In a payment processing transaction, the Company pays the purchase price for the fleet customer’s transaction, less the Company’s payment processing fees, to the fuel or vehicle maintenance provider, and it collects the total purchase price from the fleet customer, typically within one month from the billing date. Payment processing fees are typically based on a percentage of the aggregate dollar amount of the customer’s purchase. The Company provides short-term funding of the expenditure for transactions made for fleet customers in the Company’s direct channel and certain fleet customers of its strategic relationships, which in 2003 accounted for 133.2 million payment processing transactions.

In a transaction processing transaction, the Company earns a fixed fee per transaction and does not typically provide funding. Fleet customers of the Company’s strategic relationships conducted 55.9 million transaction processing transactions in 2003.

The Company captures purchase and transaction data at the point of sale. The basic information that the Company collects about the transaction includes purchase date and time, cost of purchase, fuel or vehicle maintenance provider information, vehicle identification, account number, line item detail on non-fuel purchases, fuel grade, cost per gallon and gallons purchased, and fuel or vehicle maintenance provider classification.

The Company allows its customers and the customers of its strategic relationships to monitor and control their fleets’ expenditures. Through WEXOnline, fleet managers can set pre-determined limits on the amount of money their drivers can charge, the frequency in which their drivers can purchase fuel, the type of products and services that their drivers can purchase and the time of day or days in which their drivers can make purchases.

The Company offers price risk management solutions to fleets that are attempting to aggressively manage and budget their fuel costs. These programs allow fleets to mitigate their monthly fueling cost risk through an agreement with a third party.

Finance fees were $6.9 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2004, an increase of 33% from $5.2 million in the comparable period in 2003.

Salary and other personnel expenses were $36.8 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2004, an increase of 5% from $35.1 million in the comparable period in 2003.

Service fees were $6.8 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2004, a decrease of 9% from $7.5 million for the comparable period in 2003.