Mercedes: trucks fill up faster
DIGITALIZATION Mercedes-Benz Trucks and Shell are pushing digital payments for fuel. Initial tests with automatically paying trucks have been successful. Transport companies have so far equipped their drivers with fuel cards that they can use to pay at selected service stations. The amount is debited directly from the company's account. Built-in ID card A digital fuel card integrated into the vehicle would on the one hand [...]
Until now, transport companies have provided their drivers with fuel cards that they can use to pay at selected service stations. The amount is debited directly from the company's account.
Built-in identity card
A digital fuel card integrated into the vehicle would, on the one hand, make truck drivers' everyday work easier in several respects. Experts from Mercedes-Benz Trucks and Shell have now installed digital fuel cards in production vehicles for practical tests of automated payment processes at service stations.
The truck ID acts as a built-in ID card with which the truck signs transactions independently. The Shell SmartPay API programming interface enables data transfer and thus payment at service stations with the digital fuel card via the on-board system.
Efficiency improvements
If the truck is identified as safe by the system based on the truck ID, the SmartPay API releases the transaction. The essential part of the security checks here is based on matching the GPS data of the trucks with the locations of the service stations.
Helge Königs, head of the Truck ID project at Daimler: "Our first pilot project in 2019 took place under laboratory conditions. Now we have demonstrated in real-life application that trucks can interact electronically with the service station system directly on site and authorize payment transactions by signing corresponding data."
