How Can Fleet Management Software Help Reduce Fuel Consumption?

The Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation undertook a trial with logistics company Toll IPEC and found that by having commercial drivers cut idling times by three hours per week, they could save 200 L of diesel per vehicle, per year in the trial fleet. The full trial identified $50,000 in fuel savings and if expanded to all light commercial vehicle fleets, potential fuel economies of $12 million!

These stats should help explain why monitoring driving behaviour–especially prolonged idling or excessive speeding–can have a significant impact on your fuel expenses. Besides actually purchasing vehicles in the first place, fuel expenses account for one of the greatest portions of your fleet budget. The question is: How can fleet or operations managers effectively monitor the driving behaviours of a mobile workforce, to reduce fuel consumption?

If you are serious about keeping a closer eye on fuel economy across your fleet, you should look for fleet management solutions that will help you monitor and improve driver’s behaviour.

First, you’ll need to install a system that will provide data about how drivers are driving–including idle time, speeding or harsh braking. Second, you need to determine if your drivers are following fuel-efficient driving behaviours.

Fleet Tracker, our fleet management software, reports on idle time and harsh breaking, two of the most significant problem areas for fuel waste. It also grants full visibility into vehicle location, which helps you find additional opportunities to plan more fuel-efficient routes. Here’s how.

Monitoring Driver Behaviour

Maybe you’re getting calls to let you know that your vehicles are speeding on the road, and you know that you need to increase worker accountability with regards to driving habits. Or perhaps you’re trying to pinpoint idling that is resulting in discrepancies in fuel consumption.

Either way, fleet management software like Fleet Tracker can help you see patterns in these behaviours on a driver and vehicle basis*. You’ll be able to access detailed ” Trip Reports” noting fuel tank capacity and vehicle’s fuel efficiency, that enable you to monitor fleet performance metrics and idling time.

Based on these insights, you can choose to coach individual drivers on an as-needed basis to improve behaviour, or you can decide to implement new policies at an organisational level, to govern driving speed and driving practices.

*Dependent on vehicle type

Young colleagues looking at computer screen

Monitoring Vehicle Location

Knowing where your vehicles are at all times will help you better track driver hours, reduce overtime and ensure overall more effective resource planning and allocation. Powered by GPS technology–Fleet Tracker–our easy-to-use fleet management solution will give you visibility on all of your vehicles in near real-time.

Knowing drivers’ exact location can help your dispatch team enable field workers operate more efficiently, sending the closest driver to the job. In addition to monitoring driving behaviour, optimising route efficiency can have a significant impact on decreasing fuel consumption.