By Rip Watson, Senior Reporter
This story appears in the July 9 print edition of Transport Topics.
U.S. Bank said it purchased TransCard’s Classes 7-8 fuel card product to expand its offerings to the heavy-duty truck market, with truckload firm U.S. Xpress Enterprises as its initial customer.
The new network, scheduled for a September rollout, will offer a dual-use card, with a prepaid debit card drivers can use for personal purchases and corporate charges for fuel and other services.
Known as the “U.S. Bank Over the Road” card, it can be used by both company drivers and owner-operators.
For the bank, the move represents diversification beyond its existing Classes 1-6 fuel card business and an opportunity to offer more services to Classes 7-8 customers who already use its freight payment service network, Kurt Adams, president of the bank’s corporate payment systems unit, told Transport Topics.
“We have been looking to get into this Class 7-8 market for several years,” Adams said. “There weren’t a lot of opportunities out there. It was better for us to get into this heavy-duty market through an acquisition. This is a more attractive, proven product in the heavy-duty market.”
Adams said there was a strong opportunity to leverage the fuel card with existing freight payment services provided to carriers.
“Being able to extend a fueling solution into our 14,000-carrier [freight payment] base was one of the big drivers for this transaction,” Adams said.
The bank said it is targeting medium to large fleets for its new offering, which also can cover tolls and maintenance.
The Minneapolis-based bank and TransCard, Chattanooga, Tenn., did not disclose terms of the transaction, nor did they say how large the TransCard business is today.
TransCard’s CEO is Craig Fuller, whose father, Max Fuller, heads U.S. Express, which ranks No. 15 on the Transport Topics 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in the United States and Canada. “U.S. Bank will provide an unparalleled solution for the trucking industry, combining the strength of one of the nation’s soundest financial institutions with an innovative technology platform,” Craig Fuller said in a statement.
U.S. Bank said it plans to hire between 30 and 50 people to build and develop the service. It said it will continue to offer fuel card services to Classes 1-6 customers, which Adams described as a different market that was aimed more at bulk purchases rather than individual over-the-road transactions at truck stops.
The new card also will include an option that will allow direct payroll deposit.
