Fuel is the one big cost you actually control. Running solo, it eats 30 to 40 percent of every dollar that comes in, and it dwarfs your insurance, your truck note, and your phone bill combined. So do the math on volume. A single truck running hard burns somewhere between 18,000 and 20,000 gallons a year. Shave 40 cents off each gallon and you keep roughly $7,200 to $8,000 over twelve months. Push that to 50 cents at the right stops and you are looking at $9,000 to $10,000. That is a truck payment or two. It is not a rounding error.
By Small Fleet HQ | Updated
| Company | Monthly Fee | Avg. Discount/Gallon | Network Size | Major Chain Coverage | Credit Check |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
#1 TCS Fuel Card | $0 | ~$0.51 (in-network) | 2,300+ in-network / 12,000+ acceptance | TA, Petro, AMBEST, 7FLEET | |
#2 AtoB | $3/active card (Unlimited) | ~$0.45 at partner stops | ~99% of US stations (Mastercard) | Pilot, Love's, TA/Petro + independents | |
#3 Mudflap | $0 | ~$0.57 at partner stops | 3,600+ partner locations | Love's, TA/Petro, independents | |
#4 RTS Fuel Card | $0 (basic card) | ~$0.15-$0.25 (solo) | 3,500+ stations | Pilot Flying J, Casey's, TA/Petro | |
#5 Comdata | $8/mo ($50 setup) | Up to $0.40 at TA/Petro | ~8,000+ (4,000+ beyond core chains) | TA/Petro, Pilot, Love's, Casey's, Sheetz | |
#6 WEX Fleet One EDGE | $2-$4/mo | ~$0.03-$0.15 ($0.40-$0.65 bundled) | 16,000+ (~95% of US stations) | Pilot, Love's, TA, Petro, Casey's, Kwik Trip |
See how much you could save annually with the right fuel card based on your miles and fuel consumption.
Here is where a one-truck operation has to think differently than a 50-truck fleet. Big fleets negotiate custom pricing on volume, and they can spread an $8 monthly card fee across dozens of trucks without blinking. You cannot. For a solo owner-operator, what matters is a zero or low monthly fee, no hard credit pull (plenty of you have thin credit or brand-new authority), a prepaid option when your credit is not where you want it, and discounts that actually hit at the chains you already pass. Per-truck minimums and tiers that only reward big volume work against you.
The six cards below sort into two camps. TCS, AtoB, Mudflap, and RTS are built for the single-truck operator, with low or no fees and lenient or no credit checks. Comdata and WEX Fleet One EDGE are the fleet-leaning options included for contrast, because they run huge networks and you should know what you trade away. Pick by your lanes. If you live on TA and Petro, TCS is tough to beat. If you fuel at odd independents and one-off gas stations, the Mastercard acceptance on AtoB is what you want.
For most solo operators, TCS is the one to start with. It carries no monthly or transaction fee, posts strong real discounts (around 51 cents per gallon in-network in early 2026), and runs prepaid, so there is no credit check. The honest caveat is that those discounts come from fueling at in-network chains, mostly TA and Petro. If your lanes do not line up with those stops, AtoB makes more sense because it runs on Mastercard and works almost anywhere. Mudflap is the other strong no-fee pick. The right answer depends on where you actually buy fuel, not on which card advertises the biggest number.
Run the numbers on your own volume. A single truck burns roughly 18,000 to 20,000 gallons a year. At an average discount of 40 cents per gallon, that is about $7,200 to $8,000 saved over twelve months. Hit 50 cents at the better stops and you are near $9,000 to $10,000. Those figures assume you fuel where your card's discount actually applies, which is the part people miss. If half your stops are off-network at 2 cents off, your real average drops fast. Plan your stops around your card, track your per-gallon savings for a month, and you will see your true number.
Yes, and this is where prepaid and app-based cards earn their keep. TCS is prepaid with no credit check and no personal guarantee, so new authority and thin credit are not a problem. Mudflap also runs with no credit check and no monthly fee. AtoB skips the hard credit pull on approval, and its Flex credit line underwrites on your business cash flow instead of your personal FICO score. If you are six weeks into your own authority and your credit is thin, start with one of these three. You get fuel discounts immediately without waiting on an underwriter to bless you.
TCS, Mudflap, and the basic RTS card carry no monthly fee. TCS also skips activation and in-network swipe fees, so it genuinely costs nothing to hold and use on-network. AtoB charges $3 per active card monthly on its Unlimited plan, which is small on a single truck but not zero. Comdata runs $8 a month plus a $50 setup, and WEX runs $2 to $4. On one truck, fees matter more than they sound, because an $8 monthly charge plus a few $3 out-of-network swipes can quietly erase the discount you signed up for. Read the fee schedule before the discount chart.
They can save you real time at quarter end. The reason is that your fuel card already records gallons purchased and the state where you bought them, which is exactly the data IFTA wants. Mudflap stands out here because it tracks purchases by jurisdiction and exports clean CSV files sorted by state. TCS and the others provide transaction reports you can pull for filing too. It does not do the whole job, since IFTA also needs your miles driven per state, and that comes from your ELD or a trip log. But having the fuel side already itemized by state removes a big chunk of the shoebox-receipt headache.
It comes down to your credit and your discipline. Prepaid cards like TCS need no credit check, so they are ideal for new authority or thin credit, and you can never overspend because you are using your own money. The tradeoff is cash flow. You front the funds before you fuel, which can pinch when a broker is slow to pay. Credit cards like Comdata or RTS float you the fuel and bill you later, which helps cash flow but requires a credit review and the discipline to pay on time. Many owner-operators run prepaid early, then move to a credit line once their authority and credit season.
