Hire and Rental News - November 2015

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48 HIRE AND RENTAL NEWS • NOVEMBER 2015
TRANSPORT, TRUCKS & TRAILERS
For any business, managing costs
can make all the difference to
the bottom line. But for a small
business with a fleet of vehicles,
managing fuel costs can be the
difference between flourishing and
just surviving. With this in mind,
Ira Friedman, Fleetmatics REVEAL’s
Director, shares his top five tips for
keeping fuel costs low – and profit
margins high.
1. Encourage fuel-reducing behaviour.
Fuel usage is heavily impacted by driver
behaviour, with actions such as idling,
hard braking and corner swerving all
draining the petrol tank. Educating
your field, service workers about fuel-
wasting driving behaviours is one way to
reduce costs, however, education is most
effective when coupled with tools that
can alert you when these fuel-wasting
behaviours occur.
For example: some drivers are in the habit
of leaving their engines running while
eating their lunch in the car. While they
sit there, they are contributing to fuel
wastage costing you considerable money
in fuel bills. Simply educating your drivers
of the impact of this behaviour can
generate significant cost savings.
2. Reduce unauthorised vehicle usage.
Another type of behavior that commonly
results in fuel waste and misuse of fleet
vehicles is unauthorised vehicle usage.
In many instances, employees who take
company vehicles home and use these
vehicles at night and on weekends,
are making personal trips. This adds to
wear and tear on the vehicles, increases
company liability and wastes fuel on non-
company business.
Top 5 tips to manage fuel costs in small business
Telematics enables business owners to
have a complete view of vehicle usage,
giving them the tools to alert workers to
the costs and encourage an honest and
transparent system of vehicle use.
3. Eliminate fuel card abuse and
fraudulent behaviour.
Most fleet service vehicles operate on a
fuel card system, opening business up to
potential fuel card abuse. One common
method of fuel card abuse is the refilling
of a personal vehicle using the company’s
fuel card to make the purchase. These
occurrences are easily identified
when the fuel card is integrated into
a fleet management platform. A report
generated by the platform will show if
the company vehicle was present when
the fuel was purchased. If a fuel purchase
was made that exceeds the volume of the
company vehicle petrol tank, a red flag is
raised.
4. Optimise and maintain the vehicles in
the fleet.
A vehicle not operating at its optimal
potential can be losing fuel in many ways
without the driver being aware. Regular
servicing can be a simple fix and help
identify leaking fuel injectors, faulty
ignition and exhaust systems and other
mechanical issues that drain the fuel
tank.
Tyre pressure is another factor that can
significantly affect fuel consumption. By
simply checking the air pressure regularly
when the vehicle is refilled at the pump
can be a simple but highly effective way
to minimise fuel loss.
5. Manage driver work flow and dispatch.
Of course, one of the greatest drains of
fuel is simply driving too far or too often.
Intelligent and efficient routing can
reduce the distance a driver needs to
travel between jobs; saving time and fuel.
An effective fleet management platform
enables the business owner to submit
vehicle assignments and dispatch routes
with greater insight and efficiency.
This process can result in serious
cost-reductions through both fuel
minimisation and cost of labour.
Fleetmatics provides GPS tracking
and job management in simple to use
software platforms that can provide the
insight and analytics needed to take your
fleet service business to the next level.
Visit
Fleetmatics provides GPS tracking and job
management in simple to use software platforms
Fleetmatics provides insight and analytics
®
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