With the rising cost of fuel, managing your fleet effectively is key to the successful running of your business. Vehicle tracking systems along with proper training can save your business a packet. Read out top 5 tips to reducing your company’s fuel costs.
1.Invest in Driver Training
Invest in a driver training program for your drivers, ensuring they are safe, reducing fuel wasting habits like idling the engine and aggressive driving and ensuring the vehicles in your fleet are driven safely to reduce the wear and fuel costs incurred through bad driving.
2. Review Energy efficient vehicles and type of fuel used.
Compare the fuels use in your fleet vehicles and identify cost and environmental benefits. Diesel, compared to petrol, compared to Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), compared to natural gas or electric will all yield different results.
3. Control out of hours vehicle use
Try to reduce the number of unnecessary or repeated visits – making two trips when one can suffice will increase your fuel consumption. Monitor out of hours use of all your fleet vehicles to ensure that the fuel your company is paying for is benefiting the business and not your employees. Using vehicle tracking software can increase your ability to easily report on these key factors.
4. Monitor and maintain vehicles
Just a few statistics on this include:
- Keeping the Engine Properly Tuned give a Fuel Economy Benefit of 4%
- Regular Maintenance of Air Filters gives a Fuel Economy Benefit of up to 10%
- Ensuring tyres are inflated properly gives a Fuel Economy Benefit of up to 3%
- Using recommended motor oil gives a Fuel Economy Benefit of 1–2%
5. Choose the shortest route for all trips
Tracking the routes your vehicles use to reach each destination can help effective route planning. Saving your drivers time from idling in traffic or getting caught in road works can reduce fuel costs, particularly if you have many drivers making the same trip.
Trimble Vehicle Tracking Solutions can offer a whole host of reports showing where vehicles have been in any time period with playbacks of journeys made. You can also receive reports of vehicles used outside of work hours and highlight inefficient driving, helping you manage and reduce your fuel costs.
James Ralph is Fleet management consultant, for more information on Fleet management, Vehicle tracking he recommends to visit http://www.trimble.co.uk. Trimble provides advanced GPS technology for real time GPS fleet tracking through GPS vehicle tracking systems.
