The company, a major independent provider of managed print and document-centric services, implemented its new fuel approach in December 2015. The scheme uses the Barclaycard Fuel+ fuel card and The Miles Consultancy's mileage capture, audit and control solution.
Following the implementation, fuel costs for the company's fleet of 400 company cars, 160 cash-allowance cars and 40 commercial vehicles dropped by 13.8% in real terms in the first quarter of 2016.
As well as significantly reducing the fuel bill, the TMC-Barclaycard solution has enabled Danwood to increase the level of VAT it recovers on business fuel. The company has also introduced a tax-efficient mileage reimbursement scheme for its cash allowance users.
“On top of those improvements, the new system has eliminated around 40 hours of internal fuel expenses administration time each month,” said Geoff Wray, Danwood's head of fleet and facilities. The freed-up time has enabled his fleet executive, Charlotte Strong, to take on an enhanced role in the department, reflected by a step up in pay grade.
The solution features a Chip & PIN-authorised, VISA-powered fuel card, which is accepted by over 98% of UK petrol stations as well as at sites across Europe.
Fuel+ allows Danwood’s employees to refuel securely at virtually any forecourt, including all supermarkets, at the pump price and with no transaction fees on top of the cost of fuel. TMC captures complete, proactively-audited, HMRC-compliant business mileage records via an online reporting portal, a GPS-enabled smartphone app and customers’ telematics data feeds.
Danwood now recovers the private element of drivers' fuel spend at actual cost, with Geoff Wray adding this is now possible because the TMC-Barclaycard solution supplies complete, accurate and timely data.
He added: “The level of the audit I am seeing and the fact that it has taken a lot of responsibility away from my team; if anything, it has exceeded what we expected to see. The professionalism of both sides of the venture has just been fantastic for us. From the top of the company down to our engineers on the road, all I have received is positive feedback. It’s made my job a lot easier and my team’s job a lot easier.”
