.
SPEAKER_00Maybe people will go, oh, five or am I as well. Three. Arthur. Welcome, mate. Good to have you. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Pleasure to be here. Good stuff. Uh so obviously you are the owner of Care Fuel. I am the sole owner of Careful. The sole owner. Uh do you mind just introducing yourself to the audience and just telling us a little bit about CareFuel and then we'll come on to a little bit how Wise and sort of Care Fuel hooked up originally?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so um I'm Arthur, I'm the founder of CareFuel. Um, it's essentially a fuel card watchdog. So it's a completely free service and we make sure that UK fleets don't overpay for fuel. Um it's pretty simple. We just look at their current deal, see if they're overpaying, and if they are, we fix it for them.
SPEAKER_00That's great. How did you get into this?
SPEAKER_02A few a few companies that I used to work for. So um I used to work for uh an energy company that did something really similar with energy. Um so at the end of your contract, uh you go on this default tariff. Yeah. They'd basically automatically switch you onto a better deal every year. So you were never on this default tariff.
SPEAKER_00I don't remember now. I worked at that company, didn't I? Because I think it was like Look After My Bills, yeah, yeah. I think when I originally reached out to you, I saw you worked at Look After My Bills. Yes. And we used to I used to work at a comparison uh sort of website builder company, I guess. We built channels like Money Supermarket, etc. etc. And we met with the with the founders because uh they were on uh Dragon's Den. Yeah, really good guys, yeah, yeah, good guys. Uh so okay, so that's quite um quite a natural sort of move over to the fuel card stuff then.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, exactly. And then um companies that I worked with there and in my um previous role was in waste and recycling. We were working with you know thousands of companies all across the UK, all fleets. Okay. And they just consistently complained about their fuel costs, and that's where I learned about fuel cards. Um and I basically just married the two together. Yeah. So I thought, can we solve this problem in the fuel card world with a solution that's already proven in the gene energy world? Yeah. And um, yeah, that's it. Lo and behold, Care Fuel was born. I love the name Care Fuel actually. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, you've got to be careful with your fuel card bills, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I like it. There you go. Yeah. No, it was uh it's a it's a great brand. It's one of those brands where you feel like it should already have been used. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Uh so now I love that Care Fuel. And then how long have you been running Care Fuel for?
SPEAKER_02Uh probably about sort of six to seven months.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so he's very it's fresh. Yeah, very fresh. Okay, yeah. How are you finding it?
SPEAKER_02Loving it. Absolutely loving it. Um it's just great having the the flexibility and you know solving problems that are real. Yeah, seeing the the improvements in uh you know the day-to-day lives of these people that were helping. It's fantastic.
SPEAKER_00There is a lot of there is a lot of satisfaction from that sort of sort of thing, isn't that that is uh that is great. And then so that's interesting then. So six, seven months. So I know it was I think it it was me that originally saw you on LinkedIn, yeah. And I put you in with Trevor, and obviously then you got onto the sort of boys at Antioch Protograph.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. That must have been right at the start then because really, really early on, yeah, yeah. Because uh I just went for it on LinkedIn. Yeah, uh, you know, it's a great platform to just uh get your name out there. Yeah. And I think you commented really quickly on one of my posts and then put me in touch with Trevor. Yeah. Um, had a great couple of chats with him. Yeah. Um he explained what you guys were building with Wise Advantage, and it was an absolute no-brainer for me. It was instantly hit it off. I was like, this is absolutely perfect. This is exactly the kind of businesses we want to help. Yeah. Um, and we really want to be part of the you know, Wise Advantage programme.