Fuel Cards Market 2024 – Market Size & Segments Analysis, Industry Trends, Manufacturers Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast 2034

The fuel cards are also known as fleet cards or gas cards or payment cards that are used for purchasing fuel for vehicles like petrol, diesel or DEF and related expenses like vehicle maintenance and repairs. It is also used for parking, vehicle service, toll charge and others. These cards works like credit cards and swiped or issued to the businesses with fleets of vehicles, that allows them to streamline their fuel management process, monitor fuel expenses, and track vehicle usage more efficiently. These cards often come with features like detailed reporting fuel discount and the ability to set restrictions on the purchases, which makes them an essential tool for businesses looking to control and improve the overall fleet management, as it is linked to the bank account.

MARKET OVERVIEW

The market valuation of fuel cards market was valued at approximately USD 946.6 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach USD 3.6 trillion in 2034 exhibiting a CAGR of 15.6% during the forecast period of 2024-2034. Fuel Cards allows fuel purchasing and expense tracking insights to cost control for businesses with vehicle fleets. The market is aligned with diverse sectors, which makes it a sustainable and growing market.

GROWTH DRIVERS

The continuous increase in fuel prices worldwide is the significant driver for the adoption of the fuel cars because the businesses seek ways to manage and control their fuel expenses. The fuel cards offer discount rates, rebates and centralized expense tracking, which helps them to mitigate the impact of rising fuel cost. According to Statista, an increase in economic activity after COVID pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war led to benchmarks surging to highs not seen since 2008. In the months since the outbreak of the war, weekly crude oil prices rose, as traders expected severe bottlenecks following sanctions on Russian exports. Since the end of 2022, oil prices have largely fluctuated.

Geopolitical events such as the Red Sea crisis and Israel-Hamas war impacted oil transportation and demand outlooks. The adoption cashless payments are one of the significant drivers for the adoption of fuel cards. It is convenient and secure payment method, where the fuel cards offers a hassle freeway to make fuel purchases eliminating the need for cash transactions and reduces the administrative burden. According to Capgemini Research Institute, the non-cash transaction volumes will reached around USD 1.3 trillion in 2023 globally.

The consumers and businesses adopt new digital payment schemes, the report suggests this growth will accelerate to USD 2.3 trillion by 2027 growing at a rate of 15% annually. At a regional level, digital payments will grow by 19.8% across the Asia Pacific, 10.7% in Europe, and 6.5% in North America by 2027. The expansion of industries relies on fleets like transportation and logistics and delivery services. The demand for efficient fleet management solutions like fuel costs, is one of the significant drivers of the market, as the businesses are turning to fuel carts to monitor fuel usages, track vehicle performance and streamline the administrative process. The fuel card offers businesses with greater security and control over fuel spending. They provide features like pin protection, transaction limits and real time monitoring, helping them to prevent fraud and unauthorized purchases giving them a piece of mind and better control over their expenses, contributing towards market growth.

MARKET SEGMENTATION:

·         By Network Type – Branded Fuel Cards, Universal Fuel Cards and Merchant Fuel Cards

·         By User Type- Individuals/Consumers and Businesses/Fleet

·         By Vehicle - Light Duty (Class 1-2), Medium Duty (Class 3-6) and Heavy Duty (Class 7-8)

·         By Applications Fuel Refill, Parking, Vehicle Service, Toll Charge and others

·         By Region- North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, The Middle East and Africa, South America

Fuel Cards Market Segment By Network Type Review:

The brand fuel cars are typically offered by specific fuel retailers or oil companies tied to their network of fuel stations. These cars often come with benefits like discounts on fuel purchases, loyalty rewards and enhanced reporting features tailored to the specific fuel provider. The businesses that frequently use a particular brand of fuel may opt for branded fuel cars to take advantage of these benefits and streamline their fuel management process. The universal fuel cards, also known as network fuel cards, are accepted across multiple fuel networks, which provides users with greater flexibility and coverage as compared to branded fuel cards.

These cards allows businesses to fuel up at various frustrations within a broader network, including major oil companies, independent retailers and truck stops. The businesses with diverse fleets operating across different regions or countries prefers universal fuel cards for the flexibility and broader acceptance. The merchant fuel cards are issued by non-fuel retailers or merchants like the supermarkets, wholesale clubs or automotive service Centers for the use at their fuel stations. These cards are typically part of a broader or loyalty rewards program offered by the merchants. They provide incentives like discounts from the fuel purchases or reward points that frequently shop at the issuing merchant’s location.

Fuel Cards Market Segment By User Type Review:

The individual or personal opt for the fuel cards offered by various providers to access benefits like discounts, loyalty reward and convenient payment options for individual consumers. The fuel cards offers advantages like fuel tracking expenses, earning reward points or cashback. The businesses and fleet operators represents a significant segment of the fuel cards market as they rely on fuel costs to manage their fuel expenses for their vehicles. The fuel cards offer businesses and fleets a range of benefits like centralized fuel expense management, detailed report and control over fuel spending through customized usage and control limits. These cards are particularly valuable for companies with large vehicle fields like transportation and logistics companies, delivery services, construction forms, and public utilities.

