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THE FUTURE'S

13th May 1999, Page 46
13th May 1999
Page 46
Page 46, 13th May 1999 — THE FUTURE'S
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Fuel cards in their current form could soon be a thing of the past. Oil companies are exploring ways of developing smart technology so that in the future cards will be able to access your bank account as easily as they pay for diesel at the pumps. Paul Newman investigates what happens when the chips are down. iN hat if we could

say goodbye to the growing pack of credit, bank, fuel, loy alty, phone, video club and God knows what else cards we all have to carry around with us these days? Well the answer has been around for some time in the shape of programmable "smartcards", These have processor chips built into them and can be used for virtu* anything that needs a swipe card and much more.

The same card could be programmed to cover such wide-ranging services as banking, phone, personal identification or even healthcare. The choices are growing and, as smartcard makers begin to adopt a standard operating system, users should soon be able to choose which service they want and simply download it into a blank card at a terminal.

In France Total is leading the way in the fuel card industry with its GB Actys card which allows drivers to see their levels of fuel consumption on the receipt. Fleet managers can set monthly ceilings for expenditure and drivers are told how much of their allowance is left each time they fill up as the cards are remotely updated at the service stations.

Flexibility

So when can we expect to see smartcards introduced in the UK for something as simple as buying fuel? It would make a lot of sense for fleet operators, as the flexibility of this technology will give them a lot more control. Cards could be instantly updated, cutting out the processing delays inherent in the conventional magnetic-strip systems.

Of the major fuel card operators, Shell is further along the road in this country than most. It already operates a customer loyalty smartcard, which it says has the flexibility to expand into other areas of Shell's business. But the company says there are no plans in the immediate future to introduce smart technology to fuel cards in the UK.

Like Shell, BP has no immediate plans to move to smartcards for fuel, and says it is still in the early stages of looking at the whole subject.

"The fuel card system that BP uses for fleet managers provides a very good service," says a company spokesman. "That doesn't mean that there are not better things out there—it is simply a matter of making sure that the right decision is made at the right time to produce the optimum value for our customers."

Esso is even more tight-lipped and will only say that it is looking into this technology as part of its strategy.

However, David Armstrong, manager of Kuwait's IDS card, is more forthcoming and puts his finger on the reason why the Oil companies are dragging their feet.

He says it's the cost of installing readers at the outlets. 'Most of our equipment is owned and operated by us, we don't use many third-party operators throughout Europe, so it would be a substantial cost from our point of view," he points out. "But that wouldn't be a reason for not going ahead with it—I think that's the way the market is moving."

The cost of making the switch is also holding back Dieseline, which is watching the competition to see what develops, says sales manager Adrian Loud. "It would mean completely changing the readers at over BOO sites," he explains. "But that's the way fuel cards will eventually go because there is so much that can be stored on the chip."

And Anthony Wortley, brand manager at Lex Transfleet, is also open to the idea of smart technology: "As soon as we are aware of the possible benefits we will introduce them as it would be of benefit to international hauliers."

He foresees one use for smartcards as a kind of electronic directory. "Dealer maps for this country are fine but when you try to do it across Europe it becomes like a telephone book. A smart card could let you know where the nearest dealership is," he suggests.

Loyalty

While the UK fuel card companies play the waiting game things are moving ahead abroad, and not just in France. The world's largest producer of smartcard systems is Gemplus, which designed Total's system in France. Now it's working with Shell on smart loyalty and fleet cards in Venezuela and Peru. The company is also having meetings with BP to discuss the European ROUTEX network.

Bill Waller, sales manager of the corporation's UK arm, predicts that the fuel card companies in this country will be forced by the banks to embrace smartcards within two years.

"Next year all banking cards will be smartcards," he says. "So the banks wit force the retailers to invest in smartcard infrastructure by charging more for magnetic stripe processing and less for smartcards.

"When Switch came in to take over from cheques that's exactly what they did then," he adds. "They put up the charges on cheques to something astronomical and gave retailers very low charges on Switch."

So it looks as though the future of fuel cards will be smart, whether the oil companies like it or not.


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