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, it was a clear fit. No, and I think Arthur, you know, yeah, credit definitely where it's due. You know, you've been probably the most definitely top three most popular suppliers that we've had on the platform so far. People always have good things to say about you and Care Fuel in general. So, you know, you've been a definitely a welcome, welcome addition. So you know, thanks so much for everything you've done so far. It's been really good. No, brilliant. Um, so yeah, I mean, look again, as lots of these wise advantage suppliers seems to be the common theme. Uh, that uh I've seen something on LinkedIn, and then before you know it, they're a partner of wise. You're also doing a good job, they're not yeah. I mean, just relentless, I guess. Uh, because uh Bannerwise and H R I B and you guys all started from a LinkedIn message, yeah. That you go, yeah, I guess. So just gotta keep thinking that LinkedIn, mate. Yeah, that's how old business is done, apparently. Funny. Uh so look, let's talk a bit more about what you guys do then. So, because you've mentioned here a couple of times around businesses overpaying for fuel. Um, and I think particularly or exclusively when you're they're using fuel cards, right, as far as you're concerned. How does that happen? How do you overpay for fuel when you're using a fuel card?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's a great question. That's what I thought. I mean, these these fuel cards were designed to save businesses money on fuel. That's where they're designed. I mean, there's efficiency gains from using them, but ultimately um they're supposed to be saving businesses money. Um, but there are three main reasons really why they're overpaying. Um, first one's sort of price drifting, or I sort of call it loyalty tax. Um, it's basically when you're on a great deal at the beginning, and then over time that deal turns bad. And a good example of it is like your broadband deal at home or energy. Yeah, you tend to be on a fixed contract for like a year or two years. Yeah. At the end of that contract, your price goes up some default tariff, and that's usually double the price. So if you don't do anything, you're paying extortionate pricing. Yeah. The fuel card world's the same, but the price changes every week. Yeah, the price is changing all the time, but you get a fixed price every week. Yeah. And so that gives your deal sort of 52 opportunities a year for that price twisting to occur. Cool. It's not once every year or once every two years like broadband, it's every single week. So over time a few sort of pence here and there can start building up, adding up to really high costs.
SPEAKER_00Wow. And again, like you you you can educate me and definitely educate the audience. Well, probably don't say I'll definitely educate me if I just uh I don't know, nothing. Um so when you sign up to a fuel card, you obviously have a rate that you're gonna pay at the pump with that fuel card. But uh are their contracts just open-ended in terms of or this will change? Because clearly fuel costs increase, so we're seeing that obviously at the moment. At the moment, yeah, especially. Uh so obviously fuel car fuel costs do go up and down. So I guess the fuel car companies have they got sort of complete license to change that price whenever they need to?
SPEAKER_02It's pretty much completely unregulated, exactly like that. So the the way they work is you get a fixed price every week. So it doesn't matter what's on the pump, as long as you use their card at the right stations, you pay your fixed price.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02But they can charge you whatever they like. So we've seen with a lot of cases, which is basically why I started Care Fuel, yeah, looked into all of these contracts, over half of them were paying more than the pump price. I literally would have to ask you the question. Is it always still cheaper than the pump price? Absolutely not. No, no. So so this card that's designed to save them money on fuel is costing them more than if they just used their bank card.
SPEAKER_00I don't think we're gonna be very popular with fuel car companies. Potentially, potentially not. This isn't fuel card companies. Stop listening now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's uh that's just one of many, many things that that they're talking about.
SPEAKER_00It's crazy. I mean, look, I really my question was I'm I'm you I'm glad you said it sort of naturally because my question was gonna be, but they must always be cheaper than the pump price. But if they're not, then you know that is why bother using them? Obviously, I know why businesses do use them because especially where they've got drivers providing services to them, it allows them to have some visibility and sort of oversight on the your own.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's not just cost, there are other benefits. Of course. Um being able to track your uh invoices and HMRC you can blow on invoices, tracking where your drivers are filling up, seeing the transactions. That's obviously fantastic, and that is a service that provides value. But ultimately, a lot of these companies are consistently using thousands of volumes of fuel uh every week, every month. And so they're able they should be able to get consistently cheaper prices than the public.