Fuel Cards Market Segment By Vehicle Type Review:

The light duty (Class 1-2) vehicle, including passenger cars, SUV's, pickup trucks and vans used for personal transportation, commuting, or light commercial purposes. They use fuel cards for light duty vehicles catering to individual consumers, small businesses and companies with smaller vehicles fleets. The medium duty (Class 3-6) includes trucks, vans and buses that are used for a wide range of commercial applications like local delivery, transportation and utility services.

The fuel cards for medium duty vehicles are commonly used by businesses and fleet operators with larger vehicle fleets, require more fuel or daily operations. The heavy duty (Class 7-8) vehicle includes semi-trucks, tractor-trailers and other large commercial vehicles that are used for long haul transportation, freight shipping and industrial applications. The fuel cards for heavy vehicles are essential for long haul trucking companies, logistic forms and transportation providers operating large fleets of trucks. These fuel cars offer features like fuel. Network coverage. High transaction limits and more.

Fuel Cards Market Segment By Application Review:

The fuel refill is the primary and most common application of the fuel cards. These cards are specifically designed to facilitate the purchase of fuel at gas stations or fueling stations. It streamlines the process of fuel process purchases for the individual consumers, businesses and fleet operators. The fuel cards offers parking payment features which allows the users to pay for parking fees at designated parking lots, garages or parking meters. It allows convenient and seamless parking experience, eliminating the need for cash or credit card payments. It offers additional benefits like discounted parking rates, priority parking access, or parking reservation services.

The vehicle service application integrated into the fuel cars allows the users to pay for automotive services like maintenance, repairs and vehicle inspections, authorized service centers, or auto repair shops. The fuel cards offer toll payment features which allow the users to pay for toll charges as toll booth, toll plaza or toll roads. The toll charges applications integrated into the fuel cost provide users with a convenient way to manage toll expenses eliminating the need for cash or electronic toll collection devices.

Fuel Cards Market Regional Analysis:

North America is a valuable market driven by the factors like the region's robust transportation and logistics industry, coupled with growing need for fleet management solutions drives the adoption of fuel cards in North America. Europe is a significant market due to the factors like extensive network of commercial vehicles including trucks, vans and buses, fuel the demand for fuel cards to manage the fuel expenses efficiently. The region’s well established and robust automotive manufacturing hub is one of the significant drivers of the market.

Asia Pacific is a growing market driven by the factors like rapid economic development, which is driving the expansion of industries that relies on transportation leading towards the growth of the market coupled with growing adoption of cashless payments. The Middle East and Africa is promising market driven by infrastructure development including logistics and transportation infrastructure. South America market is expected to grow due to modernization and urbanization,

Key Challenges:

The competition from alternative payment methods like mobile payments or fleet management solutions, is a significant challenge for the market. The fluctuations in fuel prices may impact the fuel card user budgets and profitability, which may make it challenging to predict and manage fuel expenses if effectively, leading towards difficulty in the market growth. The fuel card market may face compliance challenges due to jurisdiction specific regulations like fuel taxation, data privacy and consumer protection. These operations may become more complex and expensive as a result of having to adjust to changing regulatory frameworks, to make sure tax laws and industry standards are followed and deal with possible legal and regulatory issues which may hinder the market growth and adoption.

Competitive Landscape:

In the highly competitive Fuel Cards market, companies are investing heavily in research and development to innovate and improve the product and services. They are also collaborating, forming strategi partnerships, or acquiring other companies to gain access to new market segments, enhance distribution networks, and increase market share. Recent developments includes – United States Bank collaborated with Mastercard to introduce the U.S. Bank Voyager Mastercard, in August 2021. Radius partnered with TRAVIS Road Services to address the challenge of inadequate parking for HGVs, offering convenience and safety for drivers, in November2023. PDI Technologies, Inc. collaborated with Equilon Enterprises LLC to launch the Fuel Rewards loyalty tier, in July 2023. Aral and LOGPAY collaborated to expand the fuel card business in Germany. LOGPAY customers can now pay with their CHARGE&FUEL card at any of Aral's 2,400 service stations in Germany.  LOGPAY Pay@Pump solution MOBILE FUELING to enable digital payment via the CHARGE&FUEL app directly at the pump, in October 2022. Comdata introduced a new payment solution merging fuel card benefits with existing credit card rewards for fleet owner, in November 2023. Enfuce formed partnership with Visa for Visa Fleet 2.0, in December 2023.

Global Key Players:

·         WEX Inc.

·         FleetCor Technologies Inc.

·         Royal Dutch Shell plc

·         BP P.L.C.

·         Engen Petroleum Ltd.

·         Sinopec

·         U.S. Bancorp

·         ExonMobil Corporation

·         China Petrochemical Corporation

·         IOCL

·         Other Players