Delivery and light truck drivers may incur transportation-related expenses while they are on their routes. One way that their employers can facilitate these purchases is to give the employees prepaid transportation cards to purchase gas and to pay for other delivery-related expenses.
As more people choose to purchase products online through e-commerce sites, the e-commerce package delivery driver industry is also expected to grow. This makes it a good time for people to be delivery or light truck drivers.
Over the next 10 years, the employment of delivery drivers is expected to grow by 5 percent.
What are transportation prepaid cards?
Transportation prepaid cards are cards that are designed for transportation and delivery businesses. The companies can purchase the cards and decide how much money to allocate to each one. Unlike delivery business credit cards, the money on delivery business prepaid cards is the business’s own and will not add to the debt of the company.
A delivery driver who is given a delivery business prepaid card can use it to purchase fuel. If they have to stay in hotels, the cards might be used to pay for lodging and for other travel-related delivery expenses.
Delivery drivers deliver goods to homes and businesses. They may drive over-the-road or on local routes. Light truck drivers such as those who work for UPS, FedEx, and USPS may drive along local routes and be home every night.
The expenses that delivery drivers have during their working hours are easily managed with prepaid cards for delivery businesses. The companies can decide how much money to make available on the cards, and the workers will be limited to the chosen amounts.
The jobs of light truck drivers
Light truck drivers are drivers who drive cargo vans or trucks that have a gross vehicle weight of less than 26,000 pounds. There are many different types of light truck drivers, including, but not limited to, the following:
- Bulk delivery drivers
- Escort vehicle drivers
- Residential drivers
- Route delivery driver
- Service provider
These drivers must keep and turn in money and receipts from their deliveries. They must keep logs of their deliveries and the cargo that they carry. They also must drive their vehicles in a manner that complies with the law and to make sure that their vehicles are kept in good working condition.
Benefits of prepaid transportation cards
In addition to delivery and truck drivers, delivery business credit cards and delivery business debit cards can also be used for commuters. Delivery business credit cards are flexible and can help with transportation costs for things such as rideshares. They can also be used to purchase plane tickets.
All of the potential uses of an employee expense card for transportation businesses are determined by the businesses. The allowed use of credit cards for transportation companies should align with the businesses’ expense policies.
Prepaid cards for delivery companies can benefit employees because they will not need to worry about expense reimbursements and keeping track of every cost. An employee expense card for delivery companies can have controls built directly into the cards to make the spending transparent and to make it easy to track.
How an employee expense card for transportation companies can simplify tracking
An employee expense card for transportation companies can simplify expense tracking and reports in the following ways:
- Expense reports can be generated at any chosen interval
- Businesses can log into their expense management dashboards and see what has been spent on each card whenever they wish
- Expenses can be tracked in real-time
- Cards can be turned off or on at any time remotely
An employee expense card for delivery companies makes all of these functions possible. An employee expense card for delivery businesses allows business owners to control when and where the cards can be used and how much can be spent with each card.
How a delivery business prepaid card can benefit drivers
An employee expense card for transportation companies can be beneficial to individual delivery drivers. Employees could avoid having to purchase fuel with their own money and wait to be reimbursed. They could also take pictures of the receipts and submit them electronically.
People who are employed as food delivery drivers can also benefit from these types of cards. A restaurant could use a card API to generate a virtual transportation card to make available to the delivery driver to use on his or her smartphone. Restaurants that accept payments via Google Pay or Apple Pay can allow customers to make purchases using those with a virtual card API. The restaurant could also add the amount of money that is needed to pay for the fuel that will be used to make the delivery. Once you have programmed your application, you will not have to worry about completing the process manually.
Flexible and customizable transportation card controls
Prepaid transportation cards allow businesses to have an employee transportation program that is customizable and flexible. Instead of a delivery business credit card, companies may instead want to look for an employee expense card for delivery businesses that offer extensive card controls.
The best employee expense card for transportation businesses is one that comes with built-in controls. These controls should include the following features:
- Ability to set spending limits by the day or week
- Ability to turn the cards off when the employee is not working
- Ability to restrict where the cards can be used
- Ability to prevent unauthorized purchases
- Ability to see the purchases that have been made in real-time
- Ability to turn a card off instantly at any time
These types of card controls work equally well for local and national delivery companies. A transportation card can be easily scaled to grow your business.
Others who can benefit from transportation cards
Transportation prepaid cards can also be useful for people who do not deliver products but who do have to travel as a part of their jobs. For example, skilled laborers and installation technicians with per diems can use the transportation cards to travel from job site to job site.
Skilled laborers who might benefit from using these cards include the following:
- Meter technicians
- Electricians
- Boilermakers
- Installation support technicians
- Masons
- Construction laborers
- Photographers
- Pipefitters
Businesses can restrict the purchases to authorized purchases that would be reimbursable such as fuel costs, food, lodging, and other related expenses.
The impact of e-commerce on the transportation industry
By 2025, revenue will increase to 563.4 billion dollars in the U.S. e-commerce industry. As e-commerce has grown at an unprecedented rate, the transportation industry will be positively impacted.
As e-commerce grows, light trucking and delivery drivers will become increasingly common. By giving the drivers debit cards to use for their expenses instead of credit cards for delivery companies can help businesses and drivers to make purchases when they are needed without having to worry about incurring interest charges or adding to the businesses’ debt.
What card do transportation companies choose?
Many transportation companies choose the Bento for Business Visa debit cards because it comes with the types of benefits that transportation cards have but offers more robust controls. Businesses are able to create the cards from their online dashboards or through a transportation prepaid card API.
Bento has thousands of loyal customers and has earned great reviews. Bento offers a free 60-day trial, or you can request a personalized demo to see how the cards work. To learn more, call us today at 866.220.8455.
