Effective fuel management can have a huge impact on your business’ success and development. As one Guardian study revealed, driving more efficiently can save you up to £800 a year on fuel. For a company with a whole fleet of vehicles, this can make a huge difference to your overheads and increase your net profit.
Understanding your use of resources and having concrete data to be able to interpret your spend is key to saving money and making improvements. When it comes to fuel management for fleets of vehicles, a number of factors need to be taken into account.
How is fuel management tracked?
No company could implement a fuel management system without accurately tracking the fuel consumption of its fleet.
This can be best achieved with telematics software. Telematics fleet management software works by tracking and collecting data from your fleet on everything from driving speed, routes taken, efficiency, and of course fuel consumption. Using a device inside the vehicle that tracks driving behaviour and location, telematics software can send live data over a 3G network.
This kind of software made headlines a few years ago when car insurance companies started offering them to drivers as a way for them to earn lower premiums through consistent good driving, or of course to warrant higher rates for consistent reckless behaviour.
At the time, critics worried that this observation was intrusive, but those initial fears have been quelled after telematics proved to be invaluable in fleet management.
Movolytics is a new company that uses fleet management software, with a focus on fuel management. With telematics software, Movolytics say you can save 30% on your fuel bills, collating the data in useful breakdowns and graphics. For companies with fleets travelling long distances, using large amounts of fuel, these savings can add up to huge numbers, freeing up valuable spending money to invest in other parts of your business, or even in expanding your fleet.
Mapping and taking fuel-efficient routes for speed and efficiency
Another great way to use fuel management for business development is to make sure your fleet travels on the most fuel-efficient routes possible. This way, your vehicles will reach their destinations as quickly as possible, meaning you can make more deliveries, or take on bigger loads of cargo.
Utilised in this way, fuel management techniques can improve your company’s performance, likely leading to direct financial success.
Collected telematics data can be used to not only improve fuel efficiency, lowering overall spend, but to track driver behavior and fleet safety. If you’re track this information, from your small fleet or the start of your business, by the time you’re you have a larger fleet the best systems will be in place to assess driver performance.
Fuel management is one of the most important components of business development, especially considering the flux in costs for types of fuel each year and in years to come.