The Bug Master is a family-owned business that grew from a single Volkswagon Beetle in 1981 to one of the largest independent pest control companies in Texas. Operating from San Marcos to Waco, The Bug Master is a top-100 pest control provider in the U.S. that is committed to operational efficiency and top-tier service.
Dauphin Ewart, President and owner, now leads the company with a strong focus on building efficient and reliable systems. When their legacy fuel card program began causing more friction than value, Dauphin knew it was time to find a smarter, more scalable solution.
The Challenge
Fuel card confusion and operational delays
The Bug Master previously used Wex, which assigned cards to vehicles, not drivers, creating confusion in the field. Cards were often left in the wrong vehicle or taken by the wrong driver, making it nearly impossible to attribute fuel purchases accurately.
This led to reporting errors, compliance issues, and constant administrative headaches. Worse, when transactions were declined or flagged as exceptions, neither drivers nor managers had visibility and operations would come to a halt.
The Solution: Coast’s Mobile Verification System
Coast introduced a whole new way to manage fuel purchases that was intuitive for drivers and offered transparency to administrators.
By simply texting a license plate to a designated number, drivers can authenticate purchases directly at the pump. All relevant data is captured instantly and accurately.
Why It Works: Accuracy, Visibility, and Effortless Adoption
✅ Cleaner data
By eliminating PIN confusion and card-swapping errors, Dauphin now has higher confidence in the accuracy of their fuel reporting. Coast’s texting process helps to ensure that every fuel transaction is tied to the correct vehicle.
“In the way that Coast works—since you send a text message to a number and then you text the license plate of the vehicle—it’s very, very easy to have a high level of confidence that the fuel purchase is gonna be associated with the appropriate vehicle,” Dauphin says.
✅ Real-time alerts and exception handling
If a transaction is flagged, say a fill-up limit is exceeded, Coast sends a text alert to the driver explaining the issue. It also sends a message to the administrator asking if they want to approve an exception.
“It really provides a lot of transparency around the approval process, and just makes it really, really easy to use,” he says.
✅ Driver-friendly onboarding
Although Coast’s texting process functions very differently from other fuel card providers, Dauphin was able to train the team on the new system within a week.
“It was really breaking the old habits that we had from traditional fuel cards. Within a week, we didn’t really have any significant challenges. Everybody understands how to text. Everybody can look at their vehicle and see the license plate number. It’s just really simple,” Dauphin says.
Coast’s system is intuitive and easy to adopt even for teams that are used to more traditional workflows.
✅ Easy and fast deployment
Coast also required minimal setup to get his team up and running. Dauphin simply handed out cards and made sure that each driver had a phone number and license plate inputted in Coast’s portal.
“Our implementation of Coast went on in about a week, which is amazing,” he says.
The Results
- Drivers stay informed at the pump without extra calls or confusion
- Admins are looped in instantly and can act on issues in real-time
- Data attribution is rock-solid, meaning no more mismatched vehicles and cards
- Deployment took less than a week, with no disruption to the team
Ready to give Coast a try? Get started here.
