BPCL Partners With Fino Payments Bank On Fleet Payment Cards

BPCL has teamed with Fino Payments Bank in order to provide digitized card refills for fleet drivers in India, according to a report from The Hindu BusinessLine.

Before this, truck drivers had difficulty refilling their BCPL Smartfleet cards in and around Erode. But with the partnership, digitized cash in the form of prepaid cards will be available, letting drivers make payments for fuel at BCPL outlets. The payments will be made in equivalent cash at the bank’s point, the report says.

Biswajeet Sinha, Senior Divisional Head at Fino Payments Bank, said cash digitization through cash management is “one of the key services” provided to partners with large cash flow.

BPCL’s Fleet Sales Officer (Coimbatore region) S Sruti said the new partnership was the first of its kind in the country, and would help transporters effectively manage funds.

Over 450,000 transporters across the state use Smartfleet, the report says, and BPCL expects the daily recharge to be over ₹35 lakh. There are over 700 BPCL outlets in Tamil Nadu, according to the report.

Fino also boasts a network of over 5,000 small businesses, including kirana, mobile repair, dairy and other such things. The bank has facilitated over ₹1,800+ crore since the start of the 2020-2021 fiscal year.

In the U.S., trucking is a major industry and contains as many as 3.5 million drivers. But the challenge for them comes in keeping the truckers financed in terms of fueling, as well as basic needs like food. Repairs factor in, too. PYMNTS reports that carrying cash can be a security concern, and so minds in the industry are always looking for the best methods to ease expense management on the job. That can include some companies’ method of letting drivers take out cash advances and deliver some to business spending cards.

Supply chains have been shaken up by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well.

Grant Goodale, co-founder and chief technology officer at trucking services technology firm Convoy, told PYMNTS that the pandemic has made it more of a selling point for customers if businesses have an eCommerce business, giving holdouts a reason to embrace change.