Architectural Surfaces speeds up IFTA reporting and cuts fuel costs by 5% with Motive Card.

Challenge

Under their previous fleet card provider, Architectural Surfaces experienced many challenges — but none quite as costly as the inaccurate spend reporting on their fleet card. 

“I would go into the system to run a transaction report, and when the billing came, it was totally different,” recalls Mike Meeker, fleet manager and environmental health and safety specialist for Architectural Surfaces. “That made for long days and nights trying to figure out the accuracy of our spend reporting.”

The spend reports had several listings for miscellaneous fuel, which confused managers as well as regulators. “It created a lot of chaos for our IFTA reporting, and ended up costing us when it came time to file,” Meeker says.  

There was also the issue of their ELDs. Difficult to navigate, drivers fumbled with them as they drove. Outsourced technical support from the ELD provider did little to help, and Architectural Surfaces rarely got the quick response they needed. 

“They’d put me on hold, 15 minutes later, they’d return and say, ‘I was unable to connect you,’” Meeker says. “Then they’d put me on hold again. I told my representative, ‘I’ve been spending upwards of one hour on the phone trying to get something fixed, and you guys can’t seem to do it.’”

Solution

Looking for more accurate and streamlined fuel spend reporting, Architectural Surfaces switched to Motive Card. The Motive Card allows Architectural Surfaces to create IFTA reporting directly from their Motive Fleet Dashboard, resulting in a much smoother process. Setting up the program and issuing cards to drivers is easy. And since Motive Fleet Card spend reporting is accurate, Meeker no longer has to spend his weekends figuring out billing.

With the Motive all-in-one platform, Architectural Surfaces houses compliance, safety, maintenance, and fuel spend information in one place, giving them a 360-degree view of fleet operations and a holistic understanding of safety performance.

Since investing in Motive AI Dashcams last December, Architectural Surfaces hasn’t had a single at-fault accident. Meeker attributes that improvement to proactive driver coaching and the exoneration power of video. 

In coaching drivers on unsafe behaviors such as rolling stops and speeding, Architectural Surfaces has been able to correct high-risk behaviors before they’ve led to an accident. And in at least three instances, the company’s drivers have used dash cam video to exonerate themselves from blame.

Because the Motive Driver App is so easy to use, Architectural Surfaces’ drivers no longer have to fumble with their ELD devices while they’re driving. 

Results

All of this has made Architectural Surfaces a more profitable business. Since switching to Motive, they’ve seen a significant reduction in speeding violations and a 5% savings in fuel. These improvements have inspired Architectural Surfaces to incentivize drivers for safe driving and ELD compliance.

“Being able to track our progress in real time with Motive lets us go back to our drivers and show them how they’re improving,” Meeker says. “It motivates our team and gives them something to strive for every day.”