Mastering Fuel Savings with Annalee Cate, The RCPA Fuel Card
Welcome to Industry Insights with Route Consultant! This week, we explore one of the biggest expenses in the logistics industry: fuel. Annalee Cate, CEO of the RCPA Fuel Card, joins us to discuss effective fuel management strategies, common challenges, and how the RCPA Fuel Card can help save money and improve efficiency. Annalee offers valuable insights into the importance of security controls, behavioral changes, and the benefits of a comprehensive fuel strategy. Tune in to learn how you can optimize your fuel expenses and protect your business from fraud and inefficiencies.
About Annalee Cate
Annalee Cate is the CEO of the Route Consultant Purchasing Alliance and former CEO of Route Consultant, where she spent the past decade leading growth, innovation, and community-building in the transportation industry. A Nashville native, Annalee is an alumna of The Harpeth Hall School and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She and her husband reside in Nashville with their four children, where she focuses daily on developing people, teams, and entrepreneurs. She strives to build an energetic culture where individuals are inspired to grow both personally and professionally on a foundation of honest feedback, positive encouragement, and adaptability.
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Josh Gregory: [00:00:00] Welcome to Industry Insights with Route Consultant, your front row seat to the fast moving world of logistics and beyond. Each week, we bring you game changing insights, real world strategies and fresh perspectives to fuel smarter investments and build stronger businesses. Join us as we sit down with expert guests to explore emerging trends and pressing topics.
Across a wide range of industries, this is industry insights.
Welcome to Industry Insights. Today we are gonna be talking about one of the biggest expenses for any logistics industry, and that's fuel. Whether you're driving FedEx routes, bread distribution, waste management, or anything in between. This is gonna be one of the biggest expenses that can really make or break your margins.
And I'm joined by Annalee Cate, the CEO of the RCPA Fuel Card. Hello, Annalee.
Annalee Cate: Hello, Josh. I'm so happy to be here.
Josh Gregory: Yeah, and I know we're gonna be talking about a bunch [00:01:00] today from everything to managing your fuel strategy properly, but also to hearing some of the challenges and mistakes that we've seen other people make in this space so that hopefully listeners can avoid some of those in the future.
So. It is a pleasure to have you here. Welcome to the studio, and I think just as the easiest way to get started is if you just want to give a little bit of background for people who haven't met you or who haven't heard of the RCPA fuel card. You know, what is it? How did you guys get started in this space?
Annalee Cate: Absolutely. So, uh, I started in a space originally actually working with Route Consultant. Yeah. So some of you may recognize me from my, my time. I've spent almost the last decade actually managing, uh, as the CEO for Route Consultant. Um, but in the last few years I have really transitioned, uh, for. From that and have now been really focused on the RCPA fuel card program, and it's been a really fun change of pace.
Mm-hmm. And just looking at this small piece of what we as operators spend a lot of time, energy, and money on [00:02:00] and seeing, you know, so many ways that that area isn't as efficient as it could be. Yeah. And so that's really where the RCPA fuel card program was born, um, was just out of both operationally in my business, in the businesses that, uh, the, the rest of the patent platform operated how we saw so much.
Fraud, theft, abuse, inefficiency, you know, just so many different places that we were losing money and time. Um, and then looking at a way that we thought we could do that better. And so that's really where it started in so many ways. Uh, and it's also just crazy because it's one of the few places where we as.
Operators in all of these different industries are collectively purchasing so much fuel, but we're paying retail price at the pump the same way that, you know, I would if I were just going to fill up my car. Yeah. And, and that just seems like such a, such a crazy scenario in my mind.
Josh Gregory: Yeah. And I know that was one of the big pain points early on is when you're just thinking [00:03:00] about, you know, I.
I know that I am only one person buying fuel, but there are so many FedEx contractors. There are so many vehicles on the road, and I know early on for when we were thinking back to when you were first designing the company, and the reason for it is there has to be a way to leverage that. So it's really cool to see how far you guys have gone.
It's also really fun for me to put you in the hot seat and put you on the other side of. Coin, uh, after all the years that we've worked together. So, yep. This is fun for me too, to, to kind of throw it back on you and make you answer all the questions. So, pleasure for me. Yeah, exactly. Well, I'm, I'm
Annalee Cate: enjoying not driving, pun intended for a change.
So, Uhhuh.
Josh Gregory: Yeah, so, so I, I, I think kind of Can you help paint the picture a little bit? So I know you guys started really, FedEx was, you know, this is how it started. We were FedEx contractors. We saw those needs. Naturally and trying to correct it in our own business and for contractors across the country.
So how did that evolve over the years?
