SQS: Catching Fuel Card Misuse Across Nearly 400 Vehicles

At a glance

Client: SQS (Stanmore Quality Services), a reinstatement and surfacing contractor

Contact: Daniel O'Mara, Performance and Business Improvement Director

Fleet: Nearly 400 vehicles

Fuel spend: £3m per year

Fuel sources monitored: Shell fuel cards, Tecalemit on-site fuel tanks, on-site bowsers

Telematics: Webfleet

SQS now monitors every transaction on its £3m annual fuel spend with 90% less manual work, after years of reviewing them by hand.

The client: SQS

SQS (Stanmore Quality Services) is a family-run reinstatement and surfacing contractor, founded in 1996. It delivers street works, highways maintenance and utility projects for electricity, water and gas utilities and local authorities across London, the Home Counties and the South East.

Why manual fuel checks didn't scale

SQS runs street works and utility crews across London, the Home Counties and the South East, so fuel is bought by many teams at many sites. Daniel checked every one of those transactions himself to spot misuse.

"For years I was manually going through every fuel transaction to identify potential misuse. With a fleet of nearly 400 vehicles, this was incredibly time consuming. I had been to several companies to try and find a solution that would manage this process for me, without any success."

Why SQS chose Fleevo

SQS connected its Shell fuel cards, Tecalemit on-site tanks and Webfleet telematics to Fleevo and started a trial. Every fill was now checked automatically, cutting Daniel's manual work by 90%.

"As soon as I had the Fleevo demo I knew it was the right system. Without the manual administration we are able to monitor every transaction on our £3m per annum fuel spend."

How Fleevo found a missing jerry can of fuel

During the trial, Fleevo flagged fuel missing from one vehicle: exactly one jerry can's worth. SQS investigated and found a team filling a jerry can. A manager had authorised it, but it showed a process SQS needed to manage better. Fleevo suggested a simple fix: enter CAN when a fill is for a jerry can, so authorised fills are recorded and don't look like misuse.

What changed for SQS

• Multiple cases of fuel misuse found, including card sharing and unexpected product purchases.
• Mobile fuelling companies removed, with significant savings. With every transaction monitored, SQS was confident giving teams back individual fuel cards.
• Automated carbon reporting, downloaded in one click.

How Fleevo detects fuel card misuse

Fleevo connects a fleet's fuel cards to its telematics and checks every fill. Transactions that fail a check are flagged for review, so nobody checks them by hand.

• Distance from site: the card was used while the vehicle was away from the pump.
• Fuel level rise: litres paid for that the tank gauge never registered.
• Tank capacity: more fuel bought than the tank can hold, from fill history or your specs.
• Miles since last fill: filled up again after far fewer miles than usual.
• Fuel type: petrol bought for a diesel vehicle, or the other way round.
• Premium fuel: premium diesel or super unleaded bought where regular would do.
• Card history: every fill on that card in one click, to spot a card moving between vehicles.
• Consumed vs purchased: fuel bought over the period that the engine never burned.

Fleets can also write their own AI rules in plain English, such as "Flag any fill on a spare card" or "Flag any vehicle that fills twice within an hour". Fleevo applies them across the whole fleet, every day.

Fleevo works with your existing fuel cards and telematics systems. Setup takes 48 hours once access to your telematics API and fuel data is granted.

See how Fleevo's fuel card fraud detection works, or browse the fuel cards and telematics systems Fleevo integrates with.

Working with Fleevo

Some SQS teams deliver fuel to site by bowser, outside the fuel card network. Fleevo built bowser monitoring for SQS. Each on-site bowser's fuel level is tracked over time, so SQS can see every top-up and every draw-down, bowser by bowser.

"Not only are they incredibly knowledgeable subject matter experts in their field, but they also bend over backwards to make sure they deliver what you require. My experience of most systems is they are very rigid, and if you try to deviate from the core system any changes take a long time and often a compromise to what you originally requested. Fleevo is the opposite, they mould the system around your requirements."

See what Fleevo would find in your fleet

Email info@fleevo.io to see Fleevo running on your own fuel card transactions.