ADVERTISING FEATURE: 8 ways to reduce your fleet's fuel costs

Date: 09 February 2016

While fuel prices have been dropping and diesel has even reached under £1 per litre for the first time since May 2009, the good times won't last forever and there are always ways to further reduce your fuel costs for fleet.

Your fleet's purchases represent one of your most significant ongoing expenses and even the smallest improvement in costs in this area can make a huge difference by the end of the year.

Consider the following tips from Paul Fincham, motor fleet broker of Bluedrop Services, to reduce your fleet's fuel costs:

Communicate with drivers

Making it everyone's responsibility to save on fuel through driver awareness programs and training refreshers covering smarter driving techniques will help to encourage streamlined, more efficient driving and ultimately savings in fuel costs. If further incentive is needed in convincing drivers of their part to play, then you need merely mention how fuel savings will help to maintain job security through a thriving and growing business based on driving down costs.

Shorten your routes

Through use of telematics or GPS you can plan your schedule and assign the shortest routes to your drivers as well as calling the closest available driver to the next job, rather than simply assigning whoever is available first. Avoiding traffic and planning the route ahead will reduce fuel costs and provide your drivers with the most efficient path.

Monitor speed limits

Aggressive driving from speeding and rapid acceleration will waste fuel. By preaching eco-driving to your team you can expect driving style to positively affect fuel economy by up to 33%. You can monitor speed of driving either through use of telematics equipment, use of driver performance numbers to call or simply requesting that other members of the fleet watch out for aggressive driving in colleagues. Driving to the speed limit can generate massive savings in fuel.

Be aware of idling time

Idling time wastes millions of litres of fuel each year. Not only can reducing idling time help with reducing the costs of fuel, but it can also reduce engine wear and maintenance and increase the lifetime of the vehicle. Idling is also unnecessarily contributing to additional carbon emissions that could be cut significantly. Monitoring idling time can help you be more aware of those minutes that you have lost and keeping them to a minimum. It is a good idea to also share your figures on fuel wasted due to idling time with your drivers so they can have greater awareness of their actions.

Ensure regular maintenance

Regular maintenance, specifically checking air pressure in tyres, can save a fortune. Driving on under-inflated tyres can decrease their rolling resistance and increase fuel consumption. In fact, by driving on tyres that are just 20% under-inflated your fuel economy can be reduced by as much as 3%. Likewise, a properly tuned engine can improve fuel economy by as much as 4%.

Use a company fuel card

The introduction of company fuel cards can help to drive down fuel costs by aligning your fleet to a specific petrol company which offers reduced rates in fuel. As well as saving on fuel costs through a company fuel card you can also benefit from metrics that give insights into all sorts of behaviours and monitor your fuel expenditure. Fuel cards allow for monitoring of mileage and fuel usage per driver as well as gaining price advantages with fixed weekly prices on fuel that are lower than the standard rate of fuel.

Use apps to find cheap fuelling stations

A number of apps are available to help you locate the cheapest fuelling station nearby and en route, and some will even help drivers to track their own fuel economy. Careful use of such apps can help to save on fuel expenditure, providing that you aren't tied to a specific brand via fuel cards. However, the introduction of Apps to be used in this way should be done with consideration and implementing a clear policy on usage only when the vehicle is parked up.

Lose the load

Additional weight can be the enemy for fuel economy. Ensure that your drivers evaluate their loads before travelling on journeys and for those with company cars in particular, you should be asking them to remove any unnecessary items before travelling.

Paul has 24 years' experience in the motor insurance industry. As Motor Fleet Broker for Bluedrop Services, Paul specialises in Motor Fleet Insurance and offers advice and support to customers managing motor fleets.

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