In “ 4 Massive Fleet Problems Wex Solves for Trucking Companies”, Joe Lynch speaks with the Vice President of Sales for WEX’s OTR business, Noel Glasgow, about how WEX helps fleets control fuel costs, stop fraud, optimize spending, and manage cash flow.

About Noel Glasgow

Noel Glasgow is the Vice President of Sales for WEX’s OTR business. He began his career in journalism as a sports reporter for various TV stations before moving into leadership positions in the business world. He has been with WEX for over 13 years, working in the mobility sector, and now oversees WEX OTR including the EFS and Fleet One EDGE Programs. He leads the sales division, including inside and outside sales and client success, supporting the full sales cycle from lead to close, along with client retention and educating customers on the value of the business. He currently lives in Nashville with his wife and daughter. He is a diehard Vols fan and a music lover.

About WEX

WEX (NYSE: WEX) is the global commerce platform that simplifies the business of running a business. WEX has created a powerful ecosystem that offers seamlessly embedded, personalized solutions for its customers around the world. Through its rich data and specialized expertise in simplifying benefits, reimagining mobility, and paying and getting paid, WEX aims to make it easy for companies to overcome complexity and reach their full potential. For more information, please visit www.wexinc.com.

Key Takeaways: 4 Massive Fleet Problems Wex Solves for Trucking Companies

  • In “ 4 Massive Fleet Problems Wex Solves for Trucking Companies”, Joe Lynch speaks with the Vice President of Sales for WEX’s OTR business, Noel Glasgow, about how WEX helps fleets control fuel costs, stop fraud, optimize spending, and manage cash flow.
  • WEX Powers Fleets of All Sizes across Over-the-Road Transportation: As a global commerce platform, WEX serves the full spectrum of trucking, from single owner-operators to massive fleets with 60,000+ Class 8 vehicles. They offer specialized tools like the Fleet One Edge card and 10-4 mobile app to give smaller carriers competitive buying power.
  • Controlling the “Fuel Money Pit” via Dynamic Rules: Because fuel represents one of the single largest expenses for a fleet—averaging over $700 per fill-up—WEX empowers fleet managers to eliminate leaky margins. Fleet managers can set granular, dynamic card controls by gallon limits, fuel grade, time of day, and designated pump locations, while unlocking average savings of 26–27 cents per gallon.
  • Cutting-Edge Interception of Fuel Theft & Skimming: To combat pump skimmers and unauthorized swipes, WEX utilizes GPS-geofenced “SecureFuel” technology developed alongside partners like Trimble. By cross-referencing card swipes with the vehicle’s real-time ELD position, WEX blocks transactions instantly if the truck and pump locations do not match.
  • Next-Gen Security Features (Cardless Fueling & Freeze/Thaw): WEX continues to innovate its fraud prevention stack beyond dynamic prompting. New solutions include single-use “flow codes” for cardless fueling and a mobile “freeze and thaw” toggle that automatically re-locks fuel cards immediately after a authorized transaction is complete.
  • Eliminating Blind Spots with Real-Time TMS & ELD Integration: Direct integration into ELDs and Transportation Management Systems (TMS) delivers instant visibility into driver spending behavior. Automatically matching drivers, routes, and cards in real time allows fleets to monitor compliance, track negotiated discounts, and optimize fuel stop choices.
  • Solving the Freight Cash Crunch via WEX Capital: Carriers often face delayed invoice payments from shippers and brokers (taking anywhere from 15 to 180 days) while incurring immediate daily expenses like fuel and payroll. WEX Capital provides instant freight factoring, converting outstanding bills into liquid working capital to eliminate cash flow bottlenecks.
  • Expanded Ecosystem through the Verified Vendors Program: Beyond core payment and fuel controls, WEX offers a Verified Vendors marketplace to simplify fleet operations. Partners like Engine (discounted lodging), BestPass (toll management), and TFG (vehicle financing) allow fleets to reduce overhead costs across their entire operational footprint.

Learn More About 4 Massive Fleet Problems Wex Solves for Trucking Companies

Noel Glasgow | Linkedin

WEX | Linkedin

WEX

WEX | OTR

WEX | Fraud Protection

Fraud whitepaper: OTR solutions: Fraud protection, fuel card data, and cardless payments

Fraud blog: Fuel card protection: 6 actions to kick fraudsters to the curb

The Logistics of Logistics Podcast

Joe Lynch: [00:00:00] Hello, friends. Welcome to the Logistics of Logistics. My name is Joe Lynch. Thank you so much for joining us today. Today’s topic is four massive fleet problems WEX solves for trucking companies with my friend Noel Glasgow. How’s it going, Noel?

Noel Glasgow: How we doing today, sir?

Joe Lynch: Doing great. Doing great? Doing great. So I should mention to everyone listening that we are talking about your company, WEX, W-E-X.

So Noel, please [00:00:30] introduce yourself and your company, where you’re calling from today.

Noel Glasgow: Yeah, Joe. Noel Glasgow. I am Vice President of Sales on the OTR division of WEX over the road. So trucking and Class 8 vehicles are our sweet spot when it comes to the WEX side of the business. I’m in Nashville, Tennessee, and very excited about our conversation today. I think if you talk about trucking and the ways that we, we help WEX right now, if you think about WEX overall, we’re a, a payments platform, payments company that [00:01:00] plays in a lot of different spaces, but the main area that our team focuses on is the OTR and transportation space

Joe Lynch: Yeah we’ll get more into each one of those things in a minute. We were supposed to do this interview at Trimble, but then we pulled it ahead, so this is the Friday before Trimble begins on this Sunday. But I was very excited to interview you guys at the Trimble Conference, which is in San Diego.

But we pulled it ahead for scheduling reasons. By the way, that makes it a little easier on me ’cause I do seven [00:01:30] interviews at Trimble every year. So I’m glad we’re doing it now. But who are… One more time, who are WEX’s customers, and what problems are you solving for them?

Noel Glasgow: Yeah. So first and foremost, it would’ve been great to be in San Diego with you guys next week. Unfortunately, my schedule doesn’t allow me to be out there, but WEX will have our annual booth at the Trimble show. We’ll have a team out there.

Joe Lynch: all the cool kids are

Noel Glasgow: All the cool kids are there obviously, yeah, especially with me not showing up.

So [00:02:00] no we have a wonderful partnership with Trimble in multiple ways. It depends on, if you’re talking from an ELD perspective and using the Trimble ELD base to make sure trucks are in the right spot to help with fuel tax, to make sure trucks are traveling the way they should, to turning on and off fuel cards, all kinds of ideas that we do with their ELD space and then their transportation management software, their TMSs.

We also have full integration from a reporting controls efficiency standpoint for our customers. Who are our customers? WEX [00:02:30] overall from a trucking perspective, we deal with fleets of one truck all the way up to fleets of 60,000, 70,000 trucks. You name the largest fleets in the country, they’re carrying our fuel card.

