If you’re involved in the commercial transport industry you know better than anyone how important fuel management is, and that’s just one of the factors involved in ensuring your vehicles and assets are managed effectively. Besides having enough space to house your fleet in its entirety you also need to make allowances for repairs and maintenance, operating costs and the imperative management and wellbeing of your drivers. Costs can pile up easily in a business like this, but there are ways to cut costs while still maintaining high operating standards.
Remember the importance of planning and scheduling:
Just like in any industry, fleet management companies can suffer from poor planning and organisation, and this can work out to be costly in the long run. It is vital to plan the most effective routes and times of travel before setting out. If planned in advance, you can avoid heavy traffic where possible, slow moving intersections and road closure areas. Less idling means time and fuel savings.
A GPS fleet tracking system is a proven way to save on fuel:
Vehicle tracking units can be used to monitor your fleet and to help determine if there are any factors contributing to extra costs – they can give you reports based on vehicle performance, speeding and fuel waste. In addition to eliminating unnecessary routes, this system will help you determine if your engines are running at an optimum level, ensuring that you save on fuel costs in the long run.
Driver training is imperative:
Successful fuel management can be traced directly back to drivers, which means it is vital to educate your team on, not only the importance of saving fuel, but on techniques they can employ to do so. Training is also important to ensure that your fleet team is well versed in the best safety standards.
Maintain vehicles thoroughly and consistently:
Buy fuel efficient vehicles and, where possible, upgrade your vehicles to ones that consume less fuel. Most importantly though, is a consistent vehicle maintenance policy. Not only will well maintained vehicles operate better, they are also more reliable and better for the environment. One sure way to ensure better fuel management is to ensure that tires are inflated properly.
Contact Global Telematics today to find out more about effective fleet management and saving possibilities.
