4 Ways to Reduce Fuel Costs

Reducing speed has proven to be one of the fastest ways to save money on fuel. According to the Department of Environment, at 110km/h a vehicle will use up to 25% more fuel than if it was running at 90km/h. A fleet management system can be used to identify if/where this excessive speed is happening. If it is happening some areas to improve drivers speed can be to set up alerts in the system to notify which vehicles are speeding.

Another high fuel waste is when vehicles are idling for too long. Examples of when fleet vehicle idle can be when the engine is being warmed up for longer than necessary, leaving the engine running during stops or deliveries, or keeping the engine running in order to operate radios and equipment in the vehicles. As vehicles idle like this, fuel is used, and money is wasted here. Fleet management systems can also be used to identify where excessive idling is an issue.

A way to fix this is to set rules such as idle time limits, and alerts for vehicles that are going beyond these limits. Managing your fleets idling time can go a long way to help reduce your fuel costs.

Keeping your vehicles maintenance up to date will improve how they run, and will therefore decrease the litres of fuel used per km. to ensure all vehicle checks are up to date, you can set up alerts for different areas of the vehicle such as:

• Maintain proper tyre inflation pressure, check tyre wear
• Replace fuel filters at the proper intervals
• Keep all axles aligned to minimize rolling resistance
• Repair vehicle body damage
• Use recommended grades of motor oil

As fuel prices rise, unfortunately so does fuel theft – you may not even realize it. If you have an onsite fuel tank, you can ensure the tank has a lock on the pump, but the best way to minimize theft is to install a Fuel Management System (FMS) on your tank. With a FMS you can track how much fuel is being taken from the tank, which vehicles are taking the fuel, and the time fuel is taken. If there’s any anomalies noticed in the reporting of this, you will be able to track if fuel is being taken illegally.

These 4 ways to reduce fuel costs will go directly to companies’ bottom line, as well as help achieve a better fuel economy. Using fleet management and fuel management systems can help companies keep track of where fuel is being used excessively, and which vehicles need monitoring.