WEX Wrap-Up: October 2016

Can you believe there are only two months to go in 2016? With October in the rearview, our headquarters braces for another Maine winter, and our team prepares for the winter holidays. But first, we would like to take a look back toward October, sharing with you the latest from WEX in this month’s WEX Wrap-Up.

WEX Fleet

• Halloween Special (Haunted Highways): What are some of the spookiest trucking stories? The WEX Fleet blog “Haunted Highways” shares some of the creepiest trucking stories including the ‘Spooksville Triangle’ on I-44 and the story of ‘Large Marge’.
• Staying Connected: Truck drivers are often away from home, leaving them in need of new ways to stay connected with their families. Thanks to recent advances in technology, there are always new ways to keep in contact with home. Read some of the more interesting ways truck drivers stay connected here.
• Benchmarking in Trucking: In today’s digital environment, companies have found new, better ways to keep up with their competition and/or industry leaders. Thanks to Big Data, companies can see how they stack up in multiple areas, offering more opportunities to grow or optimize profit margins. Read more about innovations leading to improved benchmarking data here.

WEX Index: OPEC Announcement Pushes Crude and Gasoline Higher

The start of the fourth quarter has seen retail gasoline prices in the U.S. rise marginally with October prices starting in the $2.22 per gallon area.

News: WEX Answers Southeast Asia’s Call for Superior Card Management

On October 12, 2016, WEX announced that it has completed the successful conversion and migration of ExxonMobil’s fleet card customers in Hong Kong and Macau from a legacy platform to WEX’s International Fleet Card System (IFCS). As a result of this activity, the company is now providing a strategic fleet card management solution for ExxonMobil in these markets, plus Guam, Saipan and Singapore.

News: WEX Extends Partnership with ExxonMobil

On October 27, 2016, WEX announced a ten-year extension of its North American fleet card contract with Exxon Mobil Corporation and Imperial Oil, whose managing partner is Imperial Oil Limited. Under the agreement, WEX will continue to provide ExxonMobil and Imperial with a full-service solution in which WEX oversees all aspects of the commercial card program for ExxonMobil in the United States and Imperial in Canada, including outsourced proprietary fleet card transaction processing and other supplementary support services.

WEX Travel

• How Travel Managers Balance Administration, Costs, and Employee Experience in Hotel Procurement: The job of a corporate travel manager only becomes more interesting. On one hand, they have their organization’s travel policy and budget which usually dictates efficiency and low costs. On the other hand, they have their business traveler, a savvy consumer when out of the office with their own set of personalized needs, which tend to favor efficiency and cost-savings. See how travel managers perform their balancing act here.
• Meet the Chinese Outbound Traveler [Infographic]: With a growing middle class and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “One Belt and One Road” strategy, Chinese citizens are taking to the skies (and land and sea) in record numbers. Read more about the Chinese outbound traveler here.
• Travel after Brexit [Infographic]: It’s all about confidence. WEX surveyed travelers before and after the UK Referendum vote (Brexit) to understand if and how travel plans have changed. Read more and see the infographic here.
• Success Factors for the Traditional Travel Agency: In an age of “everything online”, traditional travel agencies have had to continually re-tool their services to remain relevant and provide competitive offerings to today’s consumers. Read three opportunities for traditional travel agents heading into 2017 here.
• Safe Payments in the Cloud: The drive for efficiency and cost reduction in back office operations is pushing many companies to revisit their manual payments processes and explore how to automate them. In today’s world, automation is likely to mean moving processing and data to the cloud. Read how to use the cloud safely here.

News: WEX Partners with MyFlightSolutions to Release My Copilot App

On October 31, 2016, WEX and MyFlightSolutions announced a new partnership to help pilots, international trip planning companies, fuel companies and related businesses to streamline aviation-related purchases. Featuring robust data and receipt capture technology, the My Copilot™ app sends real-time information to connect the entire flight department. The app also allows users to generate single-use Mastercard® payment solutions without release (within corporate-controlled parameters), which means no delayed or stranded pilots. Learn more about the announcement by reading the press release.

WEX Health and the Healthcare Trends Institute

• Wellness Program Components to Analyze before 2017: New EEOC wellness plan regulations take effect on the first day of the plan year beginning in 2017. With so many components that will be under a regulatory microscope, it’s time for employers to take a look at what their wellness program needs before they are subject to penalties for noncompliance. Learn what you should look at here.
• Cybersecurity and Consumer Awareness in EHRs: October was National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and protecting the security of health data is critical. With employees more connected than ever and wearables making their way onto the scene, it takes engagement to promote cybersecurity in the health arena. Here’s how.
• Best Practices in Private Exchanges: Employers have a lot of different needs for their benefits packages. Learn some of the most common needs, as well as best practices for making a private exchange work at your organization from this handy guide written by Benefit Strategies, LLC’s William Stuart.
• How to Talk about HSAs with Your Employees: Many employers will offer high-deductible health plans in 2017. Many of those plans will include health savings accounts—immensely valuable, tax-advantaged accounts designed to help employees save for healthcare expenses now and even build a nest egg for retirement in the future. Here’s how to push the conversation forward and make HSAs work.

WEX Health Announces Sales and Marketing Genius Program Graduates

On October 11, WEX Health announced the graduates of its exclusive WEX Health Sales & Marketing Genius Program. The program, a complimentary offering available to all WEX Health Partners, is designed to recognize ongoing professional development by marketing and sales professionals in the WEX Health Partner base. Through a variety of activities and tasks, including webinars and in-class trainings, the Genius Program focuses on building marketing and sales leadership skills through dialogue and interaction with industry experts and thought leaders. Read more about the graduates and the program here.