Mercedes-Benz Trucks and Shell successfully trial digital fuel payments
New digital fuel card prototype developed in cooperation with Shell to make Truck-ID and Truck Wallet to make payments.
Part of the digitalization of its vehicles, Mercedes-Benz Actros trucks have paid automatically for fuel at Shell service stations in Stuttgart, Germany, for the first time.
The experts at Mercedes-Benz Trucks and Shell installed a new prototype of Mercedes-Benz Trucks’ digital Truck-ID to the dashboard combined with a digital fuel card prototype enabled by Shell SmartPay API technology.
The Truck-ID works like an integrated ID card that allows transactions to be uniquely assigned to the vehicle and automatically signed by the vehicle itself. Shell SmartPay API functions as a data transmitter and allows for the digitalization of fuel cards and payments for fuel on Shell sites through truck board computer systems.
According to Daimler the digital fuel card would make widespread fuel fraud more difficult. Experts believes the annual loss caused by this type of fuel fraud involving heavy-duty trucks in Europe can run into the millions for the transport industry.
“Our very first pilot tests in 2019 took place under a sort of laboratory conditions. Now we have demonstrated in real life that trucks can electronically interact with the filling-station system directly on site and can carry out the authorization of payment processes by signing fuel data using its digital signatures,” said Dr. Helge Königs, Head of the Truck-ID & Truck Wallet Project at Daimler Trucks.
After the driver has fueled the truck and replaced the pump nozzle, Shell’s system communicates the amount of fuel purchased along with the pump id to the Truck Wallet.