Annalee Cate: Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, starting in the FedEx space, of course we were working with that network of small contractors and you know, definitely it was already [00:04:00] on my radar mm-hmm. That there were other small business operators that probably weren't considering this.
Um, and then actually not long after that, my. So, our BC, who ran our FedEx operation in my husband and I'S company, uh, came from a landscaping background. Mm-hmm. And so he was like, listen, you know, this FedEx thing has been fun, but I really wanna run a different kind of business and I would really like to keep working for you guys.
So can we start a lawn care business? You know? And my husband was like, Ugh, I guess, you know? Yeah. And, and it was, uh, an interesting kind of thing for him. So, our BC started a lawn care company that was our, you know, our business. And so my husband. Ends up from overnight, from FedEx to kind of in this lawn care world.
And I'm like, well, you guys should use our fuel card. And that got me thinking, well, I guess other operators are definitely probably facing the same thing, and we buy a ton of fuel through that business. Uh, and, and didn't have any systems, didn't have any tracking, you know, and my radar from the FedEx world obviously went up and I'm like, well, now wait a minute.
Is everybody using a fuel [00:05:00] card? Because we need to be tracking miles per gallon and we need to be looking at inefficiencies and mm-hmm. Um, so that was definitely a doorway, uh, and really kind of. Simultaneous to all of that, you know, I've been working on a lot of route consultant projects mm-hmm. And seeing the expansion in those industries to the non-emergency medical, which is now one of our like second largest, uh, segments inside of the fuel card is supporting non-emergency medical operators.
Um, they have really similar problems, really similar challenges. Um, theft is a huge deal, actually even a, a bigger deal, I think, for them in that industry just because they don't have a lot of the telematics systems and solutions in place that, you know, we do. So, I mean, a lot of the NEMT operators I talk to, you know, theft is one of their largest concerns and, you know, they're losing 10, 20, 40 grand a year, uh, in.
Theft and fraud, which is a huge Yeah, can, I mean, that's like just a devastating Yeah. You can either scale and add more management for that, or you can just, [00:06:00] that's a whole person. Yeah. It's whole salary almost. It's a whole, yeah. Staff. Exactly. So that's been, you know, something that's really been a focus for us is helping that community.
We launched a, uh, we're the official a fuel card for the college Hunks franchise. So we launched and kind of landed in the moving industry, which is just another really similar space that's really been growing. Um, we've also just started also working even in municipalities. So, um, local city governments that have fleets of.
You know, whether it's the Department of Transportation or even the police force, like some different groups that, you know, if you, if you think about kind of inefficiency and waste and fraud and abuse, like, there's definitely some inefficiency Yeah. You know, that we know exists in some of those industries.
And so, um, there's been so much just places where we're finding that the things that we've learned in the FedEx space, uh, are really applicable.
Josh Gregory: So yeah. I mean, anyone that has vehicles right. Anybody that has vehicles, that's right. Yeah.
Annalee Cate: Yeah.
Josh Gregory: I, I, I think though, at a, at a high level, before we get into some of these examples and, and kind of talk through [00:07:00] some things there.
Can you just, uh, is it just discounts? Is that, is that all a fuel card is like what, what is the fuel card really mean here? Yes. What are you providing?
Annalee Cate: So, it's a great question. It's such a complex question, but, um, so first and foremost, it's discounts, right? Mm-hmm. So when you go and pull up to the front of the gas station and you swipe your card, um.
One of the challenges that we had was our drivers don't go to the same place every day. We're not like, I mean, and I guess this, this applies for residential as well, but in commercial, our territory, our area that we're covering can sometimes be pretty, uh, spacious in terms of, you know, whole, whole zip codes, whole districts, whatever.
And so we're filling up in lots of different locations and initially there were options to always go to, you know, one specific brand and you could get, you know, 5 cents off of loyalty if you're going to this specific location all the time. But that doesn't really work for my business because I'm going a lot of different places and I [00:08:00] need it to be convenient.
So first goal was savings at the pump and how do we get the most savings at the most locations? Uh, and that was a revolutionary way for us where we were able to structure our card to basically let you fuel anywhere MasterCard is accepted and you get a discount. Anywhere you fuel. Mm-hmm. So it's not like you have to fuel here to get a discount.
And that was something that was pretty new and innovative to the space, but it was really important to us because that's what we needed in our business to feel like we weren't wasting money when we're going anywhere.
Josh Gregory: Well, and it's gotta be huge too. And it's one of those things where discounts are great.
If they're getting 'em. Yeah. But if, if you've got drivers that, you know, they, there's a certain gas station that always like to go to, or they, they hate the one gas station that you get discounts at. Yeah. Then they're not gonna use it. And they're not, you can, you can coach 'em all day, but at a certain point they're just not gonna use the card like you want 'em to.
