Top 10 Fleet Fuel Savings Tips

Every fleet owner knows that fuel accounts to over 30 percent of all the fleet operational costs. For this reason, it makes sense to look for fuel saving tips which will eventually lower the cost of operation significantly. Fleet owners tend to look at a vast collection of ways of saving fuel usage- including everything from deploying hybrid-powered vehicles to implementing fleet management software. However, there are very few fleet managers that already know how GPS tracking software can help them reduce fuel wastage. In this brief, I am going to discuss some of the best fuel saving tips using GPS tracking systems.

Above All, Driver Education Counts When It Comes To Fleet Fuel Savings

Before we even jump to the GPS ways of reducing fuel wastage, let’s take a look at how driver education can help the company save fuel. The fact is that drivers can impact directly to the company’s fuel saving strategies. If they have full knowledge of what is needed of them to save fuel while on the field, then they will implement all the measures to ensure that the company benefits.

The first thing is that the drivers realizes that they can make a difference. You have to make them realize that using less fuel once at work can help secure their jobs by either making the business more profitable or increasing their productivity. If they have full knowledge of what they are supposed to do, then am sure the driver will be more conscious of how they drive and how their behaviors can impact fuel consumption.

Lastly, if quality training is taken into consideration, they will understand safety benefits of driving more responsibly. If your company has already done this and is confident about the driver’s knowledge and responsibility of whatever their driving habits are, then you should implement any of the below uses of GPS to reduce fuel usage.

Monitor Traffic Ahead and Notify The Driver

When we talk about the benefits of GPS, we can never summarize them in one page. GPS systems from www.gpsleaders.com can help you by giving updates concerning the conditions on the road. By keeping an eye on whatever is happening on the way, drivers can anticipate on having to slow down. Given that this may affect their vehicle’s fuel consumption significantly, they can either use alternative routes to avoid the traffic or other issues completely.

Am usually convinced that it is economical to keep the truck moving than to keep it in a complete stop. This also reduces the number of gear changes that you need to make. With the advancements in technology, you can as well be able to keep an eye on hazards ahead for improving the efficiency and the safety of the driver.

GPS Devices Can Help Reduce Excessive Idling & Save Fuel

There’s no doubt that idling wastes fuel and fuel saving need are at the top set of the companies operating expenses reduction strategies. With GPS, you can be able to coordinate the whole business and reduce idling either due to driver’s negligence or the vehicle’s condition. According to statistics, an average truck uses 1 L of fuel for every 15 minutes idling. What this means is that if your truck idles for about an hour a day with a litter of fuel costing $1.2, then you waste $4.8 dollars a day which totals up to $33.6 a week and $134.4 a month per truck. Assuming that you have 10 trucks, you will be wasting $13440 a month due to idling. What this means is that if you can be able to reduce idling either by monitoring your vehicle’s movement or coordinating your business the best way, you will have saved a lot for the company a month.

Fuel Consumption at Idle for Selected Gasoline and Diesel Vehicles

Monitoring Drivers’ Behavior

There’s no doubt that the driver’s behavior can directly impact on operational costs. So if you are convinced that your drivers are not working the right way, you can fit all your vehicles with GPS tracking systems and keep an eye on their driving behavior. There are some of driving behaviors that can be dangerous such as sharp cornering, time theft, and over speeding. According to statistics, the driver behavior can increase fuel consumption by up to 30 Percent. For this reasons, some of the fleet owners are running to Vehicle Dynamic Index (VDI) to monitor the driving behaviors. The VDI shows that the driver with the aggressive driving who had a high degree of VDI got poor fuel economy and for this reason, this parameter can be used to rate the driver for fuel economy.

Prevent Unauthorized Vehicle Usage

Knowing the exact location of your vehicle at all times will offer you the ability to reduce unauthorized usage. Unauthorized usage can increase fuel costs for the company. With GPS fleet management systems, you can establish normal work areas and let the system alert you if the vehicle gets out of the work area without you authorizing. GPS tracking devices from GPS Leaders will help you geo-fence and get alerts whenever the vehicle is not on its designated area.

Maintenance Management

A vehicle in good condition is a vehicle in good performance. With the use of effective GPS tracking systems such as those from GPS Leaders, you can be sure when to take your machines for checkups and maintenance. GPS tracking is not all about route planning, it can also help you know when to maintain your vehicle and reduce downtime’s and excessive fuel usage.

With an effective GPS tracking system, you are likely to get alerts on scheduled maintenance, you also get alerts of engine issues and also improve security measures around your vehicle. Through the Fleet management software, you can get the full status of your vehicle and act accordingly.

GPS tracking systems from www.gpsleaders.com are connected to the vehicle’s diagnostic port where they can record data and share the status of the engine and any other part of the vehicle with you. With the same systems, you can get notified when an engine light turns on and also find the specific cause of the engine light.

Find Better Routes

With effective and high quality GPS tracking systems, your dispatchers can dispatch the closest vehicle route to the delivery point. It can also be able to route the drivers around traffic and other problems on the way. What this means is that your driver can eliminate unnecessary miles driven to get to the delivery point and the amount of time wasted on the way. This leads to fuel savings and also efficient communication with the customer which is good for the company.

The other thing is that pre-planning and proper planning results in better daily mileage. For this reason, you should get a GPS fleet management which can help you easily map out routes in advance to take account shorter drives allowing your driver to get from point A to Point B more easily and quickly.

Control Speeding

The other thing that most fleet owners don’t know is that the faster the vehicle goes the more fuel it will consume. With a good GPS tracking system, you can get alerts on your phone whenever the driver is over speeding and take appropriate measures thereafter. According to statistics, speed control reduces fuel consumption by about 10 percent. The complete fleet management package comes with a variety of speed controlling tools and alerting capabilities. With reporting, you can be able to determine the cause of the issue and act accordingly.

Telematics Systems

The other thing is that real-time vehicle location with accurate ETA calculations ensures better dispatching decisions. It gives you the ability to locate the best operator for the closest job which makes the fleet more efficient. Lowering fuel consumption is the main reason why majority of fleet owners would like to install an effective telematics system.

Looking For The Closest Driver For The Task

This is another way of reducing fuel consumption. Companies such as Uber have already incorporated GPS tracking system on their vehicles to ensure every time they have a clear picture of where each of the customer and the drivers are. What this means is that they can be able to locate the closest driver to pick the customer. GPS tracking devices can equally help your company. Having the ability to detect the location of each of the vehicles for a specific task can greatly help you reduce fuel expenses.

The Bottom Line

Statistics show that the cost of fuel is increasing each day and there’s no likelihood of it lowering any time soon. What this means is that fuel expenses are on the rise each day. For this reason, there’s nothing better you can do than ensuring you observe the vehicle’s fuel consumption and adopt several measures to reduce fuel consumption. As I had already stated, before you even get further in this move, you need to ensure that the drivers are fully aware of all the company’s goals and why you want to reduce fuel consumption. After that, you can take any of the above advantages of GPS tracking systems to impact on your company’s profitability. For GPS tracking services, contact a southern California GPS system providers GPS Leaders through the website www.gpsleaders.com.