RTS Review: The RTS Fuel Card Explained

RTS Carrier Services is a trucking factoring company that can help independent truck drivers and small businesses with fleet vehicles get quick funding for vehicle expenses. While RTS’s main business is factoring, it also has fuel cards that offer discounts on gas at more than 3,000 truck stops and gas stations nationwide.

In our RTS fuel card review, we’ll take a closer look at this fuel card—including where you can use it, what discounts it offers, how much it costs, and what extra features it comes with. We’ll also compare the RTS fuel card against competitors so you can decide if it’s right for your business.

If you’d like to find out more about some of the other options out there, check out our guide to the best fuel cards for truckers. Otherwise, stay tuned for everything you need to know about the RTS fuel card.

Short on Time? Here Are the Key Takeaways

• RTS fuel cards are free and offer average savings of $0.25 per gallon on diesel at more than 3,000 in-network truck stops and gas stations nationwide.
• RTS fuel cards include a line of credit up to $3,200 per week for fuel purchases. They also come with RTS Pro, a trucking management software solution.
• RTS has a smaller fueling station network and fewer spend management features than competitors like Edenred and Comdata.
• The above facts mean RTS is going to be best for independent truck drivers and small businesses with only a few trucks.

What Is RTS?

RTS Carrier Solutions is a trucking factoring company established in 1995. It provides invoice factoring and funding services for trucking businesses, including independent drivers and small carriers.

With invoice factoring, RTS will front payment for your invoices in exchange for a percentage payment of each invoice. This ensures that your business has consistent cash flow.

RTS offers fuel cards that you can use with or without the company’s factoring service. RTS fuel cards are free and offer discounts on diesel and truck maintenance services.

The RTS Fuel Card Explained: Is It Any Good?

RTS offers three fuel cards: the RTS Fleet One Fuel Card, the RTS Self-funded Fuel Card, and the RTS Mixed Fleet Fuel Card.

• RTS Fleet One Fuel Card: This is an unsecured credit card designed for truckers. It offers discounts on diesel only and can be used to pay for truck maintenance expenses.
• RTS Self-funded Fuel Card: This is a prepaid fuel card that you can load funds onto using any credit or debit card. It offers the same discounts as the RTS Fleet One Fuel Card and doesn’t require a credit check.
• RTS Mixed Fleet Fuel Card: This is an unsecured credit card that offers discounts on both diesel and unleaded gasoline. It’s designed for use by small businesses that have both large trucks and small fleet vehicles like vans or pickup trucks.

Fuel network and discounts

RTS fuel cards can be used at more than 3,000 in-network fueling stations, including more than 850 Pilot and Flying J truck stops and hundreds of Speedway, Circle K, and Casey’s locations. RTS fuel cards cannot be used at out-of-network locations.

You’ll get an average discount of $0.25 per gallon when buying diesel fuel with an RTS fuel card. Discounts vary between locations and based on how many trucks are in your business’s fleets. RTS doesn’t advertise its average discount for unleaded gas.

In addition, RTS fuel cards can be used at more than 200 truck service centers, including Southern Tire Mart, Boss Shop, and Sapp Bros.

Card management features

When you use an RTS fuel card, you also get access to RTS Pro, RTS’s mobile trucking app. The app includes a map that shows you all in-network gas stations in your area and the fuel discount you can expect at each location. It also lets you manage and spend rewards points from Pilot Flying J. If you use RTS for invoice factoring, you can use RTS Pro to submit invoices to RTS and receive funding.

You can also lock spending on your RTS fuel cards using the RTS Pro app. However, there’s no way to get real-time updates about fuel purchases by your fleet drivers or to set limits on how much they can spend. You also can’t limit drivers to using their fuel cards for fuel purchases only—cards can always be used for both fuel and maintenance expenditures.

Line of credit

All RTS fuel cards, including the RTS Self-funded Fuel Card, offer a weekly line of credit up to $3,200. You can access this credit line at any time for fuel and maintenance expenditures. However, keep in mind that purchases using the line of credit will incur interest charges. RTS does not advertise its interest rates.

RTS Fuel Card Pricing

All RTS fuel cards are completely free to use. They have no annual fees and no transaction fees. There are also no contracts, so you’re free to switch to another fuel card at any time.

RTS doesn’t provide information about interest rates for its Fleet One or Mixed Fleet fuel cards, or for tapping into your weekly line of credit.

RTS Customer Service

RTS offers customer support by phone and email from 8am to 5pm (CT), Monday to Friday. RTS fuel card reviews are generally positive, and many speak to the quality of the company’s customer service team. RTS has a 4.1-star rating on Trustpilot and a 4.6-star rating on Google.

RTS Fuel Card Pros and Cons

How Does the RTS Fuel Card Compare to Competitors?

Let’s take a closer look at how the RTS fuel card stacks up against other top fuel cards that offer discounts and rebates:

RTS and Edenred offer very different types of cards. Edenred’s card is a general-purpose business credit card that can be used at any gas station. It’s up to you to decide whether to restrict employees’ cards to only making fuel purchases or to enable employees to make other business purchases with their cards as well.

In contrast, RTS cards are dedicated fuel cards that can only be used at 3,000 in-network fueling stations. RTS cards are free and offer much deeper discounts on gas compared to the Edenred card. However, they’re a lot less flexible than the Edenred card and can only be used to buy gas.

The RTS and Comdata cards are more similar, but there are still some important differences between them. The most significant is that the RTS card is free, whereas the Comdata card requires a $50 account setup fee and then costs $8 per card per month. If you have 10 drivers, that means you’ll pay $960 in card fees every year.

Despite the card fees, Comdata’s fuel discounts are similar to those offered by RTS. However, RTS has a much smaller network of fueling stations and offers limited software tools to help you monitor your fleet’s fuel efficiency. If you have a large fleet and need complex management tools or want access to a larger network of fueling stations, the Comdata card could be worthwhile.