SPEAKER_00Of course, I mean it's the old, you know, it's exactly what we've tried to do with wise advances, right? Which is you'd hope that more volume means cheaper pricing. Uh and if it doesn't, then what's the point? Um so that is that is crazy. And just I mean, more because I'm interested now, but what's the most extreme difference you've ever seen from a from a pump price to a fuel card? It varies massively. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um but one one client that we worked with really early on, yeah, this isn't really heard of in the fuel fuel card space, but they're on a fixed price every week. Yeah. So usually your price changes as the um as the fuel price changes. Yeah. But they're on a fixed price every week, so it was the same. Yeah. And obviously, if the price of fuel goes down, they're just paying this massive price up here. Yeah. It was 46p above at the time that we were speaking to them.
SPEAKER_0046p? Geez, that like on a normal car's full tank, that's like 30 quid.
SPEAKER_02It's criminal. I mean, they didn't use that much fuel, but the saving was around 20,000 pounds. But you know, if they're using a lot more fuel than that, it's over 100,000 pounds.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that is uh that is a really extreme case, isn't it? And is that is that pretty much always the the creep then? So it's that the pump price uh vis the fuel card price, it just uh goes up gradually and unless you're unless you're staying on top of it and so if you didn't use a care fuel, what do you do? Do you ring your care your fuel car company up?
SPEAKER_02That's that's that's another huge problem. So that's it's unregulated, there's price drifting. Yeah. But for most fleet managers, they've got more important things to be doing than you know tracking their their prices every single day and looking at their invoices and making sure they're not overpaying. Um but the the truth is there's a real lack of information. So even if you do get your price, how do you know how good it is? Yeah. What have you got it to benchmark against? How do you know if your price drops by one P, it's not supposed to drop by three P. You don't no one knows because they've got nothing to benchmark it against. That's why one of the benefits of CareFuel is we we do all of that for you. We've got loads of data, we've got our pool of providers that we work with. We know exactly what the market's doing at any given time. So having someone like Care Fuel not only managing it for you, but saving you money is to me a no-brainer. No, definitely.
SPEAKER_00I mean I've learned a lot more about fuel cards and fuel in general in these two minutes. So that was good. And you sort of segregate really nicely there, Arthur, quite naturally, on to just how Care Fuel works. So well, let's let's just pretend for a second. I'm a logistics company, I've got 10 fuel cards with a fuel card company, it's not many names. I come to you and say, Arthur, here's my sort of fuel cards, and what what's your process? What do you actually do than Care Fuel as a business? How do you go about it?
SPEAKER_02It's the same for for all the clients that we work with. So we'll look at your current deal. Um, so we typically ask for at least four invoices. Yeah. But the more you can give, the better. Um, we run our review. So we look at all these things we talked about price drifting, hidden fees on the invoices, surcharges at certain stations. We then run a comparison to see if we can find you a better deal with another provider. Yeah. If we can, and you're happy with it, we'll show you the savings and we'll take care of the switch for you. So we'll set you up, we'll get your cards ordered, everything like that. So you don't have to do anything. Great. So if we just left you there, then the same would happen three months later, price shifting, hidden fees, surcharges. Yeah. So we thought we need another way to make sure that they stay on a good deal every week, not just today. Of course. And so we've added a price tracking or deal monitoring service. So every week we track your deal, we know exactly what you're paying, we see your invoices, and we track that against the market to make sure that you stay on a great deal. And if you're not, or if prices are changing, we'll step in for you on your behalf to make sure you stay on a good deal. Nice.
SPEAKER_00And you say step in. What does stepping look like? So do you contact the full fuel card company that you've put them in touch with, or do you switch their fuel cards again?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's it's more the relationship that we've got with the provider. So um they know the relationship that we've got with our clients and with the provider. And so at the beginning it was a little bit more tricky. Yeah, but now we've got the buying power. It's a lot easier to just say, you know, look, they need to be on this price, or the price is drifting a bit, you need to put it down. So it's in terms of our relationship directly with the providers that we can do it on the client's behalf without the client needing to get in touch with us or monitor it themselves.
