FLEET managers are being given a new weapon in the battle to control company car fuel bills. Fleet Cost Management fuel card customers are to be sent at no extra cost a new report which highlights, on a regional basis, any driver or vehicle which has bought fuel at a price above a figure set by fleet managers or FCM.

The new fuel price exception report is sent monthly to customers using any of the Dialcard, Overdrive or FCM fuel cards in addition to the usual monthly fuel card report. FCM says that while it and some of its competitors have provided exception reports for some time the weakness in all of them has been that they did not take account of regional price variations.

With the launch of the new report FCM has split the UK into 11 regions which allows fleet managers operating nationally-based fleets to set a maximum price per region - due to wide pump price variations - or accept FCM's default figure for different types of fuel in each region. FCM claims pump prices can vary by up to 15p a litre (68p a gallon) across the UK.