So if you can, if, if you take the choice away and just make it work everywhere, then. That that makes it easy.
Annalee Cate: That's exactly right. And so, you know, and I [00:09:00] mean, not to mention the hassle of like, well here's three different cards to put in your wallet. It's like hard enough to get a driver to keep up with one card and return.
That's the way I feel with my wife and I can't use the right card. She gives me
Josh Gregory: the four cards I'm supposed to use. Yes, exactly. Yeah. No
Annalee Cate: comment. But yeah, exactly. So that was, that was the big kind of first challenge is we wanna be able to go anywhere and we wanna be able to maximize savings and then we can go negotiate on behalf of our customers, on behalf of our network.
To get increased discounts. So we have a whole list of premier locations where our, uh, customers can get even more savings by choosing those preferred brands. And they're all over the place. I mean, it's your seven 11, your speedway, your Circle K, your K's racetrack, raceway. I'll get in trouble if I list 'em all and don't list 'em all.
But, um, it's, you know, there's a lot of different locations that you can. And so that was definitely kind of the first, first objective was that kind of savings. But there's so much, uh, other things, so many other things that we can focus on. And so one of the things we've launched is from the technology side, making sure that we have [00:10:00] a really great user-friendly dashboard.
That makes it from a time saving perspective where operators can go and see their real time transactions, see the cards they have in the field, really easily manage, uh, the, the day to day the driver pin numbers. You know, I can't tell you how many times in a day, and, and I remember this from the FedEx world, you know, we'd have a BC or even, you know, my husband drive an hour to a gas station to put in a driver's pin number.
Because he kept getting it wrong and was like, I can't get fuel. I can't go anywhere. And so we're like driving out there and I'm like, there has got to be a better way. You know? So with our dashboard, you know, we've got it set up where the, the contractor can literally see right there, the decline transaction, the error code through.
What was input in terms of like the pin number and they can just be like, Tommy, you're fat fingering it. It's a five, not a four. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And so really quickly we can solve problems like that. So that is a [00:11:00] big help, you know, and that's if they don't just call in and more likely they just call Devin or Kenny or David and say, Hey, you know, I can't get this pin number to work.
Yeah. What's happening? But either of those options, you know, are big time savers. And then really, you know, our team is very customer focused. Mm-hmm. We're all, you know, from the industry and have lived in, in these spaces and kind of dealt with small businesses historically. And so we can really come alongside the, the customers and look for.
Other ways to save. So again, it's not just discounts at the pump, it's behavioral. So we can do an analysis of the customer's business and help them get in there and say, look, you know, you've got guys that are going and they're purchasing the premium fuel, which they don't need to, but they're doing it because they get more rewards points on their personal rewards card.
Mm-hmm. If they spend more. So they're literally spending more on purpose and you don't need to do that. So we can go in and analyze and help. Them, you know, find those types of inefficiencies. Um, and then [00:12:00] obviously we can monitor for things like fraud and theft and, and help increase savings that way, which can be material.
Um, and, and then, you know, our program is also kind of backed by a purchasing alliance. So it's not even just fuel. I mean, we we're about to launch a new tire program that. Is it gonna help contractors save on tires? So, um, it's, it's more than just, you know, a discount at the pump for sure. Yeah. But there's so many other pieces that we're looking to create a holistic fuel strategy for customers.
Josh Gregory: Yeah. And, and I think that's what's important is that. It is an expense and it's a big expense, so people are just looking for dollars and cents to save and that's part of it. But I do think when it is such a big expense and when it does end up touching a bunch of different parts of your business, there needs to be a strategy around it.
Yeah. And you have to think about it. It can't just be something you, you look at every once in a while and say, oh, you know, that looks about right. Yeah. And, and I think. People realize that it's a, it's a big expense, but I, I would guess it's one of those that people [00:13:00] forget about often and just kind of assume it's correct.
And, and I'm sure that's something you guys deal with a lot where when you're talking with customers, a lot of people will just assume that it is fine. So can you just kind of give some scenarios there of when they're wrong? So
Annalee Cate: it's, it's a great, this is a great, uh, call out that you're making here. And it's, it's so, um, pointed for the things that we deal with because when it comes to the.
The piece that we're talking about and, and more than just the savings, you know, we see a variety of different kind of breeds of small business owner, if you will. Right. So I've seen the contractor that literally is so in tune with trying to save money that. The very best solution that they can come up with is they go every morning to a gas station at 6:00 AM and they stand there with a fuel card and they fill up all of their vehicles for the day, and they send it out.
