The electronic fuel card for trucks

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When traveling on business trips, the expenses regarding fuel for the truck are the responsibility of the mandated company.

If the truck driver has to advance these amounts, the company he or she works for will then reimburse all the costs.

In the past there were the old fuel cards, later replaced with what is now called the
“electronic fuel card”,
a very useful tool that allows the trucker to pay for fuel without advancing any money.

Electronic fuel card, what is it?

The corporate fuel card prevents the driver from anticipating amounts; its introduction was necessitated by new electronic invoicing regulations.

The adoption of the electronic fuel card offers several advantages, both to the titles of transportation companies and its employees.

A corporate electronic fuel card is a debit, credit or prepaid card that the company gives to its employees to pay for fuel expenses during business trips.

With this payment tool, employees and owners can comply with current regulations, use electronic billing and eliminate all old fuel cards.

Fuel cards were used by businesses and professionals to make VAT deductions of expenses for the purchase of gas, diesel and gasoline.

On January 1, 2019, the European Directive 2014/55/EU on electronic invoicing and VAT recovery was implemented, sanctioning the continued use of the fuel card and the elimination of the old card.

This directive mandated exclusively electronic payment by employees and, registration of customer data by the gas station attendant.

Therefore, to take advantage of the VAT deduction for business expenses, the use of electronic invoicing is mandatory. If the company wants to recover VAT on fuel expenses, it will need to ensure that employees use traceable means of payment and receive the electronic invoice via e-mail.

Fuel card: the advantages

Clearly, the biggest advantage of the fuel card is that employees do not advance the money. In addition, payment is charged directly to the company’s bank account.

With the fuel purchase card, you can enjoy a targeted service with traceable payments and real-time tracking of all purchases and expenditures.

The card can be activated with any fuel distribution company; one of the most widely used is the Eni fuel card, but the IP and Q8 fuel cards are also popular.

Corporate cards, including virtual ones, can also be used by freelancers, simply by linking them to their corporate IBAN, to keep accounts more easily and accurately.

The VAT-registered fuel card can be a real rechargeable prepaid card, although, in this case, it is a bit more difficult to track payments. With the fuel card linked to an IBAN or a card with an IBAN, the entire service is digitized, including the consultation of transactions, so it is much easier to retrieve all the data.

Trucking companies receive online the email with the electronic invoice for all expenditures made with company cards by truck drivers and employed drivers.

In addition to gasoline, you can also use the fuel card to pay for any extraordinary maintenance, pay for washing and even highway tolls, subject to agreement with the mandated company.

Thus, starting in 2019 with the abolition of paper fuel cards and the mandatory adoption of electronic ones.

Employee and VAT-registered truckers can only use debit, credit or prepaid cards to pay for truck-related expenses.

Failure to do so will result in penalties for the mandated company or freelancer who fails to comply with the mandatory nature of this system.

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