You name the single owner-operator who’s the backbone of our economy, he or she is carrying our fuel card as well. And so the partnership with Trimble is a wonderful one. Our m- ultimate goal at WEX is to be customer-focused and customer-centric and make sure that the customer is getting the best experience, the best opportunity to be a good business and to run the right way, and to [00:03:00] make sure that all efficiency, security and protection is in place.

And so that’s what our day-to-day operations look like

Joe Lynch: Yeah. I love it. I love it. Before we hit the record button, we were talking and talked about this problem with fuel cards. So if I if I’m filling up a truck, and I think you said that the d- price of diesel’s up to 6.50 something right now. And so f- to fill up a tank, I’m guessing it’s several hundred dollars, right?

Noel Glasgow: Oh yeah, the average fill is [00:03:30] about 110 gallons, so you’re looking roughly a little bit over $700 to fill up a truck right now

Joe Lynch: So those gas cards can have, fuel cards can have a, I’m guessing a pretty high limit if I gotta fill that thing up a few times

Noel Glasgow: So typically the way that we manage it, especially for our customer base, is we look more at a gallon limit than at a actual monetary limit, which allows the fluctuation of fuel price not to stymie a trucking company from being able to be on the road. Because the last thing that you ever wanna have happen is a, a trucking [00:04:00] company’s fleet cards not work.

If a fuel card doesn’t work and a truck can’t get from point A to point B, then that’s catastrophic for the truck, for the carrier. So we do look at the gallon limit. But yeah, right now with the diesel prices where they are, the importance of carrying a fuel card is, can never be more spoken.

Having the controls, having the limits, having the fraud security, having the ability to make sure that you’re purchasing fuel where you should be purchasing fuel, when you should be purchasing fuel, all of that is so important right now [00:04:30] for every trucking company. Like I spoke about earlier, we have trucking companies as large as 60,000, 70,000 trucks, and we have trucking companies that are made up of one truck.

Fuel is probably their second-largest expense, so it has to be controlled and made sure it’s looked at and done the correct way, otherwise you’re just letting money come right out of the back end of your business.

Joe Lynch: Right. And one of the things I think you guys are doing, and I don’t think you’re the only ones doing it, but I think having a partnership with Trimble allows you to connect with the company. So if my [00:05:00] truck if my truck is in California and the system knows that, and I’m trying to fill up in Michigan, you guys catch that and go, “Nope, not so fast.

We know your truck’s not there. You’re not… That is some hacker.”

Noel Glasgow: Correct. We you’re right. We’re not the only ones that do proximity checking when it comes to fuel cards, but we were the first one to do it with Trimble about a decade ago. So we’ve been doing it for a long time, and we built this with them and we have it with other ELD companies out there as [00:05:30] well, because you’re right.

Unfortunately, when diesel prices go high, diesel becomes a commodity that is wanted by the bad guys because they can resell it at half the price on the black market, and it’s a very well-oiled criminal machine that we have to combat. And so having the ability to use someone’s ELD on the board of their truck to let us know, is that truck where the fuel card is being swiped?

Then we allow that transaction to continue. If that fuel card is swiped, and we know that, to your [00:06:00] point earlier, you’re trying to buy fuel in Iowa, but your truck’s in California, we’re not gonna allow that fuel transaction to go through. We’re gonna make sure that is blocked and stopped because we don’t want the ability for fuel fraud to happen to our customer

Joe Lynch: Yep. And I’m gonna put some words in your mouth. Push me in the shallow end if you need to. But the power of that partnership isn’t the one-time innovation. So you guys were first with this innovation. Very cool. But next year, we’re talking one year from [00:06:30] now, I guarantee there’s some other innovation that you guys have to prevent fraud or to cut a cost, and that’s why these, these partnerships with Trimble are so important because we’re not looking for one-time innovation.

We’re looking for it to happen over

Noel Glasgow: Oh, yeah,

Joe Lynch: And the innovation is between the boulders. So WEX has got a great product. Trimble’s got a great product. But the missing link is– or I should say the, the real value comes when you can connect the two

Noel Glasgow: Yeah, I [00:07:00] think integration between two top technology partnerships is probably the best way to put it, and it’s not just on the ELD as we talked about. But you’re right, we’re continuing to evolve from a product perspective on the WEX side when it comes to helping from a fraud and security standpoint.

We’re working with Trimble and with their ELD part- portion of their business to allow for, for drivers to turn fuel cards on and off inside the cab of their truck, for drivers to be able to when– not only make sure that their truck is in the right location, but to get a secure [00:07:30] code that will allow them to pump into the truck from the truck into the pump to allow them to get fuel.

But we also have not just integration on the ELD side, but like I spoke about earlier, integration on the TMS side and when we look at the TMW Suites and the Innovatives and all of those businesses that they have, when we have integration where if a driver swipes a fuel card, we know immediately that driver is on trip one two three in cab of the truck four five six, and he’s got fuel card seven eight nine.

We’re sending that information [00:08:00] directly back into the TMS of the company in real time, so they’re able to see how transactions happen, where they happen, when they happen, monitor them. Again, second-largest expense for a trucking company is fuel. Maybe the largest expense right now, with it being over six fifty a gallon.

So having complete visibility into the transactions as they happen is a game changer. Not having to wait until you… the next morning to look at a report, not having to wait until if you’re a single owner operator, having the ability to look into our mobile [00:08:30] app, which we’ll talk about later, and seeing transactions in real time is just a completely different way of doing business, and it really helps control exactly what these companies want to control, where they buy fuel, when they buy fuel, how they buy fuel, et cetera.

Joe Lynch: Yeah. Yeah, and this stuff just all of a sudden, the trucking business is so hard, and there’s so many small companies that are, you said it earlier, the backbone of not just the trucking industry, it’s the backbone of our economy.

Noel Glasgow: Hundred percent

Joe Lynch: we need these guys to keep rolling, [00:09:00] and it’s not easy all the time because, you spend a lot of money on that truck, margins are tight, you drive across the country, then you gotta turn around and come back.

And somebody says, “Hey, how much y- how much you make on that?” I made, I don’t know, whatever you made on that route. And you go, “Is it enough to fill up my tank and get back on the, to the other side of the country?” And, we’re gonna talk about factoring, at some point, too. This is why this isn’t just a nice-to-have.

This is a must-have.

Noel Glasgow: No it’s a must to have, and I think, the way that you [00:09:30] just said it is so true. One, every truck that’s running on our highways is the backbone of our economy. I remember when I first got into this industry being told, “If you look around a room, everything in that room except you was on a truck at one point or

Joe Lynch: I’ve been in a truck too.

Noel Glasgow: yeah yes but it, it, without the trucks and when you’re not in this industry and you’re driving down the highway, all you think about is these big machines that are on the side of the road, what good are they? But they truly are what keeps our economy afloat. And if we did not have the trucking companies and [00:10:00] drivers that this country has, we would be in a whole different economic situation.

And so we have to be able to help them do every single thing they can to only worry about getting from point A to point B. Take all the worry, how to run a business, all of that off their hands. And so if you’re talking about a single owner/operator and they’re using our 10-4 application to help them buy better fuel, that’s one thing.

