How Fleets Can Reduce Fuel Costs
17 Mar 2021According to AAA, you’ll find no relief at the gas pumps these days. Prices of gas are rising continuously across the United States. In fact, $2.77 a gallon is the national average price for gas which went up five cents since last week. The average about a year ago was $2.39 a gallon and the average in New York State is about $2.83 a gallon; also up five cents from the following week. AAA says the rising gas prices are because of increasing crude prices, a tightening of gas supplies, and an increase in gas demand.
Patrick DeHaan, GasBuddy analyst, debated that the pump price is skyrocketing because of not just increased demand, but also because the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) isn’t opening the spigot.
How Fleets Can Reduce Fuel Costs
Today, most truck fleets aren’t using a fuel purchase optimization system, despite diesel rising past $3.00 a gallon in certain locations. Believe it or not, saving just a few more pennies on fuel each day here and there can really quickly add up. There are also steps you can take as a fleet manager to help reduce fuel costs, including:
- Teach and Enforce Fuel-Efficient Driving Behaviors
When it comes to fuel efficiency, your driver’s driving behaviors cost more than you might realize. Safe drivers following the road rules who don’t speed and avoid aggressive driving behavior will save your fleet business a lot of money in terms of fuel costs. It might take some time to ingrain these good driving behaviors that will net the biggest savings. But it worth doing it.
- Use GPS Fleet Tracking
Aside from labor, fuel is one of the biggest expenses fleets face. GPS fleet tracking could help you decrease your fuel expenditures in numerous ways, including:
- Provide geofencing alerts
- Help with route optimization
- Plan more efficient routes
- Dispatch more efficiently
- Monitor driver behavior to decrease fuel-wasting activities (i.e. excessive idling, harsh braking, speeding)
- Eliminate double coverage areas and route redundancies
- Keep your fleet drivers on the routes they’re assigned
Depending on your fleet size, the savings to your fleet could be significant just by implementing GPS fleet tracking.
- Effectively Manage Maintenance
Enhanced maintenance on vehicles improves how efficiently each component of the vehicles operates. This will include everything from practicing proactive preventative maintenance to keeping up with routine maintenance to reducing or eliminating maintenance-related accidents or breakdowns that could cost your fleet additional fuel to correct.
Reducing fuel costs shouldn’t be too challenging when you know the proper steps to take and this includes using GPS fleet tracking which can really help with fuel cost issues. This alone makes investing in GPS fleet tracking worthwhile for fleets of all sizes and shapes.
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