Author Archives: meridithussery

Increasing inside sales for fleet

As a fleet card processor, about 45% of Intevacon’s transactions are diesel, and about 52% are regular gas. The value of the fleet card is that business owners can restrict products so that only business-related purchases are made with the card.

But we anecdotally hear from our petroleum marketers that their fleet card customers walk inside to make personal purchases at the beginning of shifts or at the end of a long day. NACS research indicates a decline of inside sales for the convenience store industry at the end of 2023.

Fleet card customers make frequent high dollar transactions each time they fill up their vehicles. This produces a great opportunity to create inside sales with personal payment while the vehicle is fueling. From what we have heard from our petroleum marketers, inside sales is a fleet card perk that isn’t captured on the fleet card. We hope to see the industry numbers increase in 2024 as more cardholders make inside sales.

Grow your business through funding opportunities

Our final video is directed at a group we affectionately call our “whales”. These fleet card issuers are looking to grow their profits by funding receivables through the Intevacon Fleet Card System.

The Intevacon Fleet Card System has all of the infrastructure to help you pursue new fleet card relationships without the overhead of building new stores.

Want to learn more? Reach out to Intevacon at moreinfo@intevacon.com or call 678-739-4450.

Grow your business with our starter plan

The video below would be a terrific way to introduce your dealers to the Intevacon system.

We offer special pricing that creates an advantage to our dealers and connects sites around the nation with the Intevacon Fuel Network.

Want to learn more? Reach out to Intevacon at moreinfo@intevacon.com or call 678-739-4450.

Grow your business through your dealers

We’ve put together a series of three videos to introduce ways that Intevacon can help you grow.

For the first video, see how you can add your dealers to the Intevacon Fuel Network to maximize your benefits with IFCS.

Want to learn more? Reach out to Intevacon at moreinfo@intevacon.com or call 678-739-4450.

Network Case Study: Partner’s Fuel and CNG America

The Intevacon Fuel Network continues to grow each month as more issuers sign up and more transactions are exchanged. For petroleum marketers who have never been exposed to networking, we know that it can be scary to open the doors for your customers to get fuel elsewhere. But our more seasoned customers have learned from experience that the Intevacon Fuel Network is a welcome opportunity for profit.

Our issuers have realized that when their cardholders travel outside of their scope of business, their only option is to find fuel elsewhere. So those issuers have started to proactively find sites on the network to help their cardholders continue to use their current fleet card instead of having to find other methods of payment. blog

That’s what happened with one of our customers in the midwest. Partner’s Fuel* had a cardholder who was looking for sites offering CNG, which Partner’s did not offer. So Partner’s Fuel reached out to Intevacon to see how the network might help. Pretty quickly, we were able to connect Partner’s Fuel with CNG America*, offering sites convenient for the Partner’s Fuel cardholders to fill up.

Partner’s Fuel is able to provide a service to their cardholder, and they retain the fleet business with a 2.5% margin on all fuel. This is business that Partner’s Fuel otherwise would have lost, and their cardholder could potentially have adopted a completely new fleet solution in his search for something that served all of their needs.

In 2017, over $26,000 of CNG product has been purchased as a network transaction between these two petroleum marketers. Partner’s Fuel is able to settle with a 2.5% profit, and the merchant is guaranteed 97.5% on his fuel.  We are excited to see how this relationship grows for Partner’s Fuel and CNG America. There are more and more network relationships popping up like this around the nation, and we love to be able to facilitate business for our customers.

CNG America

If you want to find out more about the Intevacon Fuel Network, reach out to us at 678-739-4450 or moreinfo@intevacon.com.

*names have been changed

Traveling the Network

The Intevacon Fuel Network continues to grow each month, as more petroleum marketers sign up to participate and more cardholders exchange transactions at network sites.

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It’s a process as we get sites online and coordinated, but it’s been so rewarding to see the connections being made and cardholders fueling where they do business.  We recently heard from one of our customers in South Carolina who needed to provide a fueling avg txnopportunity to one of his biggest cardholders 2.5 hours away.  Instead of losing the business, we connected him with one of our participating network sites. Now, the issuer makes a guaranteed 2.5% on every foreign transaction, and the merchant gets to keep 97.5%, which is better than he was getting with credit card fees.

There are no network fees or special requirements to join the network.  By utilizing the product plotnetwork, you maintain your cardholder loyalty, even if your cardholders travel to network sites. When your cardholders are traveling, which some inevitably will do, they have to purchase fuel somehow. If you can’t offer an alternative, they will use another form of payment to pay for their fleet needs. By utilizing the network, you are able to provide a service to your cardholders who travel while also making a profit of 2.5%.

If you want to find out more about the Intevacon Fuel Network, reach out to us at 678-739-4450.

 

 

 

 

Optimum billing practices with Intevacon

The Intevacon fleet card system is unique in that our petroleum marketers have a direct relationship with their cardholders, and each parameter of our system is customizable according to our individual petroleum marketer’s business rules.  The Intevacon system is a reflection of years of experience in this industry, plus the expert feedback from our customers.

Intevacon is successful when our customers are successful, and we know that tightening the window of receivables can help keep your fleet business growing and profitable.

Below are four areas that can be controlled for optimum billing practices.

  • Billing cycle: a shorter billing cycle keeps total receivables at a manageable number and decreases risk
  • Payment Terms: shorter payment terms ensure that you are paid quickly and that your receivables are kept in check
  • Finance Charges: for payments that are not made in a timely manner, you can set the finance charge rate, and apply it to delinquent customers
  • Credit Limits: set credit limits on all of your customers, or on select customers to ensure that charges remain within a comfortable threshold

Intevacon petroleum marketers may choose to provide fleet card services to all different types of accounts: commercial, consumer, government, etc.–and each of these customer types presents different needs, credit risks, and business rules.  With Intevacon, you can provide the best in fleet card services while also protecting your bottom line and growing your business.

The average fleet card purchase with Intevacon is 3-4 times greater than a general non-fleet card purchase.  Take advantage of this huge customer base by offering a fleet card through Intevacon’s online system.  To find out more about our services, contact us at 678-739-4450 or moreinfo@intevacon.com.

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Fleet accounts: the multiplication factor

Our customers have long told us that their fleet customers buy more fuel and make more non-fuel purchases than consumers.  Fleet customers are also predictable, regular customers because of the loyalty inherent with a fleet card.

Below are a few fleet statistics provided by brands such as Sunoco, CITGO, and Sinclair in a recent article by Oil Express titled “How to coax dealers to add fleet accounts” (Vol. XL Issue No. 16).

  • Fleet cardholders buy 15 times more gallons per month than the avg consumer
  • One new business or fleet customer is equal to 13 consumer customers
  • Fleets buy more fuel and visit sites more often to make inside purchases as well
  • Fleet cardholders have 10 times more fuel transactions than the avg consumer
  • 38% of fleet drivers make an in store purchase

Intevacon makes it easy to automate your house charges so that you can capture more fleet business and manage all of the details.  Using our system also makes fleet management easier for your customers with usage and product restrictions at the nozzle, card assignments by vehicle and driver, custom prompting, and real time updates.  Your customers also have user access to view their activity and assign drivers and vehicles.

Card ControlsWith Intevacon, you maintain the customer relationship and control your business activities.  Real time credit limits allow you the flexibility to manage your risk and sign up accounts big and small.

To find out more information, reach out to us at 678-739-4450 or email us at moreinfo@intevacon.com

Intevacon 2017 Trade Show Season

We are having a great year in 2017 as we grow the Intevacon Fuel Network and turn on sites around the nation. We’d love to add you to our map, so give us a call, or stop by one of the shows listed below to have a talk.

Everywhere not everybody.PNG

Western Petroleum Marketers Association (WPMA) National Convention and Convenience Store Expo: February 21-23, Las Vegas, NV. Booth #724

Southeast Petro-Food Marketing Exposition: March 8-9, Myrtle Beach, SC. Booth #2018

Gulf Coast Food and Fuel: March 15-16, Biloxi, MS. Booth #805

WPMCA Convention: April 11-12, Green Bay, WI. Booth #146

MPact: April 18-20, Indianapolis, IN. Booth #712

NAFA 2017 Institute and Expo: April 25-28th, Tampa, FL. Booth #1537

VeriFone Customer Forum: April 30-May3, St. Pete Beach, FL.

Gilbarco 2017 Retail Technology Conference: May 9-12, Myrtle Beach, SC

NYACS: May 10-11, Syracuse, NY

Southwest Fuel and Convenience Expo: May 16-18, Austin, TX. Booth #413

ADD Systems Business Tech Conference: May 16-19th, Lake Buena Vista, FL

NCR: June 26-29, Orlando, FL

NACS: October 17-20, Chicago, IL.

If you want to contact us outside of a trade show, we can be reached at 678-739-4450 or by email at moreinfo@intevacon.com.

Customer relationships and owning the contact list

As we all prepare for the upcoming NACS show, our inboxes are getting filled up by exhibitors and service providers trying to connect.  For better or worse, we all know the value of a targeted contact list.  For petroleum marketers, however, the nature of the customer is a lot more transient.  If you needed to reach out to each of the customers who regularly visit your convenience store or cardlock, would you be able to? 

One of our customers recently reached out to us because they are renovating one of their stores and they wanted to notify their regular customers and offer their alternate sites for fueling.  Using the Intevacon system, it was very easy to run a report of transactions for that site to see who traveled there regularly.  We matched it with their cardholder list, and they were able to personally reach out to their loyal customers.

Credit card companies have been using demographic information for years to target iStock_000009664255Smallcustomers for advertisements and special programs. You might talk to these customers every day at your sites when the drivers stop for a cup of coffee and a tank of gas, but if the customer is using a traditional credit card, that is where the relationship ends, along with a swipe fee. By utilizing a proprietary fleet card, petroleum marketers can not only own the contact list, they also grow loyal customer relationships by offering a service to their customers.

If you want to find out more about offering a proprietary fleet card to your customers through Intevacon, please reach out to 678-739-4450.  We’ll also be at NACS both #3853.  Would love to see you there!