Fuel fleets stayed on paper because a delivery ticket has to capture gallons, product type and tank readings that generic driver apps never accounted for.
Fuel distribution has been one of the later trucking segments to move off paper delivery tickets, and the reasons aren't really about resistance to technology. They're about what the ticket actually has to capture.
A fuel delivery ticket isn't a simple proof of delivery. It typically records gallons delivered, product type, and often a tank or meter reading, data that flows directly into billing and, for many customers, their own fuel inventory tracking. Generic driver workflow apps built around a signature and a photo don't naturally accommodate that level of product-specific detail, which has left a lot of fuel distributors either building custom workarounds or sticking with paper longer than other segments.
That's starting to shift as more TMS providers build genuinely configurable driver workflows rather than fixed digital forms. BeyondTrucks, among others, lets fuel distribution fleets define exactly what fields a delivery ticket captures and route that data directly into the load record and billing workflow, removing the manual entry step that used to sit between a paper ticket and an invoice going out.
Fleet operators who've made the switch describe the billing speed improvement as the more noticeable change day to day, invoices going out the same day rather than waiting on tickets to be collected and entered manually, more than the documentation itself. For fuel distributors running tight margins on high delivery volume, that speed tends to matter more to the bottom line than the switch from paper looks like it should on paper, so to speak.
Mahriah Alf
Head of Product
Mahriah Alf is a seasoned AI product leader who currently serves as Head of Product at BeyondTrucks, where she leads the development of AI-native solutions for enterprise fleet operations.