Allstar Connects SMBs To Discounts On Fleet Spend

Fuel card company Allstar is targeting small businesses in the U.K. with a new initiative aimed at saving firms money.

In a press release sent to PYMNTS on Friday (Feb. 2), Allstar Business Solutions announced a partnership with garage groups in the country that provides a 10 percent discount on service, maintenance and repair costs for SMB customers that pay with the Allstar Plus Visa card. The company said more than 1,000 service shops in the U.K. are currently participating in the program.

Allstar pointed to its own research that found 82 percent of small- and medium-sized (SMBs) businesses have fleets without a discount program for suppliers of SMR (service, maintenance and repair). Nearly two-thirds of SMBs also noted that they typically approve of any SMR work by phone or email for fleet drivers.

According to Allstar, the company wants to address friction in that process by streamlining the expense management and reconciliation process. Visa fleet cards used automatically send fleet managers an invoice, while those managers can also place controls on fleet cards to better manage driver spend.

“It’s clear that the financial pressure on SMEs is growing, and, as a result, fleet management budgets are reducing,” said Thore Vestergaard, SVP and MD, Commercial Cards at FLEETCOR, Allstar’s parent company. “With that in mind, we’ve achieved an important step in delivering on our promise to bring additional value and support to customers through the Allstar Plus Visa Card.”

“By leveraging our network and strong partnerships, we have passed on the benefits to our customers with a minimum 10 percent rebate across all purchases, service, maintenance and repair work,” the executive continued. “We look forward to expanding the scheme this year to cover other expenses that fleet managers regularly incur, including sustenance and accommodation.”

SMBs can struggle to gain greater control of fleet spend. Research released last year by FuelGeanie found nearly a third of companies with fleets use traditional, manual processes, in which a driver uses their own funds and files and expense reports after transactions are already completed.