When looking to save money for your fleet, fleet fuel management systems are a critical part of your management strategy. Fuel is one of the greatest expenditures any fleet faces, but as it's vital to operating a fleet business, traditionally, it wasn't easy to reduce these costs. However, with fleet fuel management software, it is now possible to save on fuel costs with little effort, making your job much easier. Let’s learn about the best fleet fuel management systems and how they benefit your fleet.
Route Optimization Software
Route planning software is sure to reduce your fleet’s fuel use. This technology utilizes a combination of algorithms, machine learning, historical data, and telematics to find the most fuel-efficient path that incorporates all of your drivers’ destinations throughout the day. It detects places where they may run into delays that waste fuel like traffic, construction, school zones, and more. It also increases your business’s efficiency, ensuring you have just the right amount of vehicles on the road so you’re not wasting resources. Route planning software helps you cut your fuel spending down significantly.
Telematics
Telematics helps you cut down on fuel costs in two significant ways. What you’ll need to focus on is driver behavior. The first problem you’ll need to look out for is speeding. Naturally, speeding is a problem for various reasons. Most critically, it’s dangerous for your drivers and everyone on the road. High-speed accidents are more likely to result in injuries or death. And when accidents occur at higher speeds, it hurts your business’s reputation and will likely result in fines for your fleet.
But how does speeding affect your gas bill? For every five miles per hour that your drivers travel over 50 miles per hour, you’ll pay an additional $0.20 per gallon of gas. Therefore, reducing speeding should be a priority.
The second culprit to look out for is idling. Idling is more sneaky when it comes to wasting fuel, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a significant problem. When drivers spend an hour idling, they waste about 0.8 gallons of fuel. If you think this doesn’t sound like very much, consider all the time your drivers might be letting their trucks idle. When they’re stuck in traffic, taking a break in their car, waiting on customers or coworkers, or completing paperwork, they may be using up your fuel.
How can telematics help?
To combat these problems, you’ll need to enact strict speeding and idling policies over your drivers and ensure you communicate it clearly. But you’re not always there to watch over your drivers. That’s why telematics helps you enforce these policies. It can track your drivers’ speed, first of all. And when you supplement with technology like Azuga SpeedSafe, you can receive alerts when your drivers speed, particularly within the context of posted speed limits. Then, telematics tells you how long your fleet vehicles spend idling and how much fuel they are wasting. With this information, you can take specific and targeted action, knowing how this behavior affects the business.
Maintenance Alerts
You likely know that maintenance is part of ensuring your vehicles’ fuel efficiency, but you may not know how important it is. Your fleet may waste fuel if your vehicles are not in their best condition. You have to pay particular attention to your tires. When your tires aren’t properly inflated or aligned, they require more effort to travel. A fleet maintenance software from Azuga called scheduled maintenance helps you stay on top of your vehicles’ maintenance. If your tires aren’t properly inflated, you’ll get an alert so you can fix the problem immediately. Furthermore, it’ll be easier to keep your regular maintenance appointments so your vehicles don’t fall into disrepair. Promote good fuel economy and protect yourself from costly repairs by investing in scheduled maintenance for your fleet.
Start Saving on Fuel Now!
Proper fuel management starts with the right technology. Prices are higher than ever, but there’s never a bad time to save on your highest cost. Azuga offers all of the technology solutions mentioned in this article, and you can meet with one of our experts to try a demo and see for yourself the savings you can accomplish.
