WEX launches SecureFuel for North American fleet fraud

WEX has launched SecureFuel for its North American fleet customers. The product is designed to stop unauthorised fuel purchases before they are approved.

The launch expands WEX's fraud controls in commercial fleet payments, where misuse can account for a notable share of fuel spending.

SecureFuel combines fleet card transaction data with real-time vehicle information and AI models built by WEX. It checks purchase details such as fuel quantity, fuel type and merchant location against telematics data to identify potentially suspicious transactions before authorisation.

The approach targets a longstanding problem for fleet operators, which often rely on card controls and telematics systems that operate in separate workflows. By bringing those data sources together, WEX aims to reduce both fraudulent purchases and false positives that can interrupt legitimate driver activity.

According to the National Association of Fleet Managers, fraud and misuse can account for as much as 12% of a business's total fuel spend. For operators with large fleets, that can mean higher operating costs, extra administrative work and delays in investigating disputed transactions.

WEX's closed-loop network covers about 95% of fuel stations in the US. It processes about 30 million fleet transactions each month, giving it a large pool of data to train and run its fraud models across a wide merchant network.

The new service builds on more than 40 years of WEX's work in fleet card controls and roughly a decade of using telematics data in fraud prevention for its over-the-road business. With SecureFuel, WEX is applying that experience to a broader set of commercial fleet customers in its mobility business.

Managers using the product can review exceptions and attempted purchases in a single workflow. The service can be used to confirm purchases against current vehicle location, reduce manual investigations and lower the number of unnecessary card declines.

Customers can activate SecureFuel through the WEXOnline platform. It can use telematics supplied by WEX or data from supported third-party providers, including Geotab, where WEX holds Premier Partner status.

This integration matters because many fleet operators already use external telematics providers and may not want to replace those systems to add payment fraud checks. WEX is positioning the product so existing users can connect their vehicle data, while customers without telematics can obtain a supported option through the company.

Carlos Carriedo, Chief Operating Officer, Americas Payments and Mobility at WEX, outlined the rationale for the launch.

"Fraud prevention is only as strong as the information behind each decision," said Carlos Carriedo, Chief Operating Officer, Americas Payments and Mobility at WEX. "SecureFuel gives us a more complete view of each purchase, assisting customers stop unauthorized transactions without creating unnecessary disruption for drivers. This capability is especially important in today's volatile fuel price market."

Broader push

The launch also forms part of a broader push by WEX to use AI across its fleet and mobility products. Alongside SecureFuel, the company previewed Actionable Insights, a feature in beta testing that analyses transaction, fleet and payment data to produce recommendations for customers.

That tool is intended to help identify savings opportunities, reduce waste and improve operational performance. While SecureFuel focuses on pre-purchase fraud controls, the wider effort suggests WEX wants to expand beyond payment processing into more day-to-day operational decision-making for fleets.

This reflects a broader trend in commercial mobility, where payment companies, telematics providers and software groups are trying to combine operational and financial data into a single view. Fleet operators are under pressure from fuel costs, compliance demands and vehicle utilisation targets, creating demand for systems that do more than simply approve or reject transactions.

For WEX, SecureFuel's significance lies in its effort to link a large payments network with vehicle-level data in real time. Competitors in fleet payments have long offered controls based on merchant category, spend limits or product restrictions, but adding location and vehicle information before authorisation could make fraud checks more precise if the data quality holds up in practice.

SecureFuel will begin rolling out to eligible customers from August 3. WEX processes about 30 million fleet transactions each month.