SPEAKER_00That is great, it just shows the power of having that group buying power, doesn't it? Exactly. So even though, again, without naming any names, I'll know a big company that are still overpaying for fuel, even though they've probably got more fuel than you know, a hundred normal logistics companies. Yeah. Um, sometimes I think the bigger you are, the more that these companies probably feel like they can squeeze a little extra cash out of it's less noticeable.
SPEAKER_02And the margins make a big difference. Of course. 0.5p or 1p is is a big difference, even though it doesn't seem like it over a year. Of course, yeah. With hundreds of thousands of litres going through it, that's that's a difference.
SPEAKER_00It does make a big difference, doesn't it? Huge difference. Um that's uh that's amazing. I think the I think that bit of it, that second part, because you know, the switcher saving, you know, is something I'm super familiar with. You know, you're on a so I worked in telco before I worked in comparison. Um and I worked in comparison, it was for telco, so it was sort of telco really. Uh but you always knew that the customers were getting a better deal almost on day one, right? Because they'd be paying 40 quid and you say, I'll pay 30 quid, you know, blah blah blah. And then you 10 bucks a month, great. Um but to stay on a good deal in those environments, you have to switch, right? Because if you don't switch, then like you said, you're gonna go up. And most of these deals nowadays come with like 12 months of 20% off, but then that removes it and it puts it up higher than what you'd pay if you were a new customer. Yeah, exactly. So that second bit of your service, which is monitoring and tracking the price, that's really the key bit. Exactly. Without that, it's doesn't work, does it?
SPEAKER_02Exactly right. Um, like I say to all our clients or anyone that comes to Carefield to say, you know, how good my deal is, you can go and speak to Firefuel car providers and they'll give you a fantastic deal. You'll see the best rates you've ever seen. Yeah. Um, it'll be a no-brainer to switch to them. Yeah. But like I say to them all, it's not about the price you pay this week. It's about the price you pay every week for the next 52 weeks. Of course, yeah. Not what you pay today. Um because the price changes every week, there's an opportunity to um price just every week. Whereas with a deal that's 12 months, you know, they have to wait 12 months before they can increase your price. So it's very quickly for a it's very easy and quick for a company to get your business by offering you cheap rates and then slowly increase them. So um but the price tracking part is the key bit really, the clutch bit.
SPEAKER_00Now I'm gonna ask a fairly facetious question here, given that your product is free. Yes, good question. Why wouldn't you why wouldn't you use a company like CareFuel if you've got fuel cards? That's the question I'm asking myself this year.
SPEAKER_02Like like like we like we say to everyone, yeah. Um we we ru the first thing we do is like we said run a review of your deal. Yeah. There's only two outcomes. Either you're on a fantastic deal, yeah, and we'll tell you to stay put, we'll say, look, we can save you half a penny, it's not worth switching. Yeah, you're not got any hidden fees or surcharges, you're on a good deal, stay where you are. We'll check again in a month's time. Yeah. Peace of mind that you're on a good deal. Yeah. The second option is you save thousands. So it's literally a win-win. Of course it is, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I mean, again, like uh I thought you were gonna say that. So, really, for for me, if anyone is listening and they're using fuel cards, uh, it doesn't make sense not to at least contact Care Fuel and say, Can you review my bills? Because you're gonna do that for free, and like you said, there's one or two outcomes, right? And a bit for us, one of the things we obviously offer a free system to our customers. Uh now there are some bits to our proposition that can make it, you know, some there's some decisions to be made. Um, but for you guys, it feels even like there's l even less reason not to do it because it is only upside. So why do you think people don't do it? Is it just just a bit of an urshore or is it just understanding the model that you guys run?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think because most people or most fleets will have at some point been overcharged by their fuel car provider in the past. Yeah. And they have probably switched every year or every two years, and the same thing's happened. Yeah. And so their view of fuel cards in general is quite negative. Got yeah. And so anytime, for example, when I first started Care Fuel, yeah, I did two weeks of coal calling just to see. You know, I wanted to speak to people, I wanted to see what the industry was like for people I didn't know. Yeah. Random fleets. Everyone put the phone down. As soon as you mentioned fuel cards, I mean, you know, coal calling is not uh high conversion rates in general, but it was every single one for two weeks. Really? And it's just because they know how the fuel card industry is, and they know that even if you can be offered really good rates today, that doesn't mean I'm gonna be on good rates in the future. Yeah. So that is the most difficult part of Care Fuel. Of course. Is getting people to understand how our service works. Once they're through the door, it's it's straightforward because, like we said, it's either you're on a good deal or you save thousands.