You know, you can't delegate it. To an employee, because again, that's how you end up in this situation. Or I think [00:14:00] 64% of employees in America will report that some form of theft, fraud, or abuse from their company. So it's like 64%. That's a big number. Yeah. Um, so it's not something you can delegate. So I've seen that kind of breed of contractor that's like, this is the way that I can solve this, you know, but the trade off there, you know, and yes, you maybe save 40 grand a year in theft and fraud, but that's, you know, you $40,000.
The price of your time there, right? Correct. And so then, you know, you have kind of the opposite end of the spectrum, which is the contractors that you're talking about that are like, Hey, you know, I have tremendous faith in the system and in humans, and here's, you know, my own personal Amex cards, right?
Mm-hmm. Which, you know, I, I say that jokingly, but it's because that's how we started in our original operations was with a hundred personal Amex cards spread out over five. Dates just, you know, with people we didn't even know hoping that they were going to do the right thing. And that was when we had about 70 grand a year of, of annual theft [00:15:00] and fraud.
But you know, you have that spectrum that basically are just kind of trusting and you know. Everything in between. And so that's really where we felt like the fuel card could come to the table and say, look, there is a better way. There's a way that gives you your time back. Mm-hmm. Because all the systems are centralized through the technology and through the resources, but.
You're not just kind of hoping and, and, uh, throwing caution to the wind, right? Yeah. To, to see what happens. So having that centralized strategy, it was, was really the biggest driver for what we were trying to achieve. Um, does that answer your question? It does, yeah. Yeah. And
Josh Gregory: I mean, it's. It's one of those things where, yes, in a perfect world, if you could directly fill up and monitor every single truck, maybe that's the best system.
But, you know, maybe that works at five trucks, maybe it works at 10. Yeah. At point, at 15, at some point, can I do 15? Can I do 30? And so it, it, it does start to add up. Yeah. But like in theory, what this [00:16:00] allows you to do. Is to have that level of granularity and inspection on every vehicle and every transaction without having to be there.
Yes. Yeah. And so, you know, I think you, you pointed out a few different things that your team helps, you know, look at and analyze. So are there any things that you've seen where somebody comes in and, and they think they're doing it right, they get set up on your system and then find out there are some pretty significant challenges that.
Ha have been illuminated or that your team has helped kind of resolve and, and change for them?
Annalee Cate: Yeah, I mean, definitely. So that, that's a pretty regular occurrence for us. Mm-hmm. That we'll have a customer come in and, you know, like I said, we do the kind of that free fuel analysis. We'll do now a new free theft analysis where we'll just comb through all of their data and basically look for issues.
Um, and we find it all the time where it's like, hey, here's, you know, an extra two grand a year, 10 grand a year, you know, sometimes 20 grand a year that you can be saving if you can just. Modify a behavior this way. Mm-hmm. And, you know, I'll, I'll say this too, another thing is, you [00:17:00] know, you talk about the team.
This is a really important part for us. It's always been a, a core kind of fundamental pillar of how, you know, we like to operate businesses. I like to operate businesses, is with that service focus first. Um, and having really knowledgeable, um, account managers that are actually working and interacting with the customers because.
It's one thing, you know, to have the data and to have, you know, and, and in the fuel card space, I mean there are some really outdated data and technology systems. Some just like clunky, like, you know, yes, all the information is there at your fingertips, but trying to decipher that Yeah. Is like. Ugh. You know, I mean, I would put it on the equivalent of having to stand there at 6:00 AM and physically, you know, got lot of data like sitting there, going through the spreadsheets, like, what do I do with all this data?
So that was really important to us, to, one, create a really clean, easy interface that's like, you know, it looks like a, an iPhone, you know, where you're like, there's my drivers, there's my transactions. Like, here's my report. This is what I [00:18:00] wanna see. But having that extra element of human interaction, you know, so like I, I'll not forget this, when we, um, when we were launching the fuel cards in our, like, lawn care business, right?
Mm-hmm. With my husband. So I get him all set up with the fuel cards and he starts talking about, okay, well, you know what, if there's like a driver or a pin number issue, and like if I, you know, if I need to figure this out, like, you know, can I just, can I just call Devin because you're my wife and he'll just take my phone calls and he'll help me, like do what I need to do so that I don't have to like figure it all out, because sometimes I'm too busy and I'm like.
Babe, that's the beautiful part. Like it's not because I'm your wife that you can call Devin. All of my customers can call Devin or you know, David or Kenny, whoever their account manager is. It's having that like real human on the other end of the phone. That's just. Like, I can see what's going on. Let me get this for you, that when you're running a business, you don't have the time to, you know, sit on hold or go dig in and, you know, figure those things out.
