New Firm Takes Fleet Fueling To The Cloud

A new team with a background in the oil industry has formed to help commercial fleets embrace the cloud.

Reports by Fuel Marketer News on Thursday (Sept. 1) highlighted FuelCloud, the result of brother and sister team Kevin and Alex Bretthauer, with roots in the Bretthauer Oil Company. FuelCloud focuses on cardlock fueling, which sees the fueling of commercial fleet vehicles as automated and unattended to save time for drivers.

“The problem is that it’s $10,000 or more to put in a full commercial system,” Kevin Bretthauer said of the challenges corporates face when integrating a cardlock fueling system. “Then, you have this software on the back end to run. Customers used to just be fine with an invoice. Now, they have a service-based software program and accounting, and this is not just your big guys.”

“On the reporting side, it got so bad we had to hire a full-time person just to handle the reports for our customers,” he added.

FuelCloud offers a mobile app that enables users to use cloud technology to authorize the fueling process and a web-based platform so fleet managers can manage the back end of the process, reports said. Drivers enter the technical information of their vehicles so they can pull up to a cardlock fueling station with a tablet ready to connect to the mobile app.

“The driver will enter a PIN code, and the app calls back up to the website,” Kevin explained. “It says, ‘OK, you’re John Smith. I know who you are’ and tells the hardware to turn the pump on.”

The fueling meter then communicates via cloud technology to the app, and the transaction is completed in real time.

The system can also impose controls depending on specific drivers, vehicles, locations and other factors and can restrict the dollar and gallon amounts of fueling, the cofounder said. Fleet managers can add in custom fields as well.

FuelCloud had a soft launch earlier this year and is operating across the U.S. and Canada with 24 fuel distributors, reports said.