If you’re talking about a fleet that has 10,000 trucks and you’re wanting to make sure that their trucks are where they say they are when they’re buying fuel, or the reporting and [00:10:30] controls and security options that can go through their TMS are all in place, all of that is what we wanna do. Because you’re right, trucking is hard.

It is not an easy industry to be successful in, and it is one of those that those, these guys have to be able to just worry about delivering the goods that keep this country afloat and not have to worry about all the other stuff that surrounds them as they try to do that

Joe Lynch: Yep. I love it. I love it. We’ll come back and talk more about that in a minute. But first, Noel, tell us a little bit about you. Where’d you [00:11:00] grow up? Where’d you go to school? Some career highlights before you joined the juggernaut that is WEX

Noel Glasgow: So I’m from Nashville, Tennessee. Grew up here, born and raised which is a unicorn these days ’cause a lot of

Joe Lynch: Things have changed. Things have

Noel Glasgow: has changed quite a, it has changed quite a bit. I left after high school, went to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Was there for four and a half years.

Had this crazy idea to go into journalism and sports television. So for the first 13 years of my career, I was a sportscaster on [00:11:30] TV. Worked in East Tennessee, West Tennessee Georgia, the Carolinas. Had a wonderful time, a wonderful career. Career highlights, I’ve interviewed Tiger Woods, I’ve been to multiple Final Fours, I’ve been to Super Bowls,

Joe Lynch: Oh my

Noel Glasgow: gotten to play some of the best golf courses in the world.

I got to drink champagne from the Stanley Cup. I’ve done a lot of cool stuff when it comes to sports. And I can talk about sports with anybody at any time for as long as you want. Still to this day, I love… There’s several things I love and [00:12:00] talking sports is one of them. I don’t know, th-this is a Friday before the Trimble show, but this weekend is a massive weekend of college football, and I’ll be heading up to Knoxville tomorrow to watch the number one ranked Texas Longhorns take on Tennessee.

But I got out of television a-almost 20 years ago and moved back to Nashville. My wife and I were ready to start having a family. We moved back here. I went and worked for my family business in the gourmet dessert business for a few years. That led to me meeting someone who was [00:12:30] leaving their current company and going to help a company called EFS grow.

And EFS was a fuel card business, and they recruited me over. In 2012, I went there and started in… We went through several different ownership changes, but in 2016, WEX bought us to be the over-the-road fuel card for the WEX business. WEX at the time had… If you think about WEX as the North American fleet side, the, the gasoline stations, the front h- front of the house type folks, they had a dominating presence there, and they were ready to [00:13:00] get into the transportation over-the-road space.

They acquired WEX and that’s been 10 years ago. It seems like just yesterday, but we were actually… It’s almost 10 years to the day. We were at the ATA in Philadelphia in 2016 when we announced it, and here we are. We’ll be at the ATA in Charlotte here in a couple of weeks. That’s what– that’s how– that’s me.

I love football. I love sports. I love Pearl Jam, favorite band of all time

Joe Lynch: see that you got the posters

Noel Glasgow: I can talk about that as well sometimes. People probably get sick of hearing about a band that’s been around for that long, but I love them. I love [00:13:30] good food, I love good wine, I love friends, I love hanging out.

Joe Lynch: You like all the cool stuff

Noel Glasgow: yeah.

Lot- you know, hey, you gotta take advantage of every day we have. And so if you’re not having fun and you’re not doing the fun stuff, why are you doing it?

Joe Lynch: Yep. By the way that University of Tennessee versus University of Texas, I woke up this morning, and I should’ve been getting right to work, but I went for a walk, and I start, kept, kept seeing that content hitting me all day. And there’s people wrote songs about the UT versus UT. And I was like, “Oh, [00:14:00] my God, this is…”

Besides a national championship or something like that, this is one of the biggest early season games in a long time

Noel Glasgow: Oh it’s… That’s awesome. Texas is number one in the country. Their quarterback is a Manning. Obviously Peyton Manning was huge at Tennessee. President Trump’s gonna be at the game. If you really ask Tennessee fans, they’re the real UT. I think that for sure, because University of Tennessee was a school before the state of Texas was a state, and had it not been, a little history, had it not been for Davy Crockett going down to help [00:14:30] Texas battle and save the Alamo, Texas would have never become a state, which led to the University of Tennessee adopting the nickname The Volunteers.

So thanks to all of that, it’s coming full circle this weekend, so it’s gonna be really interesting

Joe Lynch: Yes. Yes. And it’s an interesting time. I think when 2030, when they have the next census, I think 40% of the population will be in the South. And you’re old enough to remember when the South seemed like an afterthought. [00:15:00] If you’re talking about business, that was the East Coast, the Midwest, and some stuff out in California.

Now you look and go, kind of the center of the universe has moved south and west, and arguably two of the most important growth states have been Tennessee and Texas

Noel Glasgow: You’re right, 100%. And you look now, in, in

Joe Lynch: Culture has changed. That’s where the culture lives now

Noel Glasgow: Culture, massive change. You look at it, a huge shift right before COVID and a major shift after COVID, but you [00:15:30] have Oracle moving to Nashville. You have Amazon in Nashville now. You have Starbucks bringing their headquarters to Nashville. You have Nissan having their headquarters here.

Nashville has changed the world, and you’re right. For years, the South was Atlanta, and that was it. There was– That was the only really big business city in the South, and now there’s tons in Texas, in Tennessee, in Florida. Everybody is coming here. The universities in the South, especially in the SEC, the Southeastern Conference, the explosion of applications from the Midwest and the Northeast is massive

Joe Lynch: I saw one of [00:16:00] the billionaires from the All In podcast talking about his son wanting to go off to college. And so you go, “Okay, you’re a billionaire. Where are you gonna get your kid into Stanford or, Yale or Harvard or blah, blah, blah?” Nope. He goes, “My son is real interested in what’s happening in the Southeastern Conference.”

And it’s cultural capital. And we could do a whole episode just on that shift. I heard somebody say, we used to get our entertainment from Los [00:16:30] Angeles. And they said, now you go there and there’s a whole bunch of country western people walking around, and it’s not one in a m- one in a million.

This is the world’s changed a lot. And that, again, it used to be looked at, I tell my kids this, down south was behind. They were behind for a long time. And I said, my dad used to joke, he’s pa- long passed, he used to say, “Boy, the South might have lost the war, but they sure as hell won the peace.” You got that nice weather

Noel Glasgow: Yeah, we have great weather. It’s great. There’s, there is talk this week Paramount [00:17:00] is gonna move their headquarters from Los Angeles to Nashville. It is a

Joe Lynch: I wonder what, I wonder why that is. I wonder why that

Noel Glasgow: I I think there’s a lot of reasons. I don’t wanna go into all of them, but a lot of people have moved here in the entertainment industry, so a lot of people are already here.

You have no state income tax in St- Tennessee compared to California, so that’s a big deal. You have beautiful property, beautiful land to be able to do all of this. And and you’re right, it– we have all four seasons. It’s a great area. It’s great. And But I will also say we’re good. We’re full.