You just wanna call [00:19:00] somebody or text somebody and, and have it be somebody who knows you and knows your systems and. Can kind of give you that quick responsive solution. And that was really important to us, um, with the team and, and I think it does make such a difference. And so, yes, we're all the time really getting involved in the business.
You know, David, one of our account managers is like the king of diving in on a business and being like, if your drivers would just go across the street to this location, you will save an extra five grand this year. And the contractor's like, what? T know. Yeah. Or like, we had a contractor call in a couple weeks ago that they were using all Amex cards.
This was a big contractor, like 80 trucks on the road, and they were using all Amex cards. Mm-hmm. And Amex like discovered I guess, that they were using it for business purposes and just shut 'em off on a Friday. Oh gosh. Right. Yeah. And so, you know, it was little less than a week before we had like. Cards [00:20:00] in hand and could like, you know, but we had to move, jump through hoops and like yeah.
Pivot stuff around to get that many, you know, dispatched and, and ready to go. So again, it's just having that, you know, relatable person on the other end that has lived those frustrations that, you know, is like, we wake up every day and look at our processes and our systems and say, how can we make it less frustrating?
Yeah. How can we make it less. Uh, complex and make it simpler Yes. Um, for the customer. So,
Josh Gregory: so, so if you're, you know, let's say you're talking to somebody who's using Amex or isn't using your fuel card, what are the top two or three things when you think about the, the mistakes or the kind of the blind spots that a lot of people have Just so, and, and maybe even with those.
What are the, what's the first thing that you're, that you would kind of recommend for them to start improving that strategy today?
Annalee Cate: Yeah, so I mean, first and foremost, if you don't have a card that gives you security controls mm-hmm. That's, I mean, that's basically the number one. Thing that is [00:21:00] amiss there.
And so you want to be able to limit, you know, the amount of daily spend. You know, a really big one is you wanna be able to limit whether the drivers can purchase in store versus just at the pump. So, you know, I mean, some of them. The most typical kind of crazy fraud things that we see involve going into the store.
So it's obviously, you know, when a driver goes in and they say, Hey, you know, I wanna put 30 on that, but I also want this Gatorade and I want this, you know, these chips. And you know, it's like so frustrating. 'cause sometimes it's like, if they would just ask, I would probably buy them the Gatorade and the chips, you know.
But it's, it's the concept there. And so that is a really common one is happening, but there's creative stuff that happens that if you don't have those kind of systems in place and card controls, there's crazy things. Like we've had drivers who this was a, this is like probably the, one of the most extreme ones that happen to us [00:22:00] in our patent operations.
Mm-hmm. So we had an assistant manager. That he, he literally personally sold $40,000 from us. And it probably would've been more if he hadn't gotten a little greedy with it. It was like the most undetectable way imaginable. So he would go in, um, to the cash register and he would. You know, pay put, put like a hundred dollars on pump eight or whatever.
Mm-hmm. He would go out to the pump and he would fill it with $80 and he would go back in and say, Hey, can I get $20 cash back? Cash back?
Josh Gregory: Yeah.
Annalee Cate: And the cashiers aren't allowed to do that. Right. Right. So then what he would do is he'd be like, I'll give you five if you give me 15 back. So he's like bringing them in on it.
Yeah. And you know, he pulled this off for. Months and months and months because it was just so hard to detect that tiny little incremental difference. So then finally, you know, he like got a little more confident, a little more brazen with this. It was [00:23:00] like multiple transactions a day and like, you know, the, the amounts like kept growing before we finally caught that.
But it's one of those where
Josh Gregory: like, I wish you would've put your creative genius towards the business a little bit and done something together. Yeah. You're like in
Annalee Cate: leadership, right? Like, this is what I mean, you know, so, so that's a really big one, is you need to have those card controls. I mean, I actually, I even know of another contractor who had a BC put a $5,000 deposit on a car.
Because he was just using a personal Amex, and he is just like, swipe like I'm buying a car. And that was, you know, and it's, it's so hard to recover those things, right? Mm-hmm. Um, I mean, you can press charges and it's like, also a lot of contractors don't know this, but like every $500 that you steal is a felony count.
Oh, wow. So you can like rack up some felonies, but there's still not a lot of recourse. There's really not a good way for the contractor to ever recover that the money's gone, you know? So, um, that's the number one thing is having, you know, those, those card controls having, you know, pin numbers, having like [00:24:00] vehicle cards where you can track it because you know, you're still gonna have some instances where, you know, drivers will figure out some way to beat the system, but you wanna be able to shut it down really quickly.
Mm-hmm. To control that. Um, so that's, that's just the number one.
Josh Gregory: Yeah. Well, we're talking about that amount of money that you can lose and not have any, not one, you might not even realize it for a year. And two, once you find it. What do you do? So that's exactly, so
Annalee Cate: that's the number one. Um, you know, the other, like, again, kind of the number two for us is it's more just behaviorally oriented in terms of making the right maximum savings choices.