SPEAKER_00Really interesting. Yeah. Uh okay, that that and that does, and we're jumping a little bit ahead here, but that does make sense as to why working with a company such as ours that's sort of opening that door and sort of saying just have a conversation, that really does help, doesn't it? I guess.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because we're gonna talk now, we've got a bit of a case study here for one of our sort of biggest customers, but someone that you've really helped. Uh so UCLS are good friends at UCLS. So we're just gonna talk a little bit about them briefly. But I know for a fact, if you called UCLS cold call and talked about fuel cards, you would not get a conversation with them. Exactly. So that's why Wise Advantage is so great because your connecting is No, no, yeah, no, you know what when you explain it, you explain it the way you just have around someone wouldn't take the phone call, um, which now I completely understand. Uh I do see why that patching is really valuable. And like I said, you wouldn't get into a comp not because a company like Uselus doesn't understand it, because they trust me, they do. Um, but uh just because they're busy and you know they'd be skeptical and they'd be like, who's this guy? Do you know what I mean? Maybe saying he can save us money on fuel, but everyone's got that little bit of ah, but what's in the U. Do you know what I mean? It's the old thing we get, yeah, it's free, but what's a catch? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02That's the biggest thing people say, well, how do you make money or what's the catch?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, of course, yeah. Well we'll come on to that because I think that is good for people to know. And I I I know that, but I think it'd be good for you to explain. But let's just talk quickly about UCLS. So you saved them what almost 30k, right, in in fuel. So what did that what did that look like? What was their sort of fuel setup? And you know, how did you go about approaching them as a as a customer?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the first thing we did was look at their setup. So they had quite good setups, to be honest. Yeah. They had three different providers, okay. Which overcomplicates things, but it can be quite good to keep your prices in check just because you've got a few different providers. But they had a lot of different teams, like a lot of fleets around the country. Yeah. And they're all using different providers, and they all had different cards. So there were quite a few different groups of cards and providers dotted around the country. At first glance, their the pricing was was pretty good. Um, but once we got in into their invoicing and once we'd done the review, um, we we uncovered all these savings. But you know, they were aware of it, they were aware that. They needed to change. They thought they were overpaying. They thought they were being surcharged at some sites. They just didn't know exactly like how or by how much or what the other options were. And so there's some fleets who've been with their provider for 10 years and they just stick with them. Yeah. There are others who are really aware, like UCLS, and they want to try and make these costs and efficiency gains, but uh they just don't know how. So approach it, yeah. Yeah, when we got into their invoices, they were exactly right. They were paying uh surcharges at some sites up to 10p above what their original price was. Uh they were paying fees with all their providers, like admin fees and service fees. Yeah. Um and when we ran a comparison of their pricing over sort of a 12-week period, they were overpaying by about 4p, but then with the fees on top, it was about 6p. Um so altogether it was close to £30,000 in saving that we could um find them by by tracking their deal for them.
SPEAKER_00Amazing. And did you go from three providers to one in that process?
