Motive: pioneering AI-powered fraud prevention in fleet management

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.

Central to Motive’s approach is its sophisticated AI monitoring system. These advanced AI models work tirelessly, analyzing transaction patterns in real-time to detect and preempt any suspicious activity before it affects operations. This proactive measure not only thwarts potential fraud but also inspires confidence among users. Furthermore, the Motive Card provides businesses with customizable spend controls, allowing them to impose restrictions based on various parameters such as time, transaction amount, and specific merchant categories or locations. An anticipated update will refine this control by enabling automatic declines at pricey merchants when more affordable options are nearby. Together, these comprehensive features illustrate Motive’s commitment to providing robust, adaptable, and forward-thinking solutions to fleet-related fraud.

The effectiveness of Motive’s approach is evident in customer experiences. Scott Hodson, fleet manager at Damian’s Wholesale Ice Cream, shared: “Our old card provider didn’t protect us from fraud or buddy-fueling, which prompted the move to the Motive Card for more visibility and more control. We haven’t had fraud since the Motive Card was put in place. It has helped us identify issues so we can address them and given us the data we need to optimize fuel spend.”

Similarly, Alex Amort, VP of compliance at Cascade Environmental, reported: “Because we’re able to manage our fleet expenses in one dashboard, we have much closer control over our operations, can stop fraud before it happens and can better coach our driver on fueling policies and efficiency. With Motive, we’re able to obtain true, documented, direct savings to our bottom line.”

Motive’s fraud prevention technology has demonstrated remarkable results across various companies. Logistics company Southwind auto-declined over 2,000 transactions valued at $1.1 million using Motive Card and fraud detection features, accounting for 3% of their total transactions in 2024.

In another notable case, KLX Energy, with over 2,000 vehicles, turned to Motive after experiencing “a major fraud event in 2018 involving card skimming and millions in unauthorized fuel charges.” By implementing Motive’s comprehensive solution, KLX Energy identified approximately $170,000 in savings while reducing the number of unidentified drivers by 50% almost immediately.

“Motive’s been protecting fleets against fraud since 2023. Last year, our customers prevented over 80,000 unauthorized transactions with our fraud detection capabilities, saving $55 million,” Barragan said.

The company’s approach to fraud prevention has evolved significantly over time. “When we launched Motive Card, we began by focusing on setting up rules and alerts to flag anything that looked suspicious,” Barragan explained. “Today, we’ve moved to a much smarter system. When it comes to building AI for our customers, we’re focused on accuracy, meaning no false positives or burdening customers with events and alerts that aren’t real.”

With its integrated approach to fleet management and fraud prevention, Motive has established itself as an industry leader in protecting businesses from costly fraud schemes. By combining vehicle telematics with spend management and employing sophisticated AI technology, the platform offers real-time protection that stops fraud before it happens.

As Barragan advises: “Make sure your systems talk to each other. If your fleet cards, telematics, and driver tools are separate, it’s much easier for fraud to go unnoticed. Look for a single platform to manage your physical operations end to end so you have complete visibility and no blind spots.”

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