Field notes

When Fuel Cards and Trip Sheets Disagree

1 March 2026

Card totals and trip sheets diverge for ordinary reasons: shared cards, overnight fills after midnight cutoff, and liters recorded against the wrong vehicle plate. Until those gaps shrink, fleet averages mislead more than they help.

Pick one depot and one calendar month. Pull card statements and trip sheets for the same plates. Flag every fill that lacks a matching trip-day or that exceeds tank capacity. Those exceptions usually explain most of the variance.

Ask drivers to note pump station and odometer on the trip sheet at fill time. The habit takes a week to settle and saves hours of later reconciliation.

Only after the sample month reconciles within a few percent should you widen the same method to the rest of the fleet. Clean records beat ambitious charts built on mismatched liters.