Smart Chemical Solutions streamlines fleet operations and unlocks savings with Motive Card.

Challenge

Smart Chemical Solutions faced several challenges related to managing fuel expenses, tracking vehicle expenditures, and streamlining administrative processes. Their previous spend management provider offered little in savings, and was often unreliable, with unexplained card declines or software issues that affected card usability. 

Moreover, the absence of a centralized platform made it challenging to manage fuel and maintenance costs related to other aspects of fleet management, including fuel consumption and compliance. It was time-consuming and frustrating to have to rely on a third-party customer support line when administrators needed to make updates to spend controls.  

To address these challenges, Smart Chemical Solutions sought a reliable fleet card solution that would provide discounts, all-in-one insights to fleet performance, and the controls they needed to manage their cards.

Solution

Smart Chemical Solutions partnered with Motive, their existing fleet management provider, to implement a comprehensive fleet card and spend management application.

Smart Chemical Solutions had already been using Motive as their fleet management solution since October of 2021, and after realizing the opportunity to streamline their operations, decided to also use Motive as their fleet card provider to manage their spending. Motive’s comprehensive reporting and analytics across all fleet operations provided Smart Chemical Solutions with actionable insights into fuel consumption trends, driver behavior, and vehicle performance. Combined with spend data, these analytics helped identify potential areas for cost savings, route optimization, and improvement of overall fleet efficiency. 

According to Loretta O’Rourke, VP, HR & Risk Management, they’ve already seen the benefits of an all-in-one solution. 

“We’re already in the Motive Fleet Dashboard for our drivers’ ELDs to see what’s going on there, and it’s very helpful to have everything all in the same website, so we don’t have to log in and out and go to different sites. The fact that we can do everything on this one website…it’s huge.”

With their previous vendor, Smart Chemical Solutions saw hardly any savings, as Loretta puts it: with their previous card, the savings weren’t there. “We spent $3.4M in 2022 and we received $486.90 in discounts…the Motive Card provided competitive discounts on fuel and maintenance at thousands of partner locations. Since the Motive Card is backed by Mastercard, it’s accepted anywhere within the Mastercard network, so cardholders and the back office no longer have to worry about issues with cards being declined due to being out of network or for non-fuel transactions.

Loretta goes on to say, “Our CFO is happy with the cost savings from the Motive Card. Also, with our previous card, it was difficult getting vendors to accept it, especially with maintenance-related transactions. With the Motive Card, it’s much easier just because it’s a true Mastercard.”

The Motive Card offered immediate insights into detailed transaction data, including fuel type, volume, and location, providing comprehensive visibility into fuel expenses. This streamlined fuel management eliminated the need for manual expense reporting, saving time and improving productivity.

“I love that the transactions show up on the Fleet Dashboard immediately, so we can monitor things in real time,” said Loretta.

Motive Spend Management allowed Smart Chemical Solutions to easily set spending limits, restrict purchases to specific fuel types, and update limits for emergencies as needed, without relying on a third party.

In fact, Smart Chemical Solutions has found it really helpful to update controls on their own, depending on their immediate need. For example, they experienced an instance where a driver needed a rental car, which required an increased spending limit. By simply accessing the Motive Fleet Dashboard, they were able to change the spend category and dollar amount to provide the driver with the necessary funds instantly. Loretta adds, “previously the driver would have to pay out of pocket with their personal credit card, and either they wouldn’t want to do that or didn’t have the credit to. Now, that’s not the case anymore.”

Real-time transaction monitoring, spend controls, and customizable reporting tools provided the necessary oversight, ensured cardholder compliance, and improved security, reducing the risk of unauthorized purchases and fraudulent activities.

Results

The implementation of the fleet card program delivered substantial benefits to Smart Chemical Solutions, resulting in notable time and money savings. By leveraging the benefits of fleet expense discounts, spend controls they could manage in-house, and advanced analytics, Smart Chemical Solutions was able to streamline expense management, be more productive, improve fleet efficiency, and improve driver satisfaction.

In fact, since switching to the Motive Card, Smart Chemical Solutions has received an average monthly rebate of $4,879, or 3.6%, on fuel savings alone. 

Loretta concludes by saying “since we switched to the Motive Card, different people throughout my company have seen the benefits. Our CFO is happy to see the cost savings from the Motive Card. We, as the users, are excited about the capabilities and ease of it. We’re not having to struggle or worry about drivers not being able to get fuel or the card being declined. If a driver does have an issue, we’re able to immediately log in and find out what’s going on. Our drivers are also happy that everything is working well for them.”