Ditching the fuel card: How to manage fleet expenses

Fleet expenses have a habit of getting messy fast. It’s easy for costs to slip through the cracks. Finance teams lose visibility, drivers get frustrated and month-end turns into a clean-up job.

Traditional fuel cards often create more friction than they remove. Luckily, there’s a better way to manage fleet spend – one that keeps control firmly in place without slowing drivers down.

With Pleo, you can replace rigid fuel cards with flexible company cards, automate mileage tracking and capture every expense in real time. The result is a cleaner, more transparent way to manage fleet costs from day one.

Here’s how to do it.

Key takeaways:

• Replace restrictive fuel cards with flexible company cards that work anywhere, including petrol stations and EV charging points.
• Track mileage automatically without spreadsheets or manual logbooks.
• Set clear spend controls for fuel, maintenance and ad hoc vehicle costs.
• Capture and categorise every expense in real time for full visibility.
• Monitor cost per vehicle and per mile to make smarter fleet decisions.

Why traditional fuel cards fall short

Fuel cards were designed for a simpler time. But modern fleets don’t operate in a single network or even a single fuel type anymore.

Common challenges include:

• Limited acceptance at specific fuel stations
• No visibility into non-fuel expenses like parking or maintenance
• Manual receipt collection and reconciliation
• Separate systems for fuel, mileage and reimbursements
• Delayed or incomplete reporting

As fleets evolve, these limitations become more obvious – especially when teams are distributed, vehicles are shared or electric charging is part of the mix.

Between fuel cards that only work at certain stations, paper receipts stuffed into glove compartments and mileage tracked in spreadsheets, things tend to get messy fast.

That’s where a more flexible approach makes a difference.

How to manage fleet expenses with Pleo

1. Replace restricted fuel cards with universal Pleo cards

Traditional fuel cards often only work at specific petrol stations. Issue Pleo cards – physical or virtual – to your drivers instead.

Drivers can fuel up at any station or pay for EV charging without worrying about network restrictions.

You can issue a dedicated vehicle card for each van or truck, or give individual cards to your drivers.

2. Set up automated mileage tracking

For employees using personal cars or for tracking company vehicle usage, enable the Pleo Mileage feature.

Drivers enter their start and end points in the Pleo app. Pleo automatically calculates the distance and applies the correct reimbursement rate (e.g. HMRC’s 45p/mile or your own custom company rate).

This removes the need for manual logbooks and helps ensure mileage claims are accurate and compliant.

3. Set granular spend controls for fuel and maintenance

Control fleet costs by setting specific limits on cards used for transport.

Set a monthly limit that covers expected fuel and minor maintenance (like oil or screen wash).

If a vehicle needs a major repair, you can instantly increase the limit for that one-off transaction from the dashboard, then revert it immediately.

4. Capture receipts and tag by vehicle

Require drivers to snap a photo of their fuel or parking receipt the moment they pay.

Create Tags for each vehicle in your fleet – e.g. using registration numbers.

By tagging every expense to a specific vehicle, you can see the total cost of ownership for each one in real time.

5. Centralise parking and toll payments

Connect fleet-related apps like parking or toll services to your Pleo cards.

Instead of drivers paying out of pocket for parking and claiming it back, the company pays directly.

Use Pleo Fetch to automatically pull in digital invoices and match them with the correct transactions.

6. Monitor cost per mile in real time

Use the Pleo dashboard to filter spending by your fleet or vehicle tags.

This makes it easier to:

• Identify inefficient vehicles
• Spot unusual spending patterns
• Compare cost per mile across your fleet

With real-time data, you can make better decisions about routes, maintenance or vehicle upgrades.

Pro tip: If you have a large fleet, you can use Pleo's Categories to separate fuel from vehicle maintenance and parking, giving your finance team a perfectly categorised breakdown for your profit and loss statement.

From fuel tracking to full fleet visibility

With Pleo, the biggest shift is moving from isolated expense tracking to a connected system.

Instead of managing fuel, mileage and maintenance separately, everything sits in one place:

• Card payments for fuel and charging
• Mileage claims for personal vehicle use
• Parking and toll expenses
• Receipts and invoices attached automatically
• Tagged data for reporting and analysis

This gives finance teams a complete picture of fleet spend without needing to piece it together manually.

Smarter fleet spend starts with Pleo

Managing fleet expenses shouldn’t rely on workarounds.

Drivers shouldn’t have to search for approved petrol stations. Finance teams shouldn’t have to chase receipts. And cost visibility shouldn’t arrive weeks after the fact.

By replacing fuel cards with Pleo, you create a system where:

• Drivers can pay where they need to, when they need to
• Every expense is captured and categorised instantly
• Spend is controlled through limits, not restrictions
• Fleet costs are visible in real time

The result is a smoother experience for drivers and a stronger level of control for finance.

No more gaps. No more guesswork. Just clear, connected fleet spend from the first mile to the last.