[jaylabor]

I give our salespeople free reign with a company fleet gas card. They are the best in our business but I am worried they may be abusing it for personal use knowingly or even unknowingly. I want to make a change but a couple of them are very sensitive and I want something that makes sense but gives us more control.

Maintenance and repair are factored into their base pay so I do not want to switch to riembursing them at the IRS rate. My idea was to make them keep a simple log of business miles along with all reciepts. That way I can monitor cost and mileage monthly.

We also have individuals with luxury cars that will only fill up with premium, I really don't want to continue paying for premium - I'll pay for reg but this gas is killing me. Each month I have to extend my credit limit because of the increasing cost of gas.

What are other companies out there doing? any thoughts would be appreciated...

[tekmoney]

put a rev limiter on all your cars

[1lowbowtie]

definitely cut off the premium.

[dean29]

Originally Posted by jaylabor

I give our salespeople free reign with a company fleet gas card. They are the best in our business but I am worried they may be abusing it for personal use knowingly or even unknowingly. I want to make a change but a couple of them are very sensitive and I want something that makes sense but gives us more control.

Maintenance and repair are factored into their base pay so I do not want to switch to riembursing them at the IRS rate. My idea was to make them keep a simple log of business miles along with all reciepts. That way I can monitor cost and mileage monthly.

We also have individuals with luxury cars that will only fill up with premium, I really don't want to continue paying for premium - I'll pay for reg but this gas is killing me. Each month I have to extend my credit limit because of the increasing cost of gas.

What are other companies out there doing? any thoughts would be appreciated...

That's a tough situation. Once you give an employee a king sized bed, they don't like being in a twin. Do you think employees will accurately log their gas mileage? What about in the long-run -- will they get lazy? It's also tough because some employees may not even care where they fill up and how much it costs to fill up there.

An idea would be to put a monthly gas budget in place; nevertheless, the process will be hard AND the result may be a lower worker satisfaction -> productivity.

You'll never want employees to know their gas is a nuisance to you. I'd suggest calling a vote on something like "Would you guys prefer a free breakfast here on fridays and a gas budget of $40 a week -or- keeping things the way they are?"

Let us know what happens :}

[Antdizzle]

You could always put that tracker things on the cars. I don't know how much your employees would like being tracked though.

[jaylabor]

Our employees that drive company vehicles are being tracked, they are easy to account for. It's those salespeople that use personal vehicles and our gas cards. It's tough for me to figure how to monitor this, I can't really GPS their personal vehicle.

who knows really if they run them down all weekend, run personal errands at night, etc...That's my problem

[JaytheCreative]

Antidzzle, I know what you're talking about (I'm a carnut first before business person lol)...but Im too lazy to look it up, and the type of product(s) escape my mind at the moment. I'll check up on it later.

Anywayz, Jaylabor, my advice for you is that one of the best solutions would be to institute a company policy that limits them to how much money they have to spend. For example...they should pay no more than $50....otherwise there will be some kind of reasonable penalty (say take any gas in excess of $50 from their commission or base pay).

What is your company's geographic market? I would say, base a max. allowance of cost per mile based on the highest estimated or actual cost per mile based on the distance between your company and your market's location. Say if your business is situated in Northbrook, Illinois, and your market is located within 50 miles North , West, East, and South....gas shouldn't exceed $70 for ur economy cars...for example.


That wya, with that ceiling or cap, and imposed penalities will make them much more motivated to be more conservative.

[jpmorgan13]

first of all, you need all their reciepts and the mileage when they do fill up.

then you make a rule, you will not pay for fuel outside of the hours of 9-5 mon-fri.

this would only partially solve the problem.

then, i would have a manager ride with these people for a week, track how many miles they use, and set up an allowance that fluctuates with the national gas price average.

if they need to have a larger allowance, they must justify it.

[JaytheCreative]

Exactly JP.

[dean29]

Like I said:

Originally Posted by dean29

You'll never want employees to know their gas is a nuisance to you. I'd suggest calling a vote on something like "Would you guys prefer a free breakfast here on fridays and a gas budget of $40 a week -or- keeping things the way they are?"

Alright, some of these answers are wayyy off.

Profits are important. Employee loyalty and trust is important. Their perception of you is VERY important. You will lose one or all of these three aforementioned necessities if you: have a manager ride with them in the car for a week, like someone else pointed out.

Now, There is obviously a problem because you have given them too much freedom. Like I pointed out, it is extremly hard to take away something you've already given them. Hence my suggestion on the "vote" for free snacks/breakfast/whatever on fridays but an allowance on gas $$ (you can use prepaid cards for this too). Make sure to calculate the expenses accordlingly. The most reputable (and often productive) companies treat their employees well, and I can see you've done that thus far. You can even rig the vote, just make damn sure you're on the ONLY person who knows it was rigged and keep it that way.

[Yes_2_Success]

Originally Posted by jaylabor

Maintenance and repair are factored into their base pay so I do not want to switch to riembursing them at the IRS rate. My idea was to make them keep a simple log of business miles along with all reciepts. That way I can monitor cost and mileage monthly.

This is probably the best, non-intrusive way to monitor your sales reps. It'll also help you come tax-time.

We also have individuals with luxury cars that will only fill up with premium, I really don't want to continue paying for premium - I'll pay for reg but this gas is killing me. Each month I have to extend my credit limit because of the increasing cost of gas.

This is tricky. Do your homework on the makes of these cars before you act. There are some cars that require premium fuel only. Filling up on regular will cause the engines to "knock", and too many times will seriously affect the efficiency of the engine, as well as possible damage to valves. Maybe this is too bold, but if these sales reps can afford luxury cars, I don't see why you should shoulder the responsibility of their fuel consumption, even if they do use their own personal vehicles for your business.

The price of gas isn't going to go down any time in the future, and that's just the facts. Trust me, be thankful you aren't running your business in Canada.