WEX Expands Freight Payments Presence In Brazil

Corporate payments company WEX is expanding in Brazil through a partnership with Raízen, a press release from the company issued this week said.

Raízen, which is the licensee of the Shell brand in Brazil, will enable freight drivers to pay for fuel with the WEX Frete card at fueling stations. WEX said the partnership will yield more than $28 billion a year in revenues.

According to WEX, the collaboration will lead to lower costs for highway cargo transport in the country and reduce overall logistics costs for companies. Raízen, meanwhile, said the partnership could lead to increased sales at Shell stations in Brazil. The companies highlighted new regulations in Brazil by the National Ground Transportation Agency, which require freight transporters and loaders to use electronic payments. The firms said these professionals are largely still relying on freight letters and paper checks.

“Since becoming regulated, electronic freight payment has seen a very slow adoption rate, since it hadn’t yet found a balance in the commercial relationship between truckers, transporters and gas stations,” said WEX’s Latin America CEO José Roberto Kracochansky in a statement. “We believe that through this partnership, we will precisely achieve this objective.”

“With this new product, we hope to provide greater profitability to our Shell retailers, greater control over sales and more volume,” added Raízen Highways and Diesel Manager Andreas Lips in another statement. “The objective is also to expedite, reduce costs and offer greater safety to truckers when refueling.”

Earlier this week, WEX announced the launch of ClearView Snap, a fleet expense analytics dashboard designed for smaller fleets and their managers.

The company is planning to release its Q1 2018 earnings results early next month.

WEX has competition in the freight payments market from several players, including Uber Freight. The company best known for its ridesharing app announced in March that it would begin using driverless trucks for its freight service.