As greater emphasis is placed on the opportunities in Central and Eastern European fuel card markets, this Extended Expert View highlights the remaining potential for fuel card business development in Western European markets, arguing that investment in this region should not be unduly compromised.

• Western European fuel card volumes, card numbers and growth rates over the last five years
• An examination of the most and least penetrated commercial fuel card markets based on average card per vehicle data across 16 markets
• A discussion on the retention opportunities amongst the SME segment based on fuel card switching data

Where total fuel retail sales have been growing at less than 0.5%, fuel card volume growth averages over 4% across 16 European markets. Consequently, fuel card volume sales now account for 21% of total retail volume sales.

From a regional perspective, Scandinavia is the most advanced fuel card market with private fuel cards being as preponderant as the commercial variety. In fact it is estimated that there are around twice the amount of private fuel cards as those used by consumers. Not only is this region mature, it is verging on saturation.

In the UK, and parts of Central and Southern Europe, an examination of card per commercial vehicle penetration rates shows there is still scope to develop business card portfolios, particularly at the smaller end of the market where the card per fleet vehicle sits below the European average of 0.4.

• Gain quantitative insight into the level of saturation of fuel cards in key Western European markets
• Understand where key acquisition investments should be directed from a regional and segmental perspective
• Examine the growth in the fuel cards market over the last 5 years