When you’ve been in the fleet fuel management and fuel consulting business as long as we collectively have here at Sokolis, and seen as many fuel transactions as we have seen, almost nothing surprises us. But it may surprise you.
The one surprising event that is truly mind boggling especially in these hard economic times, when people should value their jobs and be on their best behavior, or possibly as a result of the hard times, is theft from employers. Particularly fleet fuel theft or the fraudulent use of a fuel card. Following is an example of what we have actually witnessed.
A very large national, decentralized company, with thousands of fuel transactions per month on many different fuel cards, apparently did not feel that it was necessary to audit all of their transactions. A driver was terminated and his fuel card never collected or accounted for. I guess they felt that he was an honest enough guy not to ask for the card or maybe they just forgot. He was out of sight and out of mind. A year and a half after he was terminated this company decided that they wanted uniformity with all of the divisions and branches and have them utilize just one fleet fuel card on a national level. The conversion to one provider was made and no transactions were made on any of the other fleet fuel card accounts prior to the accounts being closed. Then low and behold an invoice is received on one of the accounts that should have been inactive. Now, not buried within thousands of transactions, was a list of purchases, each one for $200, the same card, the same retailer, several times a month. Their terminated employee suddenly was at the forefront again. He actually made out much better being unemployed than he did driving for them. In 18 months his total take was more than $150,000! Each transaction was for cash. Yes he got caught, sentenced and ordered to pay restitution. Unlikely that he will ever pay all of that back.
Ask yourself, could this be happening to me. Why take that chance? Give us a call, we can put your mind at ease or find the bad apple.
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