Truck Stops Go Digital as Visa Moves Fleet Payments to Google Pay

At 2 a.m. on a rain‑slicked interstate, a long‑haul 18-wheeler pulls into a dimly lit fuel island. The driver swipes a decades‑old mag‑stripe “fleet card,” keys in the tractor’s mileage, enters a three‑digit driver ID, then waits while a dot‑matrix printer spits out a curling receipt he’ll drop on accounting’s desk, if it survives the ride.

That ritual isn’t just a truck‑stop quirk. Plumbers’ vans, utilities’ bucket trucks, airport shuttles and the sprinter vans delivering eCommerce goods all do the same dance, millions of times a day. Because every data field is typed by a tired human and every swipe carries an easily cloned mag stripe, the numbers don’t always add up. Visa calculates that if even 3% of U.S. fleet spend is off‑book, businesses are silently eating more than $2 billion a year in leakage. Spare tires here, buddy’s pickup there, and lots of “coffee” at c‑stores.

This morning Visa said it is plugging that leak with a move consumers barely think about anymore: adding Google Pay to its fleet cards. The upgrade follows March’s Apple Pay launch and means Visa credentials can now live inside the two wallets that power roughly 92% of the world’s NFC‑ready smartphones.

In plain English, the plastic fleet card (and all its fleet‑specific data tags and purchase controls) can be shipped over the air to a driver’s phone in minutes, then used with the same tap‑and‑go ease he would use to buy a latte. But this tap can be locked to diesel, capped at $300, and tied to a vehicle ID so back‑office software reconciles the purchase automatically. Or whatever rules the fleet operator would like to set.

The integration solves an arcane but critical problem: The specialized “fleet data tags” that live on a plastic chip — fuel‑grade restrictions, odometer prompts, trailer IDs — can now be carried inside the tokenized credential itself. That means the point‑of‑sale still gets the data it needs, even though the plastic never leaves the office. Or ever ships.

Why wallets, why now? Parker Patton, global head of Visa Commercial Fleet Solutions, told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster in an exclusive interview that the catalyst is speed. Issuing a traditional fleet card still takes seven to 14 days to design, emboss, ship, activate. “Now a fleet manager can push a Visa credential to the driver’s phone in minutes, not weeks,” he said. The open‑loop nature of the Visa network means that single token can buy diesel, charge an EV, pay tolls and even cover a train ticket when the truck is in the shop.

For small operators — fleets with three to 100 vehicles account for over 60% of global vehicle‑related spend — instant provisioning is a game‑changer. “They can turn a card on at 8 a.m. and shut it off at 5 p.m. if a temp driver no‑shows,” Patton said.

Case for Digital Wallets

If digital wallets are so compelling, why do black‑mag stripes still dominate commercial fueling? Pressed by Webster on the issue, Patton blamed the inertia of closed‑loop, proprietary networks. Those networks process only a fraction of a merchant’s transactions, so there has been little urgency or agreement on a common EMV roadmap. Visa broke the logjam by adopting the Conexxus EMV fleet specification, bringing big‑box standardization to the truck stop.

Even so, Patton conceded that some fleets may “leapfrog straight from mag‑stripe to a wallet,” skipping a second plastic generation entirely. The business case is getting clearer as fuel merchants finish their EMV pump upgrades and mobile‑native FinTechs elbow into the market.

Patton argued that the technical hurdles to using digital wallets in this sector are largely gone. Visa’s latest spec preserves every fleet‑specific control inside the token, whether it’s driver prompts, diesel‑only limits or real‑time spend ceilings. It layers biometric authentication, dynamic CVV and Visa’s tokenization rails on top. “Controls and enhanced data are table stakes,” he said. “Wallets inherit all of it and add another layer of fraud protection.”

That matters because fleet fraud is rarely Ocean’s 11. It’s usually fuel skimming, “slippage” at the c‑store, or a buddy filling a personal pickup on the same card. Replacing static card numbers with device‑bound tokens seals off that low‑level leakage while giving managers a live dashboard instead of a week‑old spreadsheet.

Fleets, Redefined

The move to wallets coincides with a broader rethink of what constitutes a fleet. “When people hear ‘fleet,’ they picture a thousand yellow trucks,” Patton said. “But Uber drivers are a fleet. Amazon delivery vans are a fleet. DoorDashers on e‑bikes? Also a fleet.” In an on‑demand economy, any group of vehicles — owned, leased or contracted — is fair game.

Visa’s strategy is to future‑proof against that fragmentation. Fleet 2.0, the company’s next‑gen platform, already supports EV charging, tolling and maintenance. By making those rails wallet‑native, Visa is betting it can service both legacy carriers and the gig‑powered last mile with the same credential.

Early adopters are lining up. Patton told Webster a European fuel merchant is scrapping its closed‑loop card in favor of an open‑loop Visa program with Apple Pay and Google Pay out of the gate. A U.S. fleet FinTech will follow by year‑end.

For drivers, the change will be subtle: tap phone, pump fuel, grab coffee, go. For managers, it could end the midnight spreadsheet and the quiet bleed of billions in unauthorized spend. In the arms race to digitize trucking’s last paper processes, Visa’s Google Pay play looks less like a feature and more like table stakes in a logistics sector that never sleeps.