[00:17:30] We don’t need anybody else to move here. It’s fine

Joe Lynch: see there’s pale faces like me. I can’t be down there. It’s just too hot. I’m loving this. I love it though. Anyway

Noel Glasgow: Back to while we’re on

Joe Lynch: Yes, exactly. So I want to talk a- about s- a few topics that we agreed to in advance. So the, the first one was the, the, the fuel money pit. Talk about that. Fuel costs a lot of damn money.

Talk about that problem and how you guys solve it

Noel Glasgow: We talked about it earlier. It’s, on [00:18:00] a typical day fuel is the second-largest expense for a trucking company, no matter

Joe Lynch: And what’s first, the truck?

Noel Glasgow: So typically payroll. Payroll is their highest expense. B- but if you don’t have control over your expenses, money is going out the back door. And so we, our goal from a card perspective is to help customers understand where their fuel purchases happen, how they happen, when they happen, and then allow them to control how they happen and [00:18:30] when they happen to make sure they’re getting the discounts that they’ve negotiated or the discounts that we have for the smaller fleets.

We have a fuel card called the Fleet One Edge card that has fuel discounts already negotiated to give the smaller guys the edge. Because all large trucking companies have fuel discounts negotiated with the fuel vendors, and this gives them the edge. We have our 10-4 app for the single owner operator, which gives them the ability to buy fuel at a great discount.

I think we were seeing on average somewhere around 26, 27 cents per gallon savings. So [00:19:00] if we can help a trucking company, no matter the size, help their second-largest monetary expense to make sure that they are… Like, w- we have the ability, Joe, if you had a trucking company and you said, “I’ve… I’m not gonna use anybody’s name, but I have a discount with fuel vendor A, and I want my drivers only to purchase fuel at fuel vendor A.

I only want them to buy 75 gallons when they purchase that. And in fact, that fuel vendor has 500-plus locations. I only wanna use these seven.” We can do that. We [00:19:30] can control it. We can control the time of day, when they purchase, where they purchase, how they purchase. We can even make recommendations based on some partnerships with Trimble, with Expert Fuel and what they wanna have from that perspective.

And so helping trucking companies control an expense this high, national diesel average this week, right about $6.53. Now, again, most of them are paying with a discount, but still, no matter what, e- even if you’re getting 20, 30, 40 cents off at the pump, that’s still, you’re paying six bucks a gallon. We talked about at average fills 110 [00:20:00] gallons, $6, $660 to fill up your truck.

So making sure you take full advantage, you have the security to make sure that your fuel is going into your truck, all of that is where we wanna help the trucking companies, and that’s what our fuel card does. It is so important. You’re able to get a discount. A fuel card at the major fuel vendors the Pilots, the Loves, the TAs, Mavericks, Caseys, I could name them all.

You typically, we don’t do it as consumers, but trucking companies, on the marquee cash price, credit price. When you use a [00:20:30] fuel card, you get the cash price. If you use a credit card, you’re paying six, seven cents per gallon more. So that just right there is a good savings for you. So it’s just being educated, that’s the other thing.

We’ve gotta educate the consumer on how to use the fuel card, why the fuel card is important, and that’s what our wonderful sales team and account management team and customer service team all do such a great job of, is continuing to educate the end user on why they need to have this and what the controls actually do and mean to them from a monetary standpoint.

Joe Lynch: Absolutely. I [00:21:00] love that. I love that. And I know there’s … the savings when you get a discount on a big number like that is significant. So when you s- if … And I’ve heard this the last couple years when I was at Trimble. People said, “This is the dif-” and if it’s not more than one product, “This is the difference between us making money and losing money.”

We’re not gonna talk about mapping today, but that, mapping is a big, important part. And I heard one of the companies said, “We map ourselves by where we’re filling up.” So there’s more than one way to get there and say, “I’m [00:21:30] gonna go a little out of my way, but I’m gonna save this much money. I’m gonna cost myself seven minutes, but I got that seven minutes to spare, and I save this much more because I got to the right pump.”

Noel Glasgow: And that’s what we help customers do, is to make sure they buy fuel in the right locations as well, and get educated from that perspective. So you’re right. It is such a massive expense, and if you’re not watching it, this trucking, we hear it all the time, it’s a pennies industry.

Literally, pennies are important in every single transaction. So if you’re [00:22:00] saving, even if you’re just saving six or seven cents per gallon, that’s way better than spending six or seven cents per gallon. It’s just at the end of the day, pennies lead to dollars and dollars lead to revenue, and you gotta have revenue and profit in this industry of such small margins.

Anything you can do to help control it are so important

Joe Lynch: I’ve talked on my podcast over the years to industry experts who, a, a lot of times in the mergers and acquisition space or the VC space, private equity. In fact, I was at the mergers and acquisition conference [00:22:30] last week in Chicagoland, and that’s this largest conference. It was great. Somebody said to me not so long ago, “Oh, yeah, the, the biggest trucking companies in the country own 2% of the market,” which is crazy, right?

2%. But they said, “Don’t be surprised if we start to see them grow.” And the reason they’re growing is ’cause they buy better. Now it’s not that they’re just buying gas better. They’re buying … They can obviously get access to capital a little better, so they can buy ch- trucks [00:23:00] cheaper. But also they’re always riding full ’cause they’ve got these network effects.

But you gotta start somewhere. So y- imagine there’s lots of small guys going, “Hey, that, that’s cool for the big guys, but it doesn’t matter for us.” He– That discipline matters from the very beginning.

Noel Glasgow: Dis-discipline is very important. And you’re right. If you look, there’s 90, I think it’s 94 and a half percent of trucking companies are less than 10 trucks. So all those big trucking companies you know of make up a little bit of 5% of the industry. And [00:23:30] yes, they have phenomenal buying power, and then I think we’ll talk about this a little bit, but just to kinda preview it, that’s some of the things that we’re trying to help as well.

We have some relationships with other vendors out there, not just fuel, but helping trucking companies save money in all different ways of what they’re doing. And so I think, having partnerships and having, vendor relationships that we can educate our customers on and help the small guys compete with the big guys, which again, I said earlier, we have the Fleet One Edge card.

It gives them an edge that [00:24:00] they don’t have because they’re able to save on fuel. But also we’re helping folks save on hotels, we’re helping folks save on tolls, helping folks save on navigation. There’s all kinds of ways that we can do this. A- and you’re right, the large guys buy better, but the large guys at one point were the small guys, and they just worked their way up.

So there’s always gonna be the next opportunity to be the next large guy. And if you take full advantage of it from the beginning and take full advantage of what is out there to help you get better, you can eventually be the large guy

Joe Lynch: [00:24:30] Exactly. I like it. So the next topic, and this is one that I’ve been scammed on this one before as just a consumer. It’s these, the card skimmers, the unauthorized swipes, the fuel theft. I’m gonna tell you my own p- personal story. I went to Vegas for a conference years ago, and y- you’re spending money on while you’re traveling.

I don’t, I didn’t gamble and I got home, and I just glanced at my bank account online, and I was like, “Oh, this … God, I spent a little more in Vegas than I thought.” And [00:25:00] then later on I was like, “Yeah, I’ll go back online.” And I go, “God, it seems like it’s at least 1,000 or so less.”

Went online. Somebody had went on my dream shopping trip. They went to Home Depot, bought a whole bunch of stuff. They went to Best Buy. I think Circuit City was still a thing then. They went to Lowe’s. They went to six stores and bought a couple thousand dollars worth of stuff. And I went to my bank, and they were good about it.

They go, “Do you use your credit [00:25:30] card at gas stations?” I was like, “Yeah.” They go, “Yeah, that’s where it went.” They got, they have skimmers. And I was like, “What?” I, I was like, “What’s a skimmer?” So why don’t you tell us what the hell is a skimmer? How is this happening?

Noel Glasgow: Okay, so I will go back. Back when this happened to you, card skimmers were on trucking– were on the point-of-sale system at trucking locations, fuel vendors. They would put a big thing on there. When you swiped your card, it gathered all your data. They would then go, like every couple of hours in the middle of the night, take [00:26:00] that piece off, download it in, recreate your credit card, and then go out and use that credit card as you saw Today the, the bad guys have gotten brilliant.

Now they can put a tiny piece of equipment inside the point-of-sale system, and then they can be miles away thanks to technology. And once your card is swiped, they’re downloading all your information immediately, and then they can take a hotel key or anything that has a magstripe on the back and make it look like your same fuel card and [00:26:30] go out and buy fuel.

So we have controls in place to fight that when, where we have prompts that the driver has to put in, trip number that they’re on or dynamic prompting and all of that. That’s one way, but some trucking companies don’t take advantage of that. So our first foray into, to trying to fix that was what we talked about earlier, our secure fuel product, which we debuted about 10 years ago, working with the ELDs to make sure that the truck was at the location that the fuel card was being swiped.

So when that [00:27:00] fuel card was swiped, we said, “All right, Joe is in Las Vegas, Nevada. His truck’s in Las Vegas, Nevada at this fuel vendor, location. We’re gonna allow this fuel purchase to go through.” So we did that. The second piece that we have s- a couple of years ago, the, the skimming went away, and then during the Ukraine war, when that started and fuel prices spiked like they have again today, the card skimming got bad again.

Because like I said earlier, fuel prices, when they’re above $6, it’s liquid gold to the bad guys. They can resell [00:27:30] it on the black market at pennies on the dollar and make a ton of money stealing from you. So we debuted our dynamic prompt, which a driver would go into our mobile app or even their company’s mobile app, select Get Fuel, and they would get a prompt that would allow them, after they swipe their card, they had to use, that would last for 30 minutes, and then if that didn’t work, if that prompt was not correct, the fuel purchase would not work.

We have since now we have two new additions to that. Both dynamic prompt and secure fuel are still being used. We now have cardless fueling, where [00:28:00] in our app or a company’s app, we can allow by giving them the API connectivity from our systems into their systems, where they just say, “Get fuel,” and they get a, quote, “flow code” that will allow them to pump in, not even swipe a card, pump in that, that digit.

Let’s think it’s six or seven digits. Put that in at the pump. We know, the, the fuel vendor knows it’s our company. The fuel vendor knows our card. We have their card on the backside. We check all their limits, just like they swiped a card, but they never did, [00:28:30] and then that way they have the ability to continue on and not worry about getting their card skimmed.

We also have, for folks that don’t wanna do that, we have a product that’s called freeze and thaw, where a driver can turn their fuel card on when it’s time to swipe it and then turn it right back off when they’re finished. And they thaw the card allow the fuel purchase, and then a-it actually automatically goes back into freeze mode as soon as the purchase is done.

So that way, if that card happens to be skimmed, nobody can take advantage of that when they’re out [00:29:00] trying to buy fuel. So again, at WEX, our ultimate goal is to take care of the customer. And so to– I think you said it earlier, innovation is wonderful, but innovation always continues. So we start with secure fuel, then we have dynamic prompts, cardless, freeze thaw.

We’re getting to where we will have freeze thaw and cardless in the cab of the truck, and the driver won’t even have to use an app on their phone. There’s all these evolutions of security and fraud detection and fraud prevention that we’re working on, and Trimble [00:29:30] has been a great partner in working on that, as have all the fuel vendors in the industry, because the fuel vendors don’t want the fuel stolen either, right?

Nobody wants it stolen, no matter what it’s done. One thing about the trucking industry is we all, no matter what we do in it, if you’re a driver, a fleet, a, a vendor, we compete against each other, but we work together because at the end of the day, backbone of the economy, we have to make sure the trucks continue to stay on the road.

We gotta do everything we can together to make it better

Joe Lynch: I love it. I love it. And this sounds, am I right to say this is like a two-factor authen- [00:30:00] authentication?

Noel Glasgow: There’s all kinds of two-factor authentication there. I think,

Joe Lynch: can’t s- I can’t say that so I could ever work at one of those companies. Two FAs is all I’ll say.

Noel Glasgow: Th-there you go. You think about it like this. You can’t go buy a sandwich on the Chick-fil-A app without giving half of your blood type and everything else to be able to allow it to go through. Why should a truck, truck- trucking company be able to buy fuel without having to do the same thing? So we’re using our own two-factor authentication.

We also recommend for all of our drivers that are using mobile apps to have a passkey or use two-factor authentication, [00:30:30] now I can’t say it, on their phone to make sure that… the more secure you can be, the better. You got– you talked about it and you got hit by it personally in Vegas.

I will tell you, my parents just got hit with fraud. It’s not just in the trucking company. It’s not just fuel cards. The bad guys are going after us everywhere, and any time a card is swiped or spent, anything that you can do to take advantage of helping you do a safer transaction, you should do it 100%.

Joe Lynch: Yeah, absolutely. And I you’re you’re right to say the [00:31:00] sophistication level is just ramps up higher and higher. And by the way, you mentioned ELD that’s electronic logging device for people who aren’t in the trucking business who are listening. Electronic logging device is supposed to me- measure your hours of service.

You’re only allowed to drive a certain amount of hours. So companies always had electronic logging devices. It became mandatory for certain sized companies, I think in 2017, 2018. And it was a big hullabaloo for a minute ’cause, there was companies saying, “I’m not doing it.” And I was [00:31:30] like, “Yeah, you are.” And but the digital revolution that’s spawned the unintended consequences. So I think most people I talk to would say that ELD is more hassle and it hasn’t saved lives necessarily. But we connected all sorts of technology like yours to that ELD. And when you think of the E- ELD, it’s probably a better way to think about it is there’s a tech stack for the driver

Noel Glasgow: Yeah. It’s their own little [00:32:00] computer system inside their own truck that tells them what to do, when to do it, how to do it, and everything in between

Joe Lynch: Yeah. And so when you see that tablet, that contains an ELD and a million other things that helps them do the job right and hopefully do it with as much efficiency as possible. Because again, this is, this, the leakage in this business w- is going to drive you out of this business.

Noel Glasgow: 100%.

Joe Lynch: Next thing I wanna talk to you about is fuel waste and blind spots first in [00:32:30] spending patterns.

I have not run across that one yet, but I’m sure once you describe it, I will understand it

Noel Glasgow: W-we’ve kinda talked about it at high level, but if you think about if you’re a driver for my trucking company and I give you a fuel card and I say, “Hey, Joe, go on your way. I need you in Sacramento in three days. Go get ’em.” And you just go and you’re a driver and you’re trying to do what’s right for the company, and you’re trying to be economical in your decision-making, and you look up and you see this truck stop says [00:33:00] it’s 4.85 a gallon, and this truck stop says it’s 4.89 a gallon.

You’re gonna go to the 4.85 because that’s saving four pennies, which I think every trucking company would love fuel to be 4.85 a gallon right now. But you’re gonna save four pennies per gallon for my, for, for our trucking company. What you might not know is that I have negotiated with that trucking, that fuel vendor to have, it says it’s 4.89.

I’m actually getting retail minus 30 cents, so I’m paying 4.59 over here. So from controls put on the card [00:33:30] that dictates where you purchase the fuel and when you purchase the fuel, it allows you to make sure you’re not just thinking you’re saving money, but you’re having better spending of your money and controlling when and where you spend it.

That’s the front end of it. The back end is we have tools that if you have ne- fuel discounts negotiated with fuel vendors, that we’re running data on the backside and looking at the transactions to make sure that those fuel discounts actually were applied when you purchased the fuel. We’re making sure we can send [00:34:00] you data that shows drivers are, who are compliant the most in your network, who are not compliant.

We can recommend fuel stops and recommend where you go to buy the fuel to make a better solution and a better selection for what is needed in your s- in your situation. And so we want to make sure, again, we can’t highlight it enough, second-largest expense, maybe largest expense for a trucking company right now is fuel.

Anything that you can do to help you control where that [00:34:30] fuel spend is happening, how it’s happening, when it’s happening, why it’s happening, the better you’re suited. Again, it’s a small margins business, and every penny needs to be looked at

Joe Lynch: Yeah. And I’ve done a lot of… I’m an automotive guy originally, and I’ve also… You mentioned Nissan down there. I used to do some inbound logistics to Nissan. And they tell all their suppliers, “All your shipping goes through…” the company I was working at. And that compliance isn’t easy. So what you find out is [00:35:00] right away f- 50% go, “Okay, we’ll do it.”

“We are told to do it.” And then you gotta kinda fight the next 60 to get to 60, to get 70. And then at some point you’re gonna go, “Yeah, we’re pretty successful.” All but these 10 guys who say, “We’re not doing it ’cause it…” A- and usually there’s a good reason they can’t do it. We would save them, I’m just gonna make the numbers up, I’m gonna save you $2 million when everybody complies, but right now only 50% of your suppliers have [00:35:30] complied.

And that’s goes the same with gas. So this works when everybody does the right thing. But if 20% of your drivers just say, “Ah, the hell with it, I just bought it over here.” First off, now it’s outside the system, so I don’t have good KPIs on it, and it’s non-compliant. You might not think of it that way, but it’s non-compliant.

You’ve spent more money. But on top of that, the overall spend within this card got smaller. Your company’s discount is impacted by you not [00:36:00] doing the right thing.

Noel Glasgow: You’ve negotiated a fuel discount with a fuel vendor because you’re gonna give them X amount of gallons per month. Now you’re not giving them those gallons because your drivers aren’t being compliant to where they need to purchase. You mentioned, you made, you said 2 million. You say, “Hey, you might only be saving pennies per gallon, but you have X amount of trucks, and pennies add to dollars add to a lot.”

And so anything that you can do and control and save is so important. And a- again, the large guys [00:36:30] do a really good job of doing it. The small guys are getting better at it. We’re trying to provide the tools to allow them to get better at it. They’re just as important, if not more important, than some of the large guys, and so we have to allow them to learn and to educate, and we have to continue to be good partners.

All of our vendors in this industry have to be good partners for these drivers to help them run a better, smarter, safer business. And anything that we can do to help you do that is the way we wanna be thought of. That’s you wanna focus on your [00:37:00] customers. If you’re not listening or helping your customers be better, smarter, and safer, you’re not doing a good job

Joe Lynch: Yeah. It’s it seems little, but I have to tell you, I use the term compliant and non-compliant a lot more than I ever did in the past. And I say we live in a compliance culture. I don’t wanna get too far down this rabbit hole, but I love college football, and I know you do, too. In the olden days, not so long ago, if somebody did something wrong and came to the coach or came to administrator and said, “Hey, [00:37:30] this happened,” they would go, “Oh, okay.

I’ll talk to i’ll have a beer with that guy, and I’ll explain how he’s … get back on the right track.” That’s the olden days. No more good old boy network. Now it’s, “Somebody told me about a violation. We have a process. We must follow it.” And you’ll notice I’m a University of Michigan alum and fan, we have had that, where somebody did something wrong, and even when it was reported, they didn’t do the exact right thing.

They thought we’ll handle this b- [00:38:00] another way.” It doesn’t work. Covering up the non-compliance is worse than non-compliance. So

Noel Glasgow: for sure. For sure

Joe Lynch: we gotta get to the place here as a truck … And by the way, I think also truckers and trucking companies, a little bit of the spirit of the cowboy, and we’re all for it. But when it comes to the g- No cowboy wants to comply, but this is for our own good.

This is like taking your blood pressure medication.

Noel Glasgow: You, you are so right. That is a great [00:38:30] description of the, especially the independent owner-operator. They’re the cowboy. They still are the cowboy. They don’t want Big Brother watching them. They don’t want to have anybody telling them what to do. But I think they are all getting much smarter in how they spend their money, thanks to products like our Ten4 app that allows them to see how they can purchase fuel, when they can purchase fuel at a much better discount.

Again, anything that we can do from an education standpoint, so much better for them and to help them. And you’re right, compliance is very important,

Joe Lynch: yeah. And I [00:39:00] should also say, guys that compliance applies a- across the whole industry. So when somebody asked me, I was just at a conference, and one of the questions while I was speaking was, “What about these nuclear verdicts?” And a lot of those nuclear verdicts, in a s- you’re in a state seven c- seven states away from where you’re based, and maybe somebody was hurt or even killed, and what do the lawyers focus on?

Everything you did that, that, that showed non-compliance. Not fuel cards probably, but everywhere else where you [00:39:30] d- “Oh, you’ve skipped that training day? Oh, my God, I think this speaks to the way they do business.” So

Noel Glasgow: Yep. Everything’s under a microscope

Joe Lynch: Yep, yep. The next one, and this is a biggie, and it’s the freight cash crunch. This is waiting on money, and and I’ll describe it d- ’cause I’ve heard it this way. You got a load to go back from, let’s just say you went from New York to California. Now you gotta get back and you don’t have money because you didn’t get paid on [00:40:00] that load like you thought you were gonna get paid.

Talk about that cash crunch. Describe it for us

Noel Glasgow: Yeah, I think trucking companies deliver the goods, but they don’t get paid for delivering the goods for 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120 days

Joe Lynch: Right. Regardless what the contract says.

Noel Glasgow: r- and a- and so especially for those, and again, we talked about it, over and over. It’s a pennies industry. And so when you’re having to spend, especially when fuel prices are high, and you’re having to spend that [00:40:30] money to, to your point, to get back, to buy, another 110 gallons of fuel or 600 gallons of fuel or 1,000 gallons of fuel, whatever you need, you’ve gotta be able to pay for it.

You’ve gotta have cash flow. You’ve gotta have money coming in and not just going out. And so for trucking companies that need help, factoring or AR financing is a wonderful way to do it because we here, we have Wex Capital, which is our factoring division. It allows for companies to give us, we will buy their [00:41:00] invoice from them and give them a very high percentage of that invoice.

Very high percentage, and it gives them the cash up front, and then we collect from the vendor, as they go. And so cash flow doesn’t become an issue that stops them. It allows them to continue in trying to figure out how to make that money. And I have seen it, unfortunately, trucking companies win a huge deal.

They’re gonna carry for this amazing company who’s gonna pay them, and they’re gonna pay them a ton of money, but they’re only gonna pay them every 180 days or every [00:41:30] 150 days or every 120 days. We- you still gotta buy fuel every day. You still gotta pay your drivers every day. You still gotta have a truck every day.

You still gotta pay for your insurance every day. It’s everything. And so having the ability to let someone else collect and pay you for it, it’s a win-win for all these trucking companies for sure

Joe Lynch: Yeah. No, I bet you have some of your customers that just bake it in, and they say, “We are going to let, we are gonna let WEX do that part of our business, and we’re gonna factor virtually everything.” [00:42:00] We- I’m assuming you can s- say, “I don’t wanna factor these two, but everything else goes through WEX because we’re not in that business, and I don’t wanna be starving on the road.”

Noel Glasgow: Yeah. Oh, yeah, we have a very large customer base, and we help– we, we do that, and we also, again, continue to help educate them and let them know that this is– it, sometimes it’s people look at it with a bad light. It’s not. It’s helping them continue to do business. Tons of companies in all industries have open line of credits with banks, have AR financing.

It’s just a [00:42:30] different way of doing it. It’s helping the transportation industry continue to, at the end of the day, I say this all the time when I’m fortunate enough to be on podcasts like this or do interviews, the backbone of the economy is trucking. And what truck drivers and truck and carriers need to worry about is getting from point A to point B to help our economy continue.

They shouldn’t have to worry about all the minutiae in between. Let other folks like Wex help you with that.

Joe Lynch: Yeah. My own personal story about factoring. I haven’t told it in a minute, so I’ll tell you, say it again. My [00:43:00] dad owned an engineering business. We did mostly, we were automotive. We had a relationship with a bank so we could make payroll every, every week. And then we weren’t getting paid.

I won’t mention the big three automaker that did it to us, but they weren’t paying us. And we go to the bank and say, “Hey, we needs, need a little more money ’cause we’re gonna get paid on some of these invoices.” And they’re like, “No.” So we’re not gonna make payroll coming up in two weeks. And I was flipping through Sports [00:43:30] Illustrated, and it said, sell us your invoices.”

And I was like, “You don’t want our invoices.” And I remember I called, it was a New York company, and they explained what they did, and I was like, “Wait, what?”

Noel Glasgow: Yeah, this is great

Joe Lynch: so they connected me with a local company that would buy my invoices. And when I’m t- when I’m telling my dad this, he’s looking at me like, “What did I do to get this kid?”

This makes no sense. He’s spouting nonsense. And then I call the company, and they’re like, “Yeah.” I get [00:44:00] my dad on the phone with them, and they’re like yeah. Yeah, bring us those invoices. Yeah, they’re from XYZ big three automaker. Yeah. Yeah, of course.” It was a miracle. It was honestly a miracle.

I couldn’t believe it

Noel Glasgow: It’s a savior to a lot of fleets out there. And again it’s just, it’s a way to help them continue to worry about the main thing, and that’s getting the goods from A to B

Joe Lynch: Yeah. Yep. Now this is not gonna air until after Trimble. So from what I understand [00:44:30] talking to Johnston earlier, your PR guy, he said you guys had some announcement that you were gonna do a- at Trimble. We can hold this off. This isn’t gonna publish until, so can you tell me that announcement or do I have to cut this whole segment

Noel Glasgow: no, we can. So we are going to announce a partnership. We– Our, our verified vendors partnerships, and we have an area, I think I mentioned it a little bit earlier, but we have a a, an area in our on our website and for our part-our customers where partners can put their [00:45:00] product in front of our customer base.

And like I said earlier, we have a, a, a partnership with a hotel company. We have a partnership with a tolling company, a

Joe Lynch: Oh, nice

Noel Glasgow: so that way, again, our ultimate goal at WEX is to take care of the customer. We got you when it comes to fuel and payroll and payments, but we would like to also help you in other areas that you need help.

And so we have partnered with a company called Engine from a hotel perspective. We have a partnership with TFG, which is a financing [00:45:30] arm which helps trucking companies buy trucks at a great rate. We have a partnership with Best Pass from a tolling perspective. So we ha-we continue to add to this, and we will continue to add to our verified vendor list.

It’s just a phenomenal hub where they can go online and look at and see people that we partnered with, which we think we’re-we think they are worth doing business with because we have put out the partnership with them

Joe Lynch: Yeah, I was supposed to talk to Engine. I don’t think I’m going to. Th- there’s timing issues. But I love the idea of [00:46:00] getting truckers into hotels or motels. Somebody just said to me not so long ago, and they had some research that said the average truck driver is sleeping five hours in his truck, when they sleep in their truck.

And by the way, that also keeps a lot of women out of this business. They don’t want to be away from home, but they certainly don’t want to be sleeping in a precarious location. We have not done a good job for letting our drivers have a good night’s rest. And you think about what they’re doing all day.

They’re driving those [00:46:30] massive trucks down the expressways where our families are driving. We need to do a better job on getting them home, but if we can’t get them home, let’s get them a good night’s rest for all of our good.

Noel Glasgow: 100%. Yes. Again, it’s the safety for everybody, not just the driver, but all people. Let’s get the good night rest every night that’s needed

Joe Lynch: Yep. And then there’s another, there’s a, a company called, a nonprofit I think, called N- Project 61. The average truck driver’s dying at 61 years old, [00:47:00] and life on the road isn’t easy. And we need those drivers. We’re gonna have autonomous vehicles sooner th- sooner than we think, but we still need drivers.

I’m telling you, I think the role will probably morph, but is going to be just as important, and I think part of it might get into the security of this stuff.

Noel Glasgow: I agree. The, we gotta do everything we can to make the driver’s life better. They’re the backbone of the e- economy. I’ve said it 15 times on this interview, but anything we can do to help, anything WEX can do to help, anybody in the [00:47:30] industry can do to help, we’ve gotta make sure we take care of the driver at the end of the day

Joe Lynch: Yeah it’s… Boy, oh, boy I did this one time. I drove a six-wheeled vehicle. Somebody paid me. It was a whopping $200, so what I wouldn’t do for $200. I drove it from Chicago to Detroit. It had six wheels, and it did take diesel. And it snowed the whole time. It was horrible, and it took me eight hours instead of four and a half.

And I remember every time I called in, people yelled at me. I was like, “It is… you… Look outside, man. There’s eight inches of snow and I’m [00:48:00] driving.” “What is wrong with you?” I felt God, if this is the- how these guys live. I was getting paid a flat amount to go f- that four and a half hours that turned into eight and a half, I think, and it’s treacherous.

And I thought, geez, oh, Pete, why would anyone do this job?

Noel Glasgow: Yeah. Again they need, they deserve respect more than anybody we think about. It is truly, it’s a hard life, but it’s so important and they are the, they’re the heroes that don’t get mentioned a lot

Joe Lynch: Yep. So I’m gonna summarize what we [00:48:30] talked about, then I want to get your final thoughts on the topic. So I’m talking to my friend Noel Glasgow, and we’re talking about the four massive fleet problems WEX solves for trucking companies. So the first one is just this leaky margins and zero spending discipline.

This is when you’re spending money, which is the second-largest budget buying gas, and you don’t have controls on it. And you’re buying it anywhere, d- looking for a good deal, but not using a fuel card is going to cost you money. And there’s [00:49:00] fuel cards for big fleets, obviously we all know that.

But the- they also have programs for the smaller companies. Again, the smaller companies that we all count on. And again, if you’re a broker and you’re listening, this is also to talk to your, talk to some of your companies, ’cause you need them to make money, too.

Noel Glasgow: Yeah we wanna help no matter what the trucking company size is. We have the tools for the small guys, the big guys, the large guys, the owner-operators, the, the company-owned. We have it all. No matter what you’re doing, you all buy fuel, and we can help you

Joe Lynch: Yep. And the second [00:49:30] thing we talked about was card skimming, auth- unauthorized swipes, fuel theft. And this is where the, the WEX has gotten high-tech. A- and they’re t- they’re connected to the Trimble ecosystem. And it’s not just the Trimble. I know they’re connected to other systems. They’re basically gonna say, “The truck is here, and the

So I’m trying to get gas somewhere else. We aren’t gonna do it.” It gives you the visibility that you need. But th- this kind of thing is what we need in our industry to scare off the crooks ’cause they’re looking for the [00:50:00] low-hanging fruit. As soon as they realize, oh, God, the you can’t steal from the trucking business, they’ll be gone.

But what they see in us is this is a casual industry, that everyone seems to know each other, so they aren’t safe.

Noel Glasgow: Yeah it, a-as, as technology improves, the bad guys get smarter and better too. So everything that we can do to help, curb what they’re trying to do, th-that’s what we want. If it’s our secure fuel, if it’s dynamic prompting, if it’s cardless fueling, if it’s freeze and thawing the fuel card, if it’s working with the ELD, [00:50:30] if it’s working with the TMS, whatever we can do to help and partners like Trimble are great at doing that

Joe Lynch: Yeah. And we talked also about the fuel waste and blind spots and spending patterns. So you gotta get all your spending on one card, one place, so you can start to have KPIs and also talk about, “Hey, why were you non-compliant?” And as soon as you find out we’re non-compliant, help me become compliant.

Help me to understand or help WEX to say, “Hey, here’s my problem.” They’ll go, “Good. We’ll fix that.”

Noel Glasgow: Da-data is important, and we can help you control and look at the data. Like you said, the [00:51:00] KPI is an important world today that we all have to play in. And so anything we can do to help you control it, when, the when, the how, the why, we wanna make sure we do that

Joe Lynch: Yep. And factoring we could have led with factoring. It is critically important. You mentioned the backbone of our industry is trucking. One of the backbones of trucking is not only the gas and the trucks, but it’s the money, and I st- I joke about it on my podcast every once in a while. The number one question in our business is, “Where is my stuff?”

The number two question’s, “Where’s my money?” [00:51:30] And when I say number two, often it’s number one.

Noel Glasgow: Yeah. Anything we can do to help from that perspective. You’re right. It is a pennies business, a small margin industry, and being able to have cash flow is so important. And so if you need help from that perspective, that’s what we’re here for. Our WEX capital team is phenomenal and can help in any way

Joe Lynch: Yep. And the last point, and this was one that we weren’t gonna talk about till we got to Trimble, so this is brand-new news. This is the WEX has a verified vendors program. So [00:52:00] anything that helps a trucking company do a better job, whether it’s lending, lending money at a better rate than you could get on your own, or getting a hotel I’m assuming navigation, the, the stuff is going to continue.

So this, again, is a starting point. I’m, I imagine if we’re talking a year from now, it’s gonna be much bigger part of your biz

Noel Glasgow: Yeah, all the partnerships are with companies that we see are out there to do exactly what we wanna do, and that’s be customer-driven and help the industry. And like you [00:52:30] said, if it’s financing a vehicle or a trailer, if it’s getting a hotel room or paying for tolls or figuring out how to get from point A to point B, all of our verified vendors are wonderful, and you have the ability to see those right in front of your day-to-day operations through the WEX portal

Joe Lynch: Excellent. Excellent. So Noel put a big old bow on this one. Final thoughts on the topic

Noel Glasgow: Final thoughts. First and foremost, thanks for having me on. Wonderful to talk. Thanks for supporting the industry that we are such a part of, and that is such an important piece to our economy. Just know, I want the [00:53:00] industry to know that WEX is here for you, that WEX is, the ultimate goal is to make sure that the customers get better, faster, and smarter.

We can help you in any way when it comes to buying fuel, controlling how you buy fuel, reporting how you buy fuel, all of that, and having control and spend and fraud mitigation. And again I thank you, and also I thank every truck and driver out there, because without the truck drivers, you and I would be not talking on a podcast, not sitting in a chair, not sitting inside a house that has four walls.

So thank you so much to that industry. And then I guess the final [00:53:30] thought I’ll just say is go Vols.

Joe Lynch: Exactly. Exactly. Sorry for all the Texas people. I’ve joked about on my podcast, I only talk to people from three, three places: Texas, Georgia, and everywhere else. But there’s a lot of Tennessee in that everywhere else lately

Noel Glasgow: Yes, sir. Thank you so much for having me on

Joe Lynch: Yeah, and thank you. No, I’ll make sure I put a link to your LinkedIn profile, link to your website.

Any other links you and your go-to-market team give me, I’ll put those in the show notes. And what conference will we see you guys at?

Noel Glasgow: We will be at [00:54:00] ATA is the next one that I will be at, but we will have a booth at Trimble. We’ll have a whole team there, and then we will have– We’ll be at ATA, we’ll be at the TCA in March. That’s typically the main two that we go to, but there’s a lot. Johnston has a full list

Joe Lynch: Yeah, I’ve seen you guys at Manifest and others, so I always joke big companies like yours get to all of them whether they like it or not.

Noel Glasgow: That’s right. Thank you so much. I appreciate the time

Joe Lynch: Thank you so much. And thank all of you for listening to my show. Your support’s very much appreciated. Until next time, onward and upward