New Company Offers Trucking Firms Pre-Paid MasterCard to Manage Expenses
A new company, Bento for Business, is offering a pre-paid commercial MasterCard to help trucking firms and small-fleet operators manage expenses.
Founder and CEO Farhan Ahmad said he started the company to give owners of small businesses an alternative to credit cards for monitoring spending by employees and contractors.
“More than 70% of companies don’t qualify for credit cards,” Ahmad said.
While the use of pre-paid fuel cards is common in trucking, Ahmad noted that sometimes it is difficult to use fuel cards to make purchases of nonfuel items.
Bento’s cards are issued through Sutton Bank in Attica, Ohio, and customers pay a monthly fee based on the number of cards issued.
The card features online tools to track usage and eliminate the need for employees or contractors to file paper receipts and expense reports.
Travis Ostergard, director of business development at Open Deck Transport in Davis, Illinois, said his company, a longhaul dry van and flatbed carrier, has issued cards to 10 drivers. The cards have been used to pay for tablets and over-the-road expenses, such as tolls and lumper fees.
“We think Bento can be one piece of a larger strategy for retaining our drivers by making the expense process much simpler,” Ostergard said.
Ahmad said his company is part of move to use technology to “democratize” lending by providing easier access to financial services.
In February, Bento received $2.5 million in seed financing from Anthemis Group, Blumberg Capital, LionBird and Pivot Investment Partners to build out its business and launch the pre-paid card as its first product.
