Key and fuel card log for a NEMT fleet: who has what, and the weekly check

How to use the log

The log answers two questions at any moment: where is every key, fob, fuel card, and van phone, and does every fuel purchase belong to a real shift. Part A lists each item once. Part B is the sign-out sheet at the key box. Part C is the weekly match of card purchases. Part D records anything lost, and Part E the monthly count.

The settings on the cards themselves (purchase limits, product restrictions, one card per van, a PIN per driver) are covered in our guide to cutting NEMT fuel costs. Gallons, cost, and miles per gallon for each fill-up go in the fuel log. This log sits between the two: who had the card, and whether each purchase checks out.

• Last four digits only. Never write a full card number or a PIN on any sheet.
• The box is home. When a van is off shift, its keys and card sit in a locked key box or cabinet. Anything outside the box has a name next to it in Part B.
• The reviewer does not fuel. The owner or office manager runs Parts C and E, not a driver or the person who holds the spare keys. The guide to billing internal controls explains why the person who handles an asset should not be the one who checks it.

The log

Part A: Register

One line for each key, fob, spare, fuel card, gate card, and company phone or tablet.

Card settings

Part B: Daily sign-out

Part C: Weekly card match

Exception codes:

• E1 Purchase when the card was not signed out, or was signed out with a different van.
• E2 Purchase on a day the van was out of service.
• E3 Anything other than fuel.
• E4 Gallons that do not fit the van’s miles since its last fill-up.
• E5 Purchase with no matching line in the fuel log.

Example (made up, for illustration only):

Part D: Missing or lost items

Part E: Monthly count

The weekly card match

Match every purchase on the statement to a signed-out shift and a fuel log line, once a week, while drivers still remember the week.

1. Download the week’s statement from the card company.
2. For each purchase, find the Part B line: the same card, signed out with the same van, on a shift that covers the purchase time.
3. Find the fill-up in the fuel log.
4. Check the gallons against the van’s miles since its last fill-up.
5. Mark any exception code and ask the driver that week.
6. Sign the row and file the page with the statement.

The statement alone is not enough of a record. IRS Publication 583 accepts a credit card statement as proof of payment when it shows the amount charged, the payee’s name, and the transaction date, but it says proof of payment does not by itself establish a deduction, and it tells you to keep sales slips and invoices as well. Your log and fuel log supply the rest: which van, which shift, and why the fuel was bought. For travel and car expenses, Publication 463 also says you need not copy into your own records what a receipt already shows, as long as the records and receipts complement each other. So Part C carries the totals and the exceptions, not every line of the statement.

Count everything once a month, without warning

Once a month, on a day nobody expects, count every key, fob, card, and device against Part A, including spares in the box and items out on shift (call those drivers and have them read you the tag or last four digits). Write the result in Part E.

Unannounced checks go with smaller losses. In the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners’ 2026 study of 2,402 occupational fraud cases, organizations that had surprise audits in place had a median loss of $74,000, against $149,000 where they did not, and their frauds ran a median of 8 months before discovery instead of 16. Only 16% of victim organizations with fewer than 100 employees had surprise audits, against 52% of larger ones. The study measures cases of fraud in all kinds of organizations, not transportation companies in particular.

When a card, key, or phone goes missing

Act the same day and record each step in Part D.

• Fuel cards. Call the card company, cancel the card, and write down the reference number. For a credit card, 12 CFR 1026.12(b) caps a cardholder’s liability for unauthorized use at the lesser of $50 or the charges made before the issuer is told. When one issuer gives 10 or more cards to an organization’s employees, the organization and the issuer may agree to different liability terms, though an employee can still be held liable only within the federal limits. Your fleet card agreement, and the kind of card it is, may decide your share, which is one more reason to report quickly.
• Keys and fobs. Change lockbox and gate codes the same day. Ask the dealer or a locksmith whether a lost key or fob can be removed from the van’s key programming so it no longer starts the van.
• Phones and tablets. A device with rider details gets the same same-day treatment, and Part B doubles as the record of where each device went and who was responsible (45 CFR 164.310(d)). The guide to company phones for drivers covers what to do when one goes missing.
• Charging the driver. Federal wage rules limit deductions for lost or damaged company property, and the guide to deducting damage from driver pay covers those limits and the state rules before you take anything out of a paycheck.

When a driver leaves, every item in Part A assigned to that driver comes back or gets cancelled before the last shift ends. The driver offboarding checklist has the full list.

Matching shifts to purchases in HealthRide

A purchase is easy to check when the shift behind it is already on record. In HealthRide, each shift pairs a driver with a van, and at the start of the shift the driver checks out that van in the app, completes an inspection checklist, and records the odometer. That shows which driver had which van that day. Every ride also carries GPS-recorded miles with its pickup and drop-off times, which shows how far the van went before a purchase posted. Trip logs and driver hours export from reports, and the fleet page covers van inspections and expiration reminders.