Ashok Leyland partners with HPCL to create co-branded fuel card
Ashok Leyland has launched the ‘eN-Dhan’ fuel card, in partnership with Hindustan Petroleum corporation (HPCL)’s ‘Drive Track Plus’ programme. This card is intended to provide best-inclass savings in fuel to customers. This initiative with HPCL and the customer solutions business of Ashok Leyland is said to be the first initiative in India where an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and an oil marketing company (OMC) have collaborated to create a co-branded card.
Ashok Leyland claims that it would result in annual savings in the range of Rs 50,000 per truck, especially for customers in the medium and heavy commercial vehicle (M&HCV) segment.
The eN-Dhan cards are free of charge and will be available in all Ashok Leyland dealerships across the country and can be used in all HPCL fuel stations. The loyalty programme runs on point basis where they basically redeem points whenever it is used to pay for fuel. The company has confirmed that the prepaid eNDhan fuel cards can be recharged with up to Rs 100,000 per month either through net banking or mobile banking.
Vinod K Dasari, Managing Director, Ashok Leyland said, “Our analysis shows that the current fuel spends on a commercial vehicle in India is between 35% and 60% of its lifecycle cost. Since fuel cost is the major expense, we came up with this fuel card programme to help vehicle owners save on this expense and optimise total cost of operations (TCO). Besides savings in fuel cost, the card will promote digital payments and offer enhanced insurance benefits to drivers.” essential for serving the common customer - the trucker, who buys chassis from Ashok Leyland and buys fuel from HPCL. This is first of its kind partnership wherein an energy major is partnering with an automobile major for fuelling the vehicles from the time it is rolled out of the factory.”
“HPCL believes in improving the logistics efficiency of the vehicles by providing superior quality fuels and lubricants to the customers/fleet owners. The co-branded card ‘eN-Dhan’ will be accepted at all HPCL outlets and we would also like to take the entire business on to a cardless platform which is in sync with the ‘Digital India’ initiative of the Government of India. HPCL is also embarking on a plan to automate all its 15,100 retail outlets in India by December 2018 which will also be integrated with digital transactions,” he said.
In order to enhance the benefit of the card, HPCL is also looking forward to incorporate toll payments under this programme. “At the very initial stage, as a closed user-group programme, we are discussing with RBI for giving us approval for extending this card facility to the toll plazas which is a major outgo of a truck owner. Once RBI approval comes in and links this, then any customer who uses the DriveTag plus card or eNDhan will be able to pass through any toll plaza. This way, the same money that the truck driver is paying with the card for fuel can be used for payment of toll too,” Prasad said.