Fleet operating costs have soared, exacerbated by a ‘cost of business’ squeeze and one of the most volatile periods for fuel management in transport history. If you’re a fleet manager, then the volatile price of fuel should be a major concern. How do you handle fuel management for your fleet while keeping your operations running smoothly? Whilst pump prices have fallen from their 2022 summer peak, they are still drastically higher than in recent years. Below, we outline five key areas where you can reduce fuel consumption without impacting your customer service.
1. Improve fuel management and fill up for cheaper
Manually tracking fuel usage for every vehicle in your fleet is time-consuming. A fleet management solution like Webfleet can monitor and analyse the way fuel is being consumed. This data also gives you valuable insight into patterns of how fuel is being used over time. You can visualise your consumption and make informed decisions on how to optimise usage and ultimately lower costs.
Fuel price variations can significantly impact fleet fuel expenses. Even minor savings per litre when multiplied across numerous vehicles undertaking long or frequent trips, can result in annual savings in the thousands. Price discrepancies are common between rural and urban areas, and motorway service fuel typically costs about 20p a litre more than the UK average.
Implementing fuel cards can reap many considerable benefits, especially with fleets of a substantial size. Cards can offer discounts and fixed prices to help fleets avoid the ever-fluctuating fuel prices. This allows fleet managers to plan ahead and manage cash flow better.
2. Improve your drivers’ performance
Driving behaviour has a direct impact on the way fuel is consumed. In addition to monitoring fuel usage, a fleet management solution like Webfleet also monitors driving behaviour.
It offers driver coaching to help with less-than-ideal habits such as idling, harsh braking or speeding. It sends instant alerts to the driver in real time so they can continuously improve behaviour and increase fuel efficiency. And it offers you in-depth reporting on how your drivers are using fuel when they’re behind the wheel, so you can zero in on behaviour that is wasting fuel and take steps to improve it.
3. Make the most of technology to plan and route better
Apart from monitoring fuel consumption and driving behaviour, there is one other major influence on fuel consumption: the route.
A fleet management solution like Webfleet gives you access to real-time, accurate, up-to-date traffic information. It helps you to create the best route for your drivers factoring in things like traffic, which keeps you on the fastest routes, and the height and weight of your vehicle, which helps large vehicles avoid sharp bends, low bridges and other unsuitable areas.
Implementing telematics can help you track fuel consumption with valuable insights that can improve fuel efficiency and lower your overall costs. The best miles are the ones not driven. Fuel management starts with a fleet management solution that best fits the needs of your operation. Interested in what Webfleet can do for your fleet? Learn more here.
4. Get better fuel consumption through improved maintenance
Vehicle maintenance, especially in the van sector, can be overlooked. However, this could be causing your business excess costs through increased fuel consumption of your vehicles. The impact of mechanical issues such as under-inflated tyres, a fuel leak or dirty air filters, can lead to unrealised wasted fuel.
The implementation of advanced fleet management software means you can automate vehicle walkaround checks and report trouble codes from engines, offering insights into vehicle performance. If low oil levels or engine faults arise, an instant notification is sent to the fleet manager to fix the problem quickly.
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5. Reduce fuel consumption with fuel-efficient tyres
Let’s save money by buying budget tyres, right? This is not always the case. Tyre choice can drastically impact your fleet spending and reduce fuel consumption. Sophisticated tyre designs, materials and construction methods can greatly improve fuel efficiency, more than you may realise.
By implementing low rolling resistance tyres on a truck, fuel consumption can be reduced by an impressive five per cent per label grade enhancement. This translates to considerable savings for long-haul trucks, approximately 1,500 litres of diesel annually.
How have our customers saved?
Elis, a company offering laundry and textile rental services, has enhanced driver safety and environmental sustainability across its extensive 750-vehicle fleet through Webfleet.
In combination with other efficiency-enhancing measures and the strategic shutdown of certain depots, the investment in Webfleet telematics has allowed Elis to decrease its fuel expenditure by £1.8 million and reduce carbon emissions by over 2,000 tonnes.
A major contributing factor to the substantial saving is driver performance management. Webfleet’s OptiDrive statistics provide precise risk assessments for employees, simplifying the process of identifying and addressing any problematic drivers. Peter Kelly, the Group Compliance and Fleet Manager at Elis, reveals, “We’ve managed to reduce inefficient or unsafe driving by 58% and almost eliminated speeding due to incentives offered to each depot to better their driver scores.”
Discover more by watching our customer case study below.
Looking to improve the fuel management of your fleet? Discover how to save costs on fuel with Webfleet.
