FreightWaves Staff
5 min read
Motive has established itself as a leader in fraud prevention technology, earning recognition as a winner of the 2025 FreightWaves Fraud Fighter Awards. The company’s innovative approach combines fleet management and spend management into a single platform, providing businesses with unprecedented protection against the growing threat of fleet-related fraud.
The financial consequences of fraud in the physical operations sector are staggering. According to research, 19% of current fleet spend is lost to fraud or theft, leading to an average revenue loss of nearly $1 million per year for companies across trucking, logistics, construction, oil and gas, and other sectors. Without proper safeguards, a 500-vehicle fleet can “lose over $250,000 a year in unauthorized transactions due to skimming, fuel theft, and out-of-policy spend,” noted Caroline Barragan, Head of Product Marketing at Motive.
“The greatest threat today is the speed, scale, and sophistication of fleet card fraud,” Barragan wrote. “Worldwide card fraud losses are projected to exceed $43 billion in the next year, with U.S. businesses alone expected to lose $12.5 billion in 2025.”
Motive’s comprehensive approach to fraud prevention sets it apart. “Motive is the only platform that combines Fleet Management and Spend Management in one place and offers the most accurate way to stop fleet-related fraud,” the company said. Unlike standalone solutions that address only one aspect of operations, Motive integrates vehicle telematics data with payment information from the Motive Card.
This integration enables Motive’s AI systems to automatically decline suspicious transactions with 90% accuracy, protecting businesses from common fraud schemes including fuel siphoning, fuel theft, and card skimming. The system’s holistic approach eliminates the need for fleet managers to spend hours manually identifying fraudulent transactions or disputing charges after they occur.
Motive recently announced “the industry’s highest fraud protection guarantee, covering up to $250,000 in losses annually when customers enable AI-powered fraud controls on the Motive Card.” This substantial commitment underscores the company’s confidence in its fraud prevention capabilities.
Motive’s platform is a cornerstone in combating fraudulent activities in fleet management, incorporating several key mechanisms designed to guard against specific fraud types. First and foremost is the vehicle proximity auto-decline feature, which acts as a deterrent to fuel fraud by automatically rejecting transactions when a vehicle isn’t near the fueling station. This ensures that transactions outside the expected geofence are swiftly declined, securing the fleet’s financial integrity. Additionally, there’s an upcoming feature known as the fuel tank threshold auto-decline. This innovative enhancement is poised to prevent fraudulent activities, like side-fueling, by imposing limits on the fuel tank’s capacity. If a vehicle’s tank is already full, any attempt to purchase additional fuel will be automatically declined, safeguarding against unnecessary expenditure and abuse.