SPEAKER_02So the this was why it was an interesting case because usually if it's with one provider, we find them a better deal with another provider. Yeah. But we thought adding a fourth provider and complicating this whole thing would would would cause a mess. So we actually found them a better deal with one of the providers they're already with. Okay. So they didn't have to go through all the sign-up process on boarding, everything like that. So um we simplified it massively for them. Yeah. We removed the fees um that they were paying, it's about three and a half thousand pounds a year. Wow. We ordered them new cards, we separated the groups out across the country. So each group of fleet of uh vehicles had their own cards, yeah. Uh, and we removed the surcharges. So it was really simple. Um, not just for the drivers because they knew what stations they were going to with one card, not managing loads of different cards. Yeah. It was easy for the fleet managers because they could see exactly where their drivers were spending, and it was easy for the finance team because it was one provider, one portal, one invoice, one set of transactions. Now their deal is managed by Carefield every single week, so they don't have to worry about price drifting and fees coming in and surcharges coming in six, seven, eight weeks down the line. It's great.
SPEAKER_00So good. Uh Ricky It's a really good case. It was really fun. Ricky at UCLS owes me a beer. Again, that's another beer he owes me. One day you'll get his wallet out. Yeah. Always the same. Uh but that's uh that's so interesting, actually. I didn't realise all the complexities that went into. That's really good. And and just from a start-to-finish perspective, how long does that process take? So we obviously introduce you to to UCLS. What sort of time between talking first get introduced to sort of deploying the new fuel cars? What did that time process look like?
SPEAKER_02So typically, I mean, we can return a review back in less than 24 hours. Okay. So we received their invoices and um we sent them back the report, you know, it was within a few hours. Um but typically it's within 24. Um, just because it was um quite a large fleet, we then set up a call video call with them to go through it all. Yeah. Uh so that was probably another couple of days. Yeah. Um, but in terms of changing over their account, there wasn't anything to do. So there's no uh sort of um credit approval process or onboarding. So that was pretty much done instantly. Wow. And then it was just ordering the new cards, which typically take it take about two weeks, so not long at all. Um the longest part is probably because they had you know depots and sites all over the country getting the cards out there. The logistical bit of actually getting the cards out. Yeah, so it was about a month or just over a month.
SPEAKER_00A month for 30 grand. Something like crazy. I mean it's bang the buck, it's one of the best savings you can probably make. Absolutely, yeah.
SPEAKER_02The the biggest thing for them is well, obviously the saving on diesel, but the fees that they were paying. You know, it's it's not obvious to spot those unless you're checking every week. So um that was a big saving for that as well.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that is brilliant. I'm really good. Um, so you know, we've sort of touched on it as we've been going, um, but you know, but clearly this has been a nice partnership between WISE and Care Fuel so far. Why do you think it is working so well between uh between the two businesses? What do you think the difference is that by joining up together?
SPEAKER_02I think uh mainly it's your relationships with the clients that you've got. You've really got strong relationships. So all the people that I speak to are WISE will be account managers. Yeah. When they're making introductions um to your clients in Carefield, it's a really easy conversation, it's an easy transition. And so, like we said, with that initial that initial barrier of talking about fuel cuts, yeah, that's completely gone with Wise Advantage because it's really simple to get through to that first stage of running the review. Yeah. Um, and then once we got the first few over the line and we could show show the savings, yeah. Um, it was really great for your team because they could just say, look, this is what's happened with some of our clients already. Of course. Send your invoices to CareFuel, let them do the rest, and you could save thousands. So um definitely the relationship that you've got with your clients is is is fantastic.
SPEAKER_00No, that's great. Because you know what? I mean, you know, we've covered this so many times in the other podcasts, but you know, we genuinely mean this, you know, we want to try and save customers and drivers and these people money. So you know, doing something like this that is no cost, he's just uh one of the biggest no-brainers that that's out there. So that is great. And how many customers have we put to you so far, Arthur? How many that you actually you guys said? Oh, it's over 20 to 30 or so.
