The EMV liability shift for gas pumps was postponed to 2020 last year, but cobranded fleet cards carrying the Visa or Mastercard logos still face the same counterfeit card fraud risks as any other payment card when paying for fuel away from the pump, such as at a truck stop convenience store's cash register.
To improve security for fleet cards and to expand data-management capabilities, U.S. Bank and Mastercard this week announced a new EMV fleet card solution that will roll out in the summer of 2018.
The redesigned fleet card, available to Voyager Fleet card customers, adheres to a new specification designed for fleets with 10 data-capture fields that may be tailored to meet issuers’ requirements for tracking where, how and why drivers are using fleet cards for purchases, U.S. Bank said in a press release.
“Our top objective is to ensure our 320,000 merchant locations don’t face the additional investment and complication of implementing multiple chip specs…so they can now support both Mastercard and Voyager Fleet cards with a single spec,” said John Hardin, global transportation payments general manager at U.S. Bank, in the release.
Most cobranded network fleet cards will probably move to the EMV standard when pumps begin to accept chip transactions over the next three to five years, but not all fleet cards will go the chip route, said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the U.S. Payments Forum, a cross-industry group that offers guidance on payments standards.
Private-label fleet cards operated by fleet operators and retailers are not covered by EMV rules and are unlikely to incorporate chips, Vanderhoof said.
