I had a letter this week concerning one of my fuel cards – Their terms and conditions have changed for 2008! Amongst things like - Copies of receipts or invoices £5,Vehicle clearances £10 and exceeding Credit Limit £35 , I noticed this one - If I don't use 400 litres a month on this particular card ( A BP card provided by a company who shall remain nameless for now) they are going to charge me £5 a month – as the garage that I use this card at most often has changed from BP to Shell, this card was going to get less use than before.

Now paying for diesel is bad enough, paying for not using fuel is even worse !! Although I only use a small amount of diesel (average about 2500 litres a month) this still seems unreasonable to me! As I also have a bunker card with this company (which I buy probably ¾ of my diesel with) I thought it was time to have a word! With my suggestion of cancelling the BP card if they decided to charge me the fiver, I'm pleased to report they decided that both cards would count towards the minimum use figure and the letter was really meant for customers with only the BP card - I'm just glad I read the letter instead of just glancing at it and “filing” it in the bin! Who knows what would have happened if I didn't notice?

Of course one less fuel card wouldn't be the end of the world – I usually carry several, it's my way of keeping them on their toes, I have 5 fuel cards to chose from , although 2 are left on my desk as their prices have been consistently too high!! The others get used when their price email gives me the best deal, although it seems like using the same one every week makes them take their eye off the ball as far as price is concerned, alternating helps them to concentrate in my opinion. And of course there's always my Allstar card for when I spot pump prices better than the fuel card prices ( which actually happened twice last month! ), the only drawback being they issue a fraud alert every time I fill the truck as it's mostly used for small amounts in the Land Rover !!

Denis Fuller is a owner operator based in the south west, running a single truck on livestock and agricutural haulage