SPEAKER_02Really? Um about I'd say 10 of them are you know signed up and and and ready to go. The m most of them we've reviewed um at least, or recently have been quite a few, and a handful of them are on good deals. So we've we've been monitoring their pricing every week.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because there was the one guy, wasn't there, that you reviewed and you just switched fuel cards, hadn't they?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I remember that. That was early days, wasn't it? And like we said at the beginning, if you just switch fuel cards, first it's a hassle switching, so we're not gonna switch you again. But secondly, you're probably on a good deal because they tried to get your business, you're on a good deal, so yeah, we we left them to it. But there was um one example, uh EcoDrive Logistics. When we first got in touch, they were on a fantastic deal. They sent over some invoices. We could save them maybe half a penny. Yeah, they had no fees, no surcharges. So we said, look, stay where you are. Yeah. And at the end of all those reviews, if they are on a good deal, we always say, you know, send us some invoices in a month's time and we'll do exactly the same thing, and we'll just let you know that you're still on a good deal. Sent them over, pricing a drift, overpaying by six P. That's how quickly it can change. Really? It was it was significant. That's probably one of the quickest sort of pricing drifts I've seen. Usually it's incremental, it's a a fraction of a of a penny here and there, and over. Five and a half p in a month. Really? And they were like, let's let's switch straight away. And they've now signed up and uh the cards are on their way. Jamie.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, you look like Jamie, one of my one of my favourites. Every week. Yeah, yes, I let everyone know I genuinely mean that. Yes. Everyone else listening was about you're one of my favourites, so a little bit choking. Um that's uh that's great. Uh I didn't know about the Eco Drive one, so that's super. There was very recent. Yeah, yeah. That's that's really good. That's really good. So I thought, look, that's obviously been a great sort of summary. I think let's go back. Sorry, because I did we did miss it, but I think it is important for you to say, because I know you're not you don't hide it. Um how do Care Fuel make their money in this?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so we wanted to keep the service free for um our clients because we think they shouldn't have to pay to be on the best fuel cut deal. Yeah. You know, that's what they were designed for to save you money. So you shouldn't have to pay for it for that service. So we make our money from the providers that we switch them to because it's new business. Yeah. Um, but it's important there's the fixed commission. So we don't make any more money um if the prices go up. So it incentivizes us to um keep your prices low because we get we get paid when when you use the fuel cards. So um that's how we make our money. It's through the providers themselves rather than from the clients.
SPEAKER_00No, I knew that was the answer, but I thought it was important for you to say because I think it's uh um you know, that's what some of the scepticism will be, right? You'll be like, well, how's it free? And how do you make your sometimes think you're worse off offering something for free than you might just say oh it's five pounds a month? Yeah, it means people maybe people will go, oh fiver, I might as well. Three, no way. Very much about charging, yeah, yeah, exactly. There you go. Yeah, charger five or a month, no problem. Is that the point? Um okay, no, so what would you say? So, you know, clearly I would say, you know, if you're not already working or using a company that does a service like a fuel card does, which I don't uh like a care fuel does, which I don't think there are many others out there that offer a service to you guys. I would say talk to Arthur and use Care Fuel. But if there's businesses out there that do manage it themselves and manage it well, what what are the what are the things that you would say to look out for? What are your sort of practical tips for them in terms of managing their fuel cards? There's there's loads.
SPEAKER_02Um the main thing I would say is check your invoices. Uh you receive sort of like a price, uh, a weekly price uh for the following week. So it says next week, this is going to be your price. Yeah. But that's like a headline price. That's like your best price for the week. Oh, right. Actually, if you look on your invoices, you're paying hidden fees, you're paying surcharges at some sites, and all of that stuff increases the average price that you're paying. Um, and so you may be judging your deal on your weekly email, but really when you look on your invoices, you're paying three, four, five, sixp more than that weekly price. So the first step is definitely look at your invoices.