So that in terms of just what has the biggest impact on the bottom line. So, um, it's choosing for us the premier locations, you know, where the difference is, you know, 10 cents per gallon off versus, you know, up. Penny and a half, or, you know, whatever it is. It's the, the rates are always changing, but that's a huge difference in savings.
And again, it's sometimes just by going across the street.
Josh Gregory: Yeah.
Annalee Cate: Um, so that's a [00:25:00] big one. And then again, the other really kind of big one is watching for that premier fuel versus just the regular, uh, or premium, sorry, premium versus the, the regular unleaded that just makes a big difference and it's really not necessary and they're doing it to get those rewards points.
Yeah. Um, so those are some of the really big ones. But there's so many different, yeah, there's so many different ways. Um,
Josh Gregory: is, is it something that you find, you know, do you guys advise them at all on how to incentivize those behaviors or, or going to the right stations? Like what's the best way to do that?
Annalee Cate: Yeah. Um, well actually one, I'm, this is a new thing that we're, uh, about to launch, so you're getting a little sneak peek of this. Okay. But I'm really excited about this. So, our app feature is about to launch for the fuel card and. What I love about the new app is from the driver profile. It's really simple.
There's not a lot in there, but they can see the things they really wanna be able to see. They can not see the things that you don't want them to see. Um, but their main screen is a [00:26:00] mapping feature that will show them just the locations in their vicinity that have the best rates, and it has the actual like.
Pull from the opus fuel prices so they can see real time the cheapest fuel that they can possibly get in and around. And so they've also got a little icon that's gonna basically track their missed savings. And then as the manager, the BC the owner, you've got really clear trackers of missed savings opportunities by driver.
And so it makes it a very coachable conversation, Uhhuh, and it really puts it in their face that it's like, you looked at this, you had the options in front of you, and you chose to do this to me. Why? Yeah. Would you do this? Yeah. So you can
Josh Gregory: coach 'em on it, but it's also, you know, I, I'd imagine a lot of.
Cultures, there's, you can make a game out of it of who's the best, who's saving the most, absolutely. Who's missing the most, and then absolutely you could have, you know, any number of either prizes or something around it. That's, that's cool. Yes. To be able to, because that's what I would do, say Okay. You're like, [00:27:00] well, well this guy's lost $10 this week alone.
Annalee Cate: Yeah. Yeah.
Josh Gregory: Versus the others. That's the game that I would play, so Yeah. And it is, and
Annalee Cate: it's like, you know, hey, like, yeah, you can give, you can give a $20 gift card. Yeah. As a reward. But it's like, it's the $20 that was probably gonna get stolen from you. And then you're like, Hey, you don't commit a felony, I don't get it stolen and I'll give it back to you in an incentive because I'm saving way more on, you know, all the other rebates.
Yeah. Like even if you did that, like, I don't know what it'll be like, even if you did it like every week, a $20 gift card for whoever saved the most. You know, our, I think our average customer saves like $6,800 a year on just the fuel savings. Yeah, just the discounts. So, I mean, you could do that and still you're coming out way better.
You're incentivizing the team and creating that culture and it's just like, it's like found money at that point. Point, so, yeah.
Josh Gregory: Yeah. And, and. All kinds of benefits around people moving in the right direction, thinking about the business pro productively as opposed to just negatively. Yeah. So there's lots of benefits I'm sure you could see there.[00:28:00]
Yep. Uh, so I, I think all of that makes sense. I think that's, I think regardless of if they're using the RCPA fuel card or any fuel card, I, I think. What we most want people to really be thinking through is like, these are the things that are affecting every logistics business. Yes. If I don't have a solve for that, I gotta figure that out today.
Yep. Uh, so if, let's just kind of walk through the scenario, like if somebody is starting with you all, what does it look like? Let's say they have 15 trucks. Is that. Uh, three month process. Like, what are we talking about? Oh,
Annalee Cate: gosh, no. Yes. Thankfully. No. Yeah. I mean, it can be because it's really how quickly we get the information that we need.
Mm-hmm. But, um, most, most of the time it's a fully online application, so it's a really easy, just input your information and it, it does it all. Like you, conceivably you could do it without ever talking to our team Uhhuh, but that's very rare. Uh, and obviously we're there if, if anybody wants to talk to us, but.
Yep. You just fill out the application. Um, and then once you get an approval, they'll come back with a little bit of onboarding to make [00:29:00] sure we set up the right vehicles. Mm-hmm. The right cards, the right driver information, you know, the right pin numbers for everybody. And again, our team really kind of will hold your hand and make that as automated of an experience as you want or as like.
