Visa Hitches Ride with Ford to Offer Fleet Cards

Visa U.S.A. has added fleet cards to its product set.

Visa has announced a partnership with Voyager Fleet Systems Inc., a subsidiary of Associates First Capital Corp.

Visa members can now begin issuing the cards that companies use to pay for fuel and vehicle repairs and maintenance.

Visa was the last of the three major card brands to form an alliance with a fleet card purveyor. MasterCard International has been offering fleet cards since March through an arrangement with PHH Paymentech, and American Express Co. has been working for several months with Wright Express.

"Visa has the market-leading position in the purchasing card market and many of our purchasing card customers have expressed an interest in fleet cards," said Robert Stock, senior vice president of credit products at Visa U.S.A.

Mr. Stock said it did not matter that Visa had lagged slightly behind its competitors. "Our competitor in this market really is cash, checks, and other forms of payment," he said.

The Voyager system is designed for fleets with more than 200 vehicles or $200,000 in annual purchases. Large corporations and government entities are its chief customers.

The software lends "tremendous flexibility to the fleet manager" in terms of "control, reporting, and information," said Richard L. Robinson, executive vice president of private label credit cards at Dallas-based Associates First Capital, which is majority owned by Ford Motor Co.

The system also enables "very sophisticated tax reporting that allows the billing and settlement of oil and fuel purchases for governmental agencies to be net of taxes, which is very appealing to them," Mr. Robinson said.

Voyager was formed in 1995 as an offshoot of Texaco Inc.'s commercial card, Mr. Robinson said. It started as "a very small group of people who went out and signed up all the major oil companies, with the exception of Chevron," he said. Chevron recently joined the pack, and the Voyager card is now accepted at more than 120,000 locations.

Associates First Capital acquired Voyager in May and has "signed up a number of state governments very quickly," Mr. Robinson said.

In September, U.S. Bancorp signed to issue and market a Voyager fleet card under its bank brand. Negotiations with other banks are proceeding, Mr. Robinson said.

Mr. Stock of Visa said he anticipates the card will be offered by a limited number of large issuers.

"This is a very specialized product," he said. "It appeals primarily to large corporations with large vehicle fleets, and they have been targeted by a relatively small group of member issuers."

Mr. Stock said the fleet card "complements our purchasing card" and will be offered as one product to companies that want simultaneous capabilities. "We have looked at all of the fleet card providers, and feel that Voyager offers a superior range of features and benefits to corporate users."

In 1998, Voyager system expects to have "a one-card solution," Mr. Robinson said, "so that with a single piece of plastic you can fulfill a company's travel and entertainment, purchasing card, and fleet management and reporting needs."

With the fleet card market generally considered wide open, Mr. Robinson predicted the Voyager-Visa product would experience "double-digit growth rates per month into the foreseeable future."

All the fleet card partnerships-those of Visa, MasterCard, and American Express-have indicated that they are planning to bid on the government's fleet card contract, which the General Services Administration recently put out for bidding. Wright Express is the current vendor.

With all three card brands allied with fleet management specialists, the competition is likely to be more intense than ever.

"It's going to be interesting, isn't it?" Mr. Robinson said.

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