SPEAKER_00Check your invoices. Absolutely. Okay, yeah, that makes sense. Surcharges, what what justifies a surcharge? You tell me.
SPEAKER_02They they they they're basically um they're basically you know, you get surcharges for using different sites. Yeah. Um, so um there may be a uh a company that offers a card where you can use certain stations. Um, but if you don't use those stations, you'll get surcharged for it. Yeah. Other companies don't give you one fixed price, they give you a range of prices and map out different sites across the country. Some are cheaper, some are more expensive. And so when you actually look at your invoices, what I always say is work out your average price. Yeah. Don't look at a specific transaction. Yeah. Get the total amount you spent on fuel divided by the total amount that you used in terms of volume, and that will give you your actual price.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. You would think uh again, as a as a complete novice and someone who knows nothing about fuel apart from a fill-up at BP. Um that that if it's let's say all BP stations, like the price will be the same everywhere.
SPEAKER_02You would think that, but uh that BP card could also be used at other stations potentially. Okay. And if you then use a shell garage, you might be charged 10p more than if you used a BP garage. Yeah, of course, yeah. And trying to manage, you know, two vehicles is fine, but if you've got hundreds of vehicles trying to make sure that they're using the right stations, that's definitely.
SPEAKER_00No, that that doesn't make sense actually. Yeah, of course, yeah. Okay. Also tip one invoices. What would you say after that is probably the next most important thing?
SPEAKER_02I think a key thing to think about with your pricing is I mean, there's a reason we check it every week. Uh we check it every week because prices can change so quickly, like we saw with Jamie at EcoDrive Logistics. Most people are aware of their fuel card deal when prices rise. Like that was a really good example with the US-Iran conflict. Prices have absolutely spiked. Everyone's talking about fuel, everyone's talking about their fuel card deal. Yeah. And so it's much less likely that you're going to be overcharged during a time like this. When prices fall, that is the time to be most aware of your pricing. That's really if your price drops, like we said earlier, by one P, how do you know it shouldn't be two, three, four, five P?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, that is really interesting. You're right, because you'd sort of everyone talks about it when it goes up, so you'd keep your difference small because you know people are gonna be looking at it. But then as it drops, like you said, you'd be going, oh, I'm saving money now. Saving money, yeah. Yeah, so that's really interesting. Okay, yeah, no, no, I get that. That makes uh that makes perfect sense. All right, so is it any any businesses that that are listening um and they want to get in touch with Care Fuel and kick off a process to review their bills, how can they get in contact with you? How easy is it to sort of start the process?
SPEAKER_02Um, there's plenty of ways, but the easiest one is to go through our website. Yeah. Um, and we've got a fuel card saving calculator on there. Great. You literally submit some of your details. If you've got invoices, even better. Submit them, and within 24 hours you'll get a completely free review and report of your current deal and a saving, annual potential saving if you can uh save with another provider. It's as simple as that.
SPEAKER_00Brilliant. Okay, great. So it's a super easy process to start. Great, good stuff. Okay, Arthur, anything that you think we've missed today in terms of care for all and what you guys offer? And you know, I'm not asked any questions that you thought would be good to good for me to ask is fine. I don't I don't mind. No, you've been fantastic. I wasn't asking for that. Review the host. Yeah, I just know yeah. That was um that was really great. Chat that was. Um I've learned uh uh a lot about uh fuel cars and fuel savings, uh which uh I'm not saying you'll get anything from it, but I've learnt a lot. Um definitely um great to have you on. Thank you. Thanks so much for coming in and thanks for being part of the What is Advantage programme. And I think you know, 30 introductions is definitely a tip of the iceberg. Uh so we'll do plenty more uh this year and look forward to working with you in the future.
SPEAKER_02No, see, it's been a pleasure. Thank you for having me on the pod.
SPEAKER_00Cheers, Kiva. Thank you. Take care. See ya. Thank you.