Hey, I'm on the phone with you and I can talk you through this. Mm-hmm. Um, I love that. I'm still doing it like this kind of phone. I can't really shake that habit. I know those don't
Josh Gregory: even exist anymore. I all, I know I can't shake it, but you get a razor, I think they still make those. Yeah.
Annalee Cate: Um, so our team can really talk 'em through and help them get set up and, you know, I mean, it's, it's about a week if everything goes really smooth.
Like you can have cards in hand in a week if you really do everything that needs to happen. Um, but I mean, you know. Some people will definitely turn that week into Yes. You know, into months. But it's okay, we're here, we're we're along for that. And you know, and that's one of the other things too, I think that's been something we've seen from the space is, you know, not wanting to change is sometimes a real challenge.
Yeah. You know, again, I like that that contractor that called [00:30:00] me in a pinch because all their cards got shut off. It's like. We had been talking about it, but he is like, oh, I just don't wanna, you know, deal with all the change. Everybody knows what they're doing. It's so easy. But it's like, I would've way rather you not call me in a pinch and say that you had literally a week to get mm-hmm.
You know, cards in hand. Um. But it's just the missed, it's the missed opportunity. It's the missed savings. Um, and so we, we would love for everyone to get started sooner rather than later. I mean, peak season is a really big time too for, you've got a lot of brand new drivers, a lot of new faces, inexperienced people.
You know, a lot of, a lot of our theft was from. You know, drivers that would come in work for a day and take a fuel card home and like take their family on vacation before we could figure out what was going on before we had really good Yeah. You know, security controls and so, um, it's a good time to get going and, and stop that bleed.
But yeah, it's about a week long process.
Josh Gregory: And sometimes with new drivers, it's not even necessarily a [00:31:00] malicious thing or that they're being sneaky, that sometimes they just don't even realize that what they're doing, they can't do. So there's part of that too, of just make sure it's all in place that you protect the driver from themselves.
Yes.
Annalee Cate: You like encourage 'em to make good decisions and then try to eliminate the crazy ones. Yeah.
Josh Gregory: And, and do they pay per card? Is that how it works? Like if you have somebody signing up.
Annalee Cate: Um, no, I love to talk about this too. Thank you for asking me about this. Um, that was another really important thing for, you know, for me as a small business owner is like, I just, like, I hate going through financials and being like, what is this little fee?
And like, what is this for and what did we pay $20 and $30 here? And it's like one of the most frustrating things. I want it to just be clean and all in, and I can look at the p and l for the week and say, this is what happened, and move on. And so, um, our card is no monthly fees. No transaction fees, no per card fees, no activation fees, no application fees, no.
Like literally whatever you can think of. You know, like [00:32:00] if you pay late, I think that the finance team charges you a late payment fee. Okay. But that. It. And that was something that was really important to me just because, uh, I've, I've actually seen the numbers and run the numbers on this in the past too, that a lot of the other programs out there like bury a lot of fees in the process.
And so you can save. $3,000 and pay a thousand dollars back in fees. And it, you know, it starts to get a little bit of like monopoly money at some point. That's like, what are we really doing? And so, no, there, you do not have to deal with any of that to get started. Um, and that was very important to me in crafting the program.
Josh Gregory: Yeah, I think that sounds nice. Yeah,
Annalee Cate: I know, right?
Josh Gregory: I'm like, yeah. I mean. Credit card fees and fees on cards like that in general are just always the The sneaky killer. Yeah. And so, yeah, that, especially if we're talking at scale, you know, like if you're talking about fees per card like that, those add up quickly, like you're saying.
So Yeah,
Annalee Cate: it is. And it's like, you know, again, I, and I've had those conversations too where they're like, oh, but I just love my rewards points. And [00:33:00] it's like we can sit and do the math and it's like you are losing money even though it's. Feels really fun. Yeah. Like the way, what you're paying over here in fees and then the, the theft and the fraud risk.
And then, you know, you add on top of it the lack of the discount that you're getting and the lack of the visibility before you even talk about the time that you know gets lost. It's just like. I would love to have that conversation with anyone if they wanna like really sit down and look at it. Yeah.
Like we, we really feel confident that we have a, a competitive savings proposition. And so I would love to have that conversation anytime somebody wants to and, and I'm sure
Josh Gregory: that's where a lot of people are. Yeah. If, if they're not using your card right now, if they're at the point where they're saying.
Maybe this is something I should think more about. Yeah, so if they reach out, you know what is what our, through the r CPA website, that info at rcpa com is fine. Is that a conversation they can have from the beginning?
Annalee Cate: Absolutely. It's just like, I mean, we do a free fuel analysis for any customer, like whether they're existing customers or they're prospective customers.
So you [00:34:00] can, you can bring us whatever you're currently doing and we will comb through it and we will look for theft. We will look for inefficiency. Um, you know, and like de it depends on the solution that you're using. How great we can do because, uh, some solutions, like a standard credit card, you know, I can't even see what type of fuel they bought, so it's just like fuel.
Yeah. It's just Casey's, you know. Um, so in those scenarios it, it definitely helps if we can, if you're using our fuel card, everything is a lot. Easier for us to find opportunities for you to save, but um, I can work with anything to, to try to help move you in the right direction and just add that to the bottom line.
Josh Gregory: Yeah, and I think that all points back to what we talked about from the beginning, which is. You can look at any card and you should be using, let's start there. You should be using some kind of fuel card in this space no matter what. Yes. Tell me that all the time. Yes. Rule number one. Use something.
Annalee Cate: Use something, please.
Yeah, but
Josh Gregory: I think you can compare and contrast and just look at discounts. But at the end of the day, I think one of the most important things is that you find a partner who will [00:35:00] help you develop an actual strategy, help you use the technology and the features to make, help you make better decisions for your business in a bunch of different ways.
Yeah, and I think. What you're talking about here, that first conversation really points back to that, that it is a strategy, first conversation, and you'll, and they'll find that the discounts will be great, but that's a. Only part and parcel of everything that you guys offer.
Annalee Cate: Exactly. Yeah. I'm gonna, can I use that?
That was really good. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. That's, but that's, that is, yeah, it comes, it comes from the place of experience and living their frustrations. Mm-hmm. And, you know, wanting to create something that, that really is a solve, um, for, you know, for FedEx contractors, but for all these other small business owners too, in the NEMT space.
And again, like even, even the, the cities or. Lawn care, hvac, like we've, we've had so many opportunities to work with, with other small businesses that are saying, wow, you know, I had never even looked at this. I had never even really thought about my fuel spend, even though it's, you know, 13% of my [00:36:00] revenue and, you know, I had never considered ways to, ways to get it back.
Yeah.
Josh Gregory: Well, thank you Annalee. I have one last question for you. Okay. 'cause I ask it on for everyone who comes on the show. So, uh, for all listeners, if you have either a favorite book or favorite movie that you have read or watched recently mm-hmm. What would you recommend? You can do both. You can do either.
You gotta do one at least.
Annalee Cate: Oh man. Okay. That's so good. I'm normally such a movie person, but I've been on a book kick lately that works. This is like I, this is like maybe the weirdest choice. I don't know. But this has been really helpful for me. So I'm reading this book. I feel like I need to give some backstory.
So like, like seven years ago I went to a Tony Robbins thing. And they were talking, you know, he does all the like, ha ha and like, you know, makes you stretch and everything. And there was this guy talking about the SKU method. Okay. So it's like, um, about like your body positioning. Okay. So I like been having some lower back pain that's like, [00:37:00] um, like carton kids around all the time.
And you know, I'm like running all over the place and so I've been having this back pain. So I read this book called Pain-Free, is actually the most recent book I finished. So I'm telling you about this one. Yeah. Um. But it's like a whole book about your skeleton and like making sure that your ankles and your knees and your hips and your shoulders are aligned in line and in perfect balance.
And it's like really technical but not, it's like dumbed down technical. Okay. Which I really appreciated. Like do
Josh Gregory: you find yourself being hyper aware of everything All the time? I do now. Like when
Annalee Cate: I'm sitting, I'm like, where is my ankle in relation to my knee? But it has really been helping, so. Okay.
That's what I was gonna ask. Did it work? So, okay. I'm like, and it gives you like a handful of exercises for like wherever your body pain and the whole. Concept is like, you know, in terms of musculoskeletal pain, uhhuh, if you were perfectly balanced, you would have no pain and you could do everything you wanted to do, like indefinitely and you wouldn't get like arthritis or like any of these things.
And so I'm like, I don't know if I'm there, but I'm definitely working on it and it sounds lovely. So that [00:38:00] is, that's my latest read and it's
Josh Gregory: called Pain Free. It's called
Annalee Cate: Pain Free. Okay. Yep.
Josh Gregory: Well, that's the recommendation. So Annalee, whether it's providing fuel strategy or a pain free life that's
Annalee Cate: right.
Josh Gregory: RCP is where you come. Exactly. We
Annalee Cate: were your pain free solution for all things fuel and skeleton.
Josh Gregory: Perfect. Well thank you so much for being here. It's been a pleasure. It was
Annalee Cate: my pleasure. Thank you guys so much for having me. Awesome.
