6 Tips to Reduce Fuel Costs for Your Fleet
Fuel is a huge expense for fleets, accounting for 60% of the operating budget. Therefore, fleet owners and managers solicit ways to reduce fuel consumption, cut costs, and increase the bottom line.
While the cost of fuel per gallon may be beyond your control, you can control other factors affecting fleet fuel spend, such as driver behavior and vehicle type and condition. Learn six tips to reduce your fleet's fuel costs and save money.
1. Upgrade to Fuel-Efficient Vehicles
You can improve your fleet's fuel economy by getting rid of older and high mileage vehicles. New models are more fuel-efficient and have high mpg ratings than old models. Also, vehicles that use alternative fuels or hybrids have a greater fuel economy.
If upgrading your fleet is not an option, adhering to the normal replacement cycle can reduce fuel costs. Adding new model-year vehicles improves your fleet's mile per gallon and cost per mile.
2. Perform Regular Vehicle Maintenance
While this may sound obvious, scheduling vehicle maintenance can go a long way to save money on fleet fuel. Vehicle servicing improves mpg by ensuring all components function properly and efficiently. Also, it identifies and fixes any issues before they thwart fuel efficiency.
A simple task as checking and adjusting a vehicle's tires boosts fuel efficiency by up to 3%, according to the US Department of Energy. Also, ascertaining your vehicles' engines operate correctly is fundamental. A problematic engine will not attain its potential for fuel efficiency, resulting in fewer miles per gallon.
3. Manage Driver Behavior
Driver behavior can cut fuel spend by 5 to 10%, and driver training can help. You attain fuel savings in several ways. First, drivers can use more efficient routes, resulting in lower vehicle mileage and fuel consumption. Second, drivers should adhere to speed limits for optimal fuel efficiency. For example, at 75 mph, a truck uses 27% more fuel than one traveling at 65mph.
Third, promote safe driving - avoiding reckless, distracted, and erratic driving reduces premature fleet wear, accident risk, and fuel costs. For instance, eliminating engine idling, especially heavy-duty trucks, can save fleets up to $6,000 per truck per year.
4. Leverage Fuel Cards
In the current digital age, fleet managers have many fuel management technologies at their disposal. Among the best ones are fleet fuel cards, allowing you to manage the fuel spend and prevent fuel card fraud.
You can set parameters such as daily, weekly, and monthly transaction limits, fueling frequency, stations to visit, and amount of fuel per visit to prevent excessive spending. In addition, these cards generate data and reports that you can use to streamline fuel management.
5. Fleet Right-Sizing
When a fleet is too big or too small, efficiency suffers, and fuel costs skyrocket. As such, fleet owners and operators should take time to examine their fleet's size and workload to identify any inefficiencies.
You can employ route mapping to increase efficiency and attain maximum fuel savings. For instance, consider taking roads with less traffic and combining trips to reduce unnecessary back and forth.
6. Consider Fleet Fueling
One of the best strategies for reducing your fleet's fuel costs is investing in fleet fueling, whereby a reputable fuel supplier delivers fuel directly to your fleet. This way, you get competitive fuel prices as the supplier may offer wholesale pricing or bulk fuel discounts.
Also, you save time since all vehicles are fueled in one place. As a result, drivers don't have to spend much time driving to different fuel retailers or increase vehicle mileage looking for gas stations. Notably, fleet fueling simplifies expense tracking since you don't have to track different gas prices for your fleet.
Contact Paul Murray Oil for your fleet fueling and lubrication needs. Whether you need gasoline, diesel, kerosene, or lubricants, our fleet of tank-wagon trucks will deliver promptly. We offer quality products, excellent customer care, and reliable services across the US.