Fleet fuel tracking: every fill-up logged, photographed and costed

Litres, price and station recorded at the pump, backed by receipt and odometer photos — so fuel spend per vehicle becomes a number you can trust instead of a shoebox of receipts.

In short: Smart Strix gives UK fleets of 2–50 vehicles a fuel log built into the driver app. At each fill-up the driver records litres, price and station, and photographs the receipt and the odometer. Every entry lands against the right vehicle, so per-vehicle fuel costs are always current. Fuel logging is part of the core platform, which is free to get started.

How does the fuel log app work at the pump?

The driver fills up, opens the Smart Strix app, and logs the purchase before leaving the forecourt: how many litres, what it cost, which station. Two photos complete the entry — the receipt and the odometer reading. Thirty seconds of effort at the moment the information exists, instead of an end-of-month reconstruction from faded thermal paper.

Capturing at the point of purchase is what makes the data honest. Retrospective fuel records drift: receipts go missing, odometer readings get estimated, and the station column becomes "Shell, probably". A logged-at-the-pump entry needs no memory at all.

What does each fuel entry capture?

FieldWhat it gives you
LitresConsumption volume per fill, per vehicle
PriceSpend per fill and effective pence-per-litre paid
StationWhere drivers actually buy — and who pays over the odds
Receipt photoEvidence for expenses, VAT records and dispute resolution
Odometer photoMileage at fill-up, verifiable against the image itself

One honest note: the photos are stored as evidence, not machine-read. Smart Strix does not OCR receipts into fields — the driver enters litres and price, and the photo backs the entry up.

Why track fuel per vehicle rather than per fuel card statement?

A card statement tells you what the company spent; a per-vehicle log tells you where the money went. When fuel spend rises, the statement cannot distinguish dearer diesel from a van developing a thirst or a route that grew longer. Vehicle-level entries — each with an odometer photo — let you put spend beside mileage for a specific van and ask sharper questions. A vehicle whose consumption is climbing may be flagging a fault worth a look via maintenance before it becomes a breakdown.

What do odometer photos add?

Verifiability. A typed mileage figure is a claim; a photograph of the dashboard is a record. Over time those photos build an independent mileage trail for each vehicle — useful for servicing intervals, lease-return mileage, resale, and for spotting weekend miles that nobody booked. Because they are captured through the driver app, uploads retry automatically if the forecourt has no signal.

How does fuel logging fit the rest of the platform?

It is one strand of each vehicle's running record. The same vehicle profile that holds fuel entries also carries MOT, insurance and V5C expiry dates, inspection due dates, maintenance history and check-in/check-out photos — so "what is this van costing us and what condition is it in?" has a single answer in one place. Drivers, meanwhile, log fuel in the same app where they run jobs and record shifts, so there is no separate expenses tool to nag them into using.

Can fuel data actually cut costs?

Data does not save money by itself — decisions do, and the log is what makes them possible. Seeing station-by-station prices lets you steer drivers away from expensive motorway fills; per-vehicle trends tell you which van to investigate; a complete receipt trail tightens expense claims. We have collected practical approaches in our guide to reducing fleet fuel costs. Fuel logging comes with the platform rather than as a paid extra — see pricing for the Starter and Advanced tiers.

Frequently asked questions

What do drivers record at each fill-up?
Litres, price and the station, plus two photos: the receipt and the odometer. The entry is made in the Smart Strix driver app at the pump and lands against the correct vehicle.
Does Smart Strix read receipts automatically with OCR?
No — receipt and odometer photos are stored as supporting evidence, and the driver keys in litres and price. We would rather be straight about that than promise auto-extraction that does not exist.
Can I see fuel costs for one specific van?
Yes. Entries are logged per vehicle, so each van has its own fuel cost record — spend, volumes and stations — rather than everything pooling into one company total.
What if there is no phone signal at the petrol station?
The app retries uploads when connectivity returns, so entries and photos captured offline are not lost — the driver logs the fill and carries on.
Why photograph the odometer as well as the receipt?
The odometer photo ties mileage to the fill-up in a verifiable way, building a photographic mileage history per vehicle that helps with servicing intervals, lease returns and spotting unexplained miles.
Does fuel tracking work with fuel cards?
Drivers can log any purchase however it was paid — the log records litres, price and station regardless of payment method, giving you per-vehicle detail your card statement cannot.
Is fuel logging an extra-cost module?
No, it is part of the Smart Strix platform alongside jobs, vehicle records and shifts. The platform is free to get started, with Starter and Advanced plans billed monthly or yearly.

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