BACKGROUND
By leveraging the scale of its business, Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) has the ability to research and identify new products and services to offer the company’s national dealership network. Recognizing that fleet fuel costs are a pain point for nearly every dealer, MBUSA set out to find the best fleet fuel card program to help their dealers better manage these expenses.
SOLUTION
“We chose the CSI global-fleet fuel card program because it offers the most comprehensive suite of tools available in the market,” said Cai Ramhorst, DM Product Management and Parts at MBUSA. “The dealers that have implemented this program have achieved significant savings.”
Through the partnership, MBUSA dealers, dealer groups and multi store operators have access to the CSI global-fleet fuel card program, offering universal acceptance, powerful controls and fuel discounts – all at no cost to the dealers.
One early adopter was Jim Troiola, Service and Parts Director at Estate Motors Inc., an authorized Mercedes-Benz dealer in New York.
“Before CSI global-fleet, our fuel card program was a nightmare,” recalls Troiola. “Employees would bring gas receipts back and give them to the wrong manager, put them in their pocket and forget about them or lose them altogether. It was impossible to reconcile those expenses every month.”
Estate Motors’ General Sales Manager, Bob Federico, shares how CSI global-fleet has solved that problem. “One of the benefits is that each department can be allocated their own card, and purchases on that card are charged directly to that department. Reporting is now a breeze.” CSI global-fleet offers online expense management tools that make it easy to control the cards, limit spending, or approve/block cards in real-time. “I can go online and set up the fuel cards any way I want them to work – by time of day, for weekend only – it’s that easy to use,” said Troiola.
The CSI global-fleet card also allows a discounted rate per gallon on fuel purchases. “Fuel is a significant cost for any dealership,” acknowledges Federico. “The ability to get discounts on every gallon of fuel is a tremendous cost savings.”