A new virtual fuel payment network is looking to "turn the industry on its head" by using a cloud-based platform to drastically
reduce the fuel card payment processing fees paid by truck stop operators.
Little Rock, Arkansas-based Gas Pos announced today at the National Association of Truck Stop Operators (NATSO) conference in
Orlando it is partnering with Twilio Inc (NYSE: TWLO) to offer a less expensive method for truck stop owners to accept and process
fuel card transactions through networks such as FleetCor's Comdata and WEX subsidiary EFS.
"The annual fees paid to these networks for can equal the truck stop's annual net profit," Gas Pos CEO Joshua Smith told
FreightWaves. Smith estimates that the average truck stop location will save over $40,000 per month.
"We are inspired everyday by the innovative ways companies use Twilio's cloud communications platform to build great experiences
for their customers," said Jesper Joergensen, general manager of voice and video at Twilio. "Gas Pos is a great example of
this."
Don't miss it. Register today.
A fuel point-of-sale service, Gas Pos began operations in October 2016, and over the last year has been working on making
headway into the truck stop and travel plaza market. The new product will be called "Steve" after a Fresno, California-based
independent truck stop owner who became Gas Pos' first customer.
"It's been running in a beta mode for about a month now, and we're getting ready to roll it out to half a dozen truck stops,"
Smith said. "Our [point-of-sale] POS system is the guts of the product, which has been on the market for 18 months with hundreds of
thousands of customers served."
Gas Pos makes money by charging a $200 monthly fee to retailers for the use of its POS system, Smith said, in addition to a 2
percent charge for credit and debit card transactions.
With 70 current customers, Smith said the company is growing revenues by 20 percent month over month. It generated $70,000 in
revenue in 2017, over a $1 million in 2018, and estimates over $5 million in revenue this year, on the strength of the truck stop
product. Smith's marketing plan is to be in 1,000 fuel retailers by the end of 2019.
"It's something we would not have been able to do five years ago," Smith acknowledged. Without cloud-based software, "we would
have had to have been a registered telecommunications company, with servers costing tens of millions. But Twilio laid a foundation
for us that we could build off."
Officials from Comdata were not available when asked to comment. Last year the company began a new offering of its
own, a fuel
card that allows drivers to use it for personal purchases in addition to company-authorized expenses.
Want more
content like this? Click here to Subscribe
Permalink
© 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.