From the Fuel Purchases Report (Fuel & Energy > Fuel Purchases) you can cross reference fuel purchases with vehicle tracking data. This enables you to verify that fuel purchases correspond to a vehicle’s position at the reported gas station. Verified purchases are detected automatically and include a link to the trip that is associated with the purchase using a proximity search. An unverified purchase indicates that Samsara was not able to detect a vehicle nearby at the reported time and location. To view or edit Fuel Purchases you must have the corresponding Fuel Purchases user permissions enabled for your role. For more information on Fuel user permissions, including Fuel Purchases user permissions, see Custom Roles. You can Import Fuel Purchases in CSV format and also upload and edit fuel card information from your Samsara dashboard (Settings ( ) > Fuel & Energy > Fuel Cards).
The report displays total fuel purchases, including the average price per gallon or liter, and a graph view of fuel purchases by day. You can also gain additional insight into fuel cost-savings opportunities in this report with Fuel Price Insights.
The All report of the Fuel Purchase Report displays all uploaded fuel purchase amounts, cost, time, and locations. The report is further subdivided by the transaction analysis state:
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All: All uploaded fuel purchase amounts, cost, time, and location.
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Verified: Indicates whether a vehicle from your fleet was near the gas purchase location at the time of purchase (within a 100 meter radius, and within 10 minutes before or after the transaction). Verified purchases will include a link to the proximity search that verified the purchase.
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Unverified: Indicates no vehicles were nearby at the time and location of the transaction (within a 100 meter radius, and within 10 minutes before or after the transaction).
Unverified purchases are still included in the IFTA Report Tax Paid Gallons per jurisdiction.
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Processing: Samsara has not yet analyzed the transaction.
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Invalid: Indicates purchases where the address or other data may be invalid and Samsara could not definitively verify the purchase. As an administrator, you can manually edit a file to correct typos or address errors and re-upload. The report will resolve the duplicate uploads and if the address is valid, verify the purchase. If needed, you can delete one or more transactions in a time period and remove them from the report.
To view the summary and details of an uploaded transaction, select a transaction from the Transactions list. You can view the following Transaction details, as applicable:
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Field |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Sale Date/Time |
Date and time the transaction occurred. |
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IFTA Fuel Type |
Type of fuel purchased. |
|
Assigned Vehicle |
If you uploaded fuel purchases in CSV format, this is the name of the vehicle you listed in the Vehicle field for the transaction. If you imported fuel purchases through integration, Samsara uses gateway GPS data, and fuel purchase location data from your integration to see what vehicles were in the vicinity of the transaction (within a 100 meter radius, and within 10 minutes before or after the transaction). If there was only one vehicle within the vicinity of transaction, Samsara sets it as the Assigned Vehicle. If there is more than one vehicle within the vicinity of the transaction, no Assigned Vehicle is set, and all eligible vehicles are listed as Nearby Vehicles. |
|
Nearby Vehicles |
Any vehicles that were within a 100 meter radius, and within 10 minutes before or after the transaction are listed here. |
|
Status |
Indicates whether the transaction is Verified or Unverified. |
To edit an uploaded transaction, see Edit or Delete a Fuel Purchase Transaction. For archival or reporting purposes or to edit transactions in bulk, you can export the transactions from the Fuel Purchase Report (More Actions > Export to CSV). To upload edited transactions, see Import Fuel Purchases.
Drivers are expected to fuel their vehicles as economically as possible, and ideally, at a convenient location. Drivers are often provided with instructions on which fuel station merchants are preferred, but because they make the decision independently, it can be a manual task to monitor which drivers are following guidelines.
With Fuel Price Insights in the Fuel Purchases Report (Fuel & Energy > Fuel Purchases), all fuel transactions go through an automatic assessment of whether it was made at a preferred merchant or could have been made at a cheaper fueling station nearby. This helps avoid the manual task of analyzing individual fuel transactions to identify cost-savings and can help you efficiently prioritize driver coaching to reinforce company guidelines.
Fuel transactions are highlighted in the Fuel Purchases Report map, and color-coded by savings potential.
You also have access to additional metrics and filters:
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Total possible savings during a selected time period
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Trend chart that displays actual fuel cost compared to the lowest possible cost over time
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Percent of fuel purchases could have been made at a cheaper, nearby gas stations
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Percent of fuel purchases that were not made with a preferred merchant
To further investigate the details of which fuel purchases could have been purchased at cheaper fueling stations, or at a preferred merchant, you can select View Purchases.
If you select an individual transaction from the list of fuel purchases that could have been made at cheaper, nearby gas stations, you can see which other fueling stations nearby had a cheaper price, as well as the exact location of these stations
If you select an individual transaction from the list of fuel purchases that were not made with a preferred merchant, you can see the name and purchase location and the name that station.
A preferred merchant is a fuel vendor brand that you choose to prioritize for your drivers or assets, often for reasons such as cost, network availability, or compliance.
If you designate a preferred fuel merchant in Fuel & Energy Settings, the following assessment logic is considered:
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If the fuel purchase has been made at a preferred merchant, the transaction is classified as such, and Samsara doesn't look for cheaper alternates nearby.
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If the transaction has not been made at a preferred merchant, Samsara searches for any fueling stations within a 1.86 mile (3 kilometer) radius to check whether there would have been a preferred or cheaper fueling station nearby:
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If a fuel station of a preferred merchant was nearby, we assign it as a potential savings opportunity.
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If several fueling stations of a preferred merchant were nearby, we assign the one from the highest priority merchant.
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If several fueling stations of the same preferred merchant were nearby, we assign the one with the cheapest price.
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If no fueling station of a preferred merchant was nearby, we assign the cheapest fueling station within the search radius.
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To designate preferred fuel merchants, including your merchant-specific discounts, perform the following workflow:
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Navigate to Settings (
) > Fuel & Energy > Fuel Purchases.
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Click Edit in Fuel Merchant Preferences.
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Click + Add Merchant to add as many individual merchants as necessary.
If you cannot find a preferred merchant, contact your Samsara representative.
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Drag and drop your merchants by order of priority.
If you have several preferred merchants near a transaction, Samsara looks for the preferred merchants by priority order.
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Save.
Your preferred merchant is updated to top-level insights, but past fuel purchase transactions savings aren't recalculated.
You can edit the transaction details directly from the dashboard or export the uploaded transactions to a Comma-Separated Values (CSV) file to edit transactions in bulk. Automatically detected details such as the nearby vehicle and the sale timestamp cannot be edited.
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To delete a transaction, select one or more transactions from the Transactions list and then click Delete.
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To edit transactions in bulk, click More Actions > Export to CSV, edit the transactions following the CSV Format for Fuel Purchases in Import Fuel Purchases.
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To edit one transaction, select the transaction from the list.
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From Transaction details, click Edit. You can edit the following details:
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IFTA Fuel Type: Search for or select the type from the menu (Compressed Natural Gas, Diesel, Ethanol, Gasoline, Liquified Natural Gas, Propane, M85, Methanol, Hydrogen, Unspecified, A55, Biodiesel, Other).
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Assigned Vehicle: Search for or select the vehicle from the menu.
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Status: Select Verified or Unverified status.
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To confirm the changes, click Save.
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I keep